Patches out of a new barrel

[Catfish]

Many years back I was shooting a T/C Hawkins in .50 cal. and it shot very good with .010 patches. I built a .45 cal. with a Douglas barrel and since it had .013 deep riflings I though it would shoot better with .015 patches. Boy was I wrong. I tried .010 and .012 also and it still didn`t shoot. After one test sesion a friend drove up the lane just as I was getting ready to clean the gun, but he wanted to shoot it, and since all I had left at the time was some .007 cotton I had bought for cleaning I just loaded some with it. With the .007 pathing I was able to shoot smaller groups off hand than I could with any of the thicker patches from the bench. I shoot the .007 patches for years, even though they were often severly ripped. When the group started to open up I went to .015 patches and it was right back to a tack driver. My advice would be to try patches of different thicknesses and let the gun deside what it likes.