The wire-patched bullet bridged the black powder and smokeless powder eras by Art Merrill, Prescott Valley, AZ was published in Fouling Shot #177, Sept/Oct 2005.
Our continuing search for ever-greater accuracy brings the recognition that every aspect of the rifle, from muzzle to butt plate, is important. But it’s a waste of time to fit the finest barrel to the most meticulously blueprinted action expertly bedded in the best-designed stock without giving equally detailed attention to the bullet and cartridge.
At the turn of the last century, inventors subjected bullets to some interesting permutations as cartridges made the changeover from relatively slow black powder velocities to the much faster smokeless powder speeds. Some of those designs endure, but others have vanished into obscurity.
The National Projectile Works on Lyon Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first marketer of the “lubricated wire patched bullet,” according to a Dope Bag letter American Rifleman published in Feb. 1942. The author of the letter is Elmer Lisle, son of the bullet’s inventor, Mr. M. C. Lisle. Elmer said National Projectile Works formed in 1897 while awaiting a patent approval for the bullet design. The U.S. Patent Office eventually issued two patents on the “Lisle Wire Patched Bullet” in 1899.
LEAD AND LUBRICATION
We all know that cast lead bullets need lubrication to prevent them from depositing excessive lead in their trip down the barrel. Leading is death on accuracy, and lead deposits, effectively swaged into the barrel by the next bullet’s passage, can be difficult to remove without using abrasives – which are also death on the accuracy life of a barrel. Because black powder-era barrels were made of softer steels than our modern barrels, target shooters of the day especially avoided abrasive cleaning.
Leading was not and is not a factor in shooting traditional, cloth patched round ball muzzleloaders because the round ball patch, not the ball, engages the rifling and carries the shooter’s choice of lubricant, either a commercial preparation or a personal concoction. The patch lubricant’s purpose is to ease loading and help keep fouling soft, though the lubricated patch also does prevent leading.
Bullets lubricated to prevent leading became important with the introduction of patchless conical bullets for muzzleloaders and black powder metallic cartridges. Typical lead bullet designs (then and now) include one or more grooves around the bullet’s circumference to hold a solid or semi-solid lubricant.
MORE IS BETTER?
Our continuing search for ever-greater accuracy brings the recognition that every aspect of the rifle, from muzzle to butt plate, is important. But it’s a waste of time to fit the finest barrel to the most meticulously blueprinted action expertly bedded in the best-designed stock without giving equally detailed attention to the bullet and cartridge.
At the turn of the last century, inventors subjected bullets to some interesting permutations as cartridges made the changeover from relatively slow black powder velocities to the much faster smokeless powder speeds. Some of those designs endure, but others have vanished into obscurity.
The National Projectile Works on Lyon Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first marketer of the “lubricated wire patched bullet,” according to a Dope Bag letter American Rifleman published in Feb. 1942. The author of the letter is Elmer Lisle, son of the bullet’s inventor, Mr. M. C. Lisle. Elmer said National Projectile Works formed in 1897 while awaiting a patent approval for the bullet design. The U.S. Patent Office eventually issued two patents on the “Lisle Wire Patched Bullet” in 1899.
LEAD AND LUBRICATION
We all know that cast lead bullets need lubrication to prevent them from depositing excessive lead in their trip down the barrel. Leading is death on accuracy, and lead deposits, effectively swaged into the barrel by the next bullet’s passage, can be difficult to remove without using abrasives – which are also death on the accuracy life of a barrel. Because black powder-era barrels were made of softer steels than our modern barrels, target shooters of the day especially avoided abrasive cleaning.
Leading was not and is not a factor in shooting traditional, cloth patched round ball muzzleloaders because the round ball patch, not the ball, engages the rifling and carries the shooter’s choice of lubricant, either a commercial preparation or a personal concoction. The patch lubricant’s purpose is to ease loading and help keep fouling soft, though the lubricated patch also does prevent leading.
Bullets lubricated to prevent leading became important with the introduction of patchless conical bullets for muzzleloaders and black powder metallic cartridges. Typical lead bullet designs (then and now) include one or more grooves around the bullet’s circumference to hold a solid or semi-solid lubricant.
MORE IS BETTER?
Leading increases with velocity. When smokeless powders made the scene near the turn of 1900 they dramatically boosted bullet velocities beyond the capabilities of black powder. They also exceeded the ability of bullet lubricants to keep up. The Lisle Wire-Patched Bullet approached the problem from a “more velocity needs more lubricant” perspective. The wire winding on Mr. Lisle’s bullet held lubricant along nearly the entire length of the bullet’s bearing surface, not just in a few narrow grooves. This additional lubricant was apparently at least partially successful in reducing leading at some higher velocities, prompting the inventor to claim the design con-tributed to greater accuracy and longer barrel life.
The design, at least theoretically, also resulted in less recoil than an all-lead bullet of the same caliber and length because the lighter wire windings replaced some of the bullet’s lead. As a function of physics, the lighter the projectile the lighter the recoil, all other factors being equal. And a lighter bullet requires less powder (equating to less recoil) to achieve the same velocity as the heavier bullet. A reduction in perceived recoil with Lisle’s bullet, however, would be entirely a matter of the shooter’s opin-ion.Physics also applies to the inventor’s claims of flatter trajectory: less lead makes for a lighter bullet, which results in less drop at a given distance than an all-lead bullet of the same length and caliber. Shooters can easi-ly determine a flatter trajectory on paper targets, leaving less to subjective argument.Clearly then, not all of Lisle’s claims for his bullet’s performance can be dismissed as merely snake oil promises.
WINDING UP
Early Lisle bullets had a winding of very strong cotton or similar fabric, but the inventor found it lacked sufficient strength. After some trial and error, National Projectile Works settled on manufacturing the bullets by first casting the lead in bullet moulds, then rolling them in a machine to ensure roundness and to open the shanks to accept the wire winding. “Patching machines” next wound the bullets with coils of cotton-covered copper or soft iron wire and swaged them to size. Lubricating the bullets and then loading them into cartridges finished the operation, except for final packaging. In addition to the winding, at least some of Lisle’s bullets also featured an extended copper gas check on the heel that formed a high base.
“The .22 cal. wire wound bullets were a revelation because they cleaned the bore after every shot and firing could be maintained indefinitely,” Elