Shiloh Rifle Forums

Arnie (Beltfed Arnie) had done a terrible thing. Being a sneaky devil he struck while my defenses were weakened & sent me some dual-diameter patched bullets to try in my Sharps. Now he has me seriously considering switching over from greasers. During a subsequent phone conversation, Arnie mentioned that the bullets should be shot in a dry bore, which leaves out blow tubing or wiping with one damp patch. Since I only shoot silhouette, this poses a potential problem. He suggested wiping twice with a damp patch followed by wiping with a dry one which would take too long due to time constraints. Another option may be using bore pigs configured to squeegee & dry the bore in one pass. So how do you PP silhouette shooters clean your bore?

Wayne

BACO bore wipers, felts soaked in 7-1 water/napa cutting oil, pushed thru the bore with a 2 1/2 in flannel patch in the 45 calibers, 2 in in the 44's and 1 1/2 in the 40's. I only use one felt in the 40's.

bore pigs I made, with 10-1 water/oil mix and a dry patch to push it thru. I only have one felt but, I found out that when the shooting gets hot I need 2 wet felts, so I switched them all this winter. This is in a 45-100.

Matt

Wayne,

These are what I've been using for bore pigs in my .40-65 and my .44-77. I haven't shot a silhouette match with my .44-77 yet but I have used my .40-65 with great success shooting a 2-diameter paper patch bullet and wiping between shots.

After the shot I remove the empty case, insert a bore pig that has been soaking in 10% oil and water mix and then push the pig through with a 2" dry patch on my wiping rod. The pig and dry patch fall from the muzzle into a waiting container and I withdraw the rod and chamber the next cartridge. It takes only seconds to do, but you have to be a little organized to do it smoothly.

I use the same configuration in the bore pigs for my .45-70 with ppb for Creedmoor matches.

This is what I use. Soaked in water. Followed with a dry 2” patch all pushed thru between shots with a delrin rod.

KA

Thanks guys. The consensus seems to be bore pigs configured properly is the answer. I'm not surprised since wiping wet twice or even once and then wiping dry requires too much time in a silhouette match. So now I'll need a PP mould, patching paper, possibly a template to cut the paper, a bunch of bore pigs & a shallow container to catch the pigs. There for a while I was wondering if I wasted money just buying 3000 2" round patches but it seems most are using a cotton flannel patch with each bore pig.

So, after each shot, in goes a bore pig which is pushed thru the bore with a delrin rod with a dry cotton patch on the end. Is my understand correct?

Assuming I take up paper patching it will be adding to all the stuff I now take to a match:
Rifle, cartridges in line box, cleaning rods, shooting box, tripod, spotting scope, shooting mat, chair, container for the deprimed cases, cross sticks, small ice chest with water/food, bag with spotting board, gloves & tarp to cover everything if it rains, and now a container to hold the clean bore pigs & one to catch them.

The negatives: having to cut paper & "diaper" each bullet; purchase, configure & use bore pigs, & clean the pigs afterwards

The positives: not having to lube bullets & no possibility of bore leading assuming the bullets are wrapped correctly (the main reason I'm considering PP'ing).

Did I leave out anything?


Wayne

Hey Wayne,
One of the main reason I started PP in my Browning for Silhouette matches was I was tired of having an accurate round with no leading on a cool day with humidity and then when it got hot and dry a month later, after my 7th or 8th shot accuracy started to fall off, and leading would start to occur.
Since I started shooting PPB I have had no leading issues. One you get organized and a rhythm down you will finish your bank of animals with time to spare. Usually I have enough time to fire at least 2 more shots.
I have shot both PPB and GGB and I can tell you right now IMHO its faster and cheaper to load the PPB. Lube is expensive unless you make your own. The mess and the time to mix and lube bullets far exceeds just cutting and wrapping bullets. All my PPB moulds come from BACO except for one from Brooks. They are all exceptional moulds but my money is on the BACO ones. They are perfect. Another thing about PPB, when casting, they continually just fall out of the mould when you open it, one after another. When they start to stick, its time to add more lead to the pot and after doing that while your waiting, re-smoke your mould and they fall out again.

Plus you just look cool when you show up at the range.

KA

Paper cutter will make quick work of patch making! We have 2 set up one for making strips and one with a angle set. After a few hundred you will patch them very quickly and find it very easy to do, it just takes a bit to get your fingers to do, what you want them to do....if that makes sense


I To be honest, if I were to make bore pigs again, I would make them with 2 felts right form the get go. No worries about fouling, no matter the temp!

you forgot a positive....they look damm sexy!!!

