For some reason, my .54 Great Plains shoots pretty well at 50 yards with easy loading (thumb start) .008 muslin patches, and without wiping the bore between shots. Not as well as with a tight patch - but good enough for plinking. It's really nice to not have to use a short starter when you're just playing around.

So I wanted to see how the .58 GM/TC Hawken would behave with those thin patches. I tried five shots at a 50 yard target and then went looking for patches. I was able to find the remains of only two of them. Here's the target with the two patches.



Then I tried a couple of more shots, adding a 1/8" thick wool wad under the patched ball (although that defeats the purpose of a quick no-fuss easy load). The wads protected the patches pretty well, but did not save them completely.



I should have tried again with a reduced load of around 65-70 grains, but ran out of daylight. Might have to do that one day.

My .570 ball and a .018 patch I would not call hard to load. But you do need a short starter. I have some 100% cotton muslin that is .008 and it makes loading anything a pleasure. Accuracy suffers a little but they are easy to load. I would use it but it makes great cleaning patches also.