Bore Buttons do make a difference.

[Adam Helmer]

Today I had a fine sunny day of 50 degrees to work at the backyard shooting bench. I was skeptical about bore button over the powder wads. I am now convinced they do increase accuracy based on my limited tests today.

I shot my .50 caliber flinters and .50 caplocks with patched ball with and without the Bore Buttons. My preliminary results are that bore buttons really do increase accuracy over and above not using them.

Does anyone else use bore buttons?

Happy New Year.

Adam

[rattus58]

Not anymore Adam, I now use a card wad instead, but felt wads are bound to improve round ball shooting if for no other reason than that it protects the patch from all sorts of bad things that come from hot explosive gasses.

The other thing about it, is that your use of various powders, like 3F, won't damage your bore or your patches quite as much, and in MY OPINION, makes the lube you use on your patch less of an issue, meaning anything slick will work pretty good, though if you want the best of accuracy, you still need to work up a lube you can adjust to your shooting conditions. I use a mixture of ballistol or cutting oil and water that I let dry in different ratios to try to get the best from my guns. However, since I started using wads, I've found I can use even murphy's oil soap and alcohol (my cleaning solution) as a lube and get the gun to shoot ok on the range (I wouldn't dream of this hunting).

Aloha...

[wrenchman]

ok at the risk of sounding stupid what is a bore button i have used patch round ball for years i have never herd of it

[rattus58]

Hi Wrenchman

Walters Wads, FIND WALTERS WADS HERE which is what I use, and the bore button... FIND BORE BUTTONS HERE which is a felt wad either lubed or unlubed
The purpose of the wad is to a) cushion the blast against the bullet (patch) and b)will protect the base of a conical (patch in the round ball).

In the round ball, the wad will prevent the patch from being blown and you will gain accuracy from your projectile.

Aloha...

[Skinny Shooter]

wrenchman, I was wondering the same thing.
After clicking that link, I've used something similiar for my Brown Bess but never tried it in the Pa Longrifle.
What I've noticed is that my new Colerain barrel cuts the patches. Hopefully that will be minimized the more it is shot.

[rattus58]

Hey Skinny... Happy New Years...

You might try several things to help with the barrel cutting the patch.

One try to get as tight a weave as possible and use as slick a lube as you can make or find. I use a mixture of cutting oil and water to come up with as slick a lube as possible (7-8:1 water to lube) and let the water evaporate from the patch.

There are all sorts of instruction on how to lap a barrel and what to lap it with, but I've lapped them with a bench rod marked in 4" intervals and worked my way up from the breech to the muzzle with equal even strokes per section. Some say you should lap the length of the barrel for each stroke.

You can use J&B Bore cleaner or mild abrasive lapping compound for valves and such, which is what I've used. This does help with patches that are torn in the lands.

Aloha...

[Skinny Shooter]

Originally posted by rattus58
Hey Skinny... Happy New Years...
Aloha...

And back at ya.

You posted some good ideas to ponder. Thanks much.
I've used Ox-Yoke when I experienced the cut patches and had thought about trying a striped pillow-ticking type.

[rattus58]

Hi Skinny...

Pillow ticking is pretty tight stuff usually and works pretty well with almost any lube. What size ball are you using?

Experimenting with that might prove helpful as well. If, for example you are using a .495 ball and a real tight patch with sharp lands, that could be a recipe right there.

If you have some .490 balls to try and a thicker patch (still tight weave), this might not cause the patch to be driven into the lands so much when you shoot.

If you can swab your bore with cotton on your rod and you feel it snag, then for sure I'd give a few strokes with a lapping compound of some sort.

Aloha... Tom

[roundball]

Originally posted by Adam Helmer

Does anyone else use bore buttons?

I use Oxyoke wonderwads with every round ball hunting load in all my rifles, but not with PRBs in my smoothbores.

Interestingly, my .54 and .62cal flint smoothbores get an occasional flyer with a bore button...if I remove it the flyers go away...patches still survive fine so I shoort PRBs out of those smoothbores without a bore button.

In my rifles, I actually use the next larger caliber size bore button:
.62 in a .58 - .58 in a .54 - .54 in a .50 - .50 in a .45
I figure since they improve accuracy by serving as a firewall to protect the patrch AND make a better gas seal, then a larger one that gets squeezed out into the grooves themselves should even be better...a tighter seal, more lube, etc...no science to this, just my assumption that if some is good, more is better...works fine.