Matt

vectorman makes some very good points.
bruce.

PP bullets has been an interesting road to travel, every time I think I know it all I learn something new. I agree with BPCR shooter, they do look sexy when you have about 50 of them wrapped sitting on the loading bench. It has forced me to stand 10.5" back from the bench when loading the cases. I had to quit wrapping all of those bullets, so I bought some of that Liquid Paper everybody used to make corrections with when we were all using type writers, now I just dip the bullet in that and stick it in the case. Problem solved.

Wayne,
Here is some more information on loading and shooting a PPB you might find useful. Some people dry patch and some wet patch their bullets. I wet patch. I’ve tried dry patching but with my fat fingers I found it to be too cumbersome. I put a sponge in container lid with distilled water and have the sponge completely soaked. I take the paper and lay it on the sponge and slide my finger lightly over the paper so it just wets that side of the paper then flip it over and do the same so as the paper is wet but not so soaked that is dripping water. I then lay it flat on a hard plastic cutting board I purchased from a store. The board has a groove made in it that fits my bullet and I lay the wet patch down over this groove and place the bullet in the groove and roll the patch over the bullet, then spin the bullet in the groove to wrap the patch. It’s pretty easy once you figure it out. While spinning the bullet I don’t put any down pressure kn it or you will tear the patch. Everything is done delicately and smooth. Start slow and take your time and after awhile your cadence will pick up. At 1st your wrapped bullets will look like crap, anyway mine did. I shot them anyway. After several hundred wraps you will notice they start looking like a machine did them, with the occasional ugly duck. I save the ugly ducks for sighters as long as they will chamber. After wrapping the bullet I place then on a hot plate from Amazon which was less than $15. It’s set on a low setting and I wrap and place about 30 bullets at a time on the hot plate. Then after I have 30 on the plate I start putting them in the loaded brass, starting with the 1st one I place on the hot plate. I don’t size them, some guys do. If I were to size them, I would use a sizing die with very low resistance, not really to size the bullet, but to just tighten the paper and smooth it out at the base edges. I have acquired a die this year and my try that to see if there is any noticeable differences on the target. ALWAYS check the temp of your hot plate. It will melt bullets. Don’t ask me how I know, but melted lead running over the side of your plate onto the wooden bench where just 4 feet above I have 20 pounds of black powder will make you realize you still are pretty agile when you need to be.

Hope that helps. That’s not the only way to load but its what I do, but I’m not a national champ, I still have more tweaking to do.

Thanks,
KA.

Coltsmoke wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 10:38 am It has forced me to stand 10.5" back from the bench when loading the cases.

'
With that 9" handle on the press, its good to see you are leaving an extra 1.5 " for anything else that might pop up !!

I attended a match yesterday & shot greasers. I shot with a guy that’s experienced shooting PP. He’s a member of this forum & has been reading this thread. He’s puzzled by the need for bore pigs with felt pads. His bore pigs consist of a nylon bore brushes with a neoprene squeegee on the back-end, held in place by two small nuts. 15 pigs are stored in a small container filled with water. After each shot a wet pig is pushed thru the bore with a dry patch & a delrin rod. Since the pigs are stored in water, after the relay the same 15 pigs are put back into the container shaken a bit to clean & ready to use for the next relay. His comment is the water held by the bush is sufficient to wet the bore & the neoprene squeegee does an excellent job of removing the wet fouling & excess water. Of course the cotton patch removes any remaining moisture.

So this begs the question, what is the advantage of the felt pads? I assume it’s to hold the water or water/soluble oil to aid in cleaning the bore. I also assume it means that 60 pigs would be required for a standard 40-shot match. Also, how are the felt pads cleaned afterwards?

BTW, I shot very well with my .40-65 Shiloh (33/40) – my best score to date, and not a hint of bore leading, although I’d still like to try my hand at paper patching.

Wayne

The felts do a very good job of wiping the bore and getting into the lands, and as you said carry the solution all the way thru to the muzzle.
I clean the felts by dropping them into a coffee can a bit of oxyclean and filling with warm water, roll them around bit shake em roll em drain and rinse, and then let them sit out to dry. One of those cheap wire strainer baskets is a handy thing to have for the cleaning process.

X2, what Don said.

Matt