Precut Patching Or Cut at the Muzzle
If you are into perfect patches, you cut them at the muzzle after the ball is pushed very slightly below the muzzle face. I thought people did this to look Macho or Olde Tymey. I was using precuts at the time. Then I noticed that I was getting a flyer every 5 or seven shots with weighed out balls.
What the hell? Careful observation showed me that although I placed the precut patch exactly centered on the muzzle, pressed the ball, sprue exactly centered as hard as I could to have the lead begin to engage the lands through the material so it would stay centered on short starting that more frequently than one would desire, the patching on one side would go in further than it did on the opposite side. If this is slightly off center no big deal. If it is off center enough not to have a solid band of the patching material all around the “belt” of the ball you have blow-by with all its negative effect on accuracy.
If it is so off center that the excess on one side lays over the front of the ball in whole or in part. You will probably not even print on the target.
To check this uneveness in loading reguires a small flashlight and NO CAP on the nipple or PRIMING in the pan. Don’t have the gun cocked either unless you are into surprises.
After I switched to cutting the patching off at the muzzle, I had no more flyers from this cause. An examination of fired muzzle-cut patching showed that there had been a perfect patch every time.
And not only that but you look Macho and Olde Tymey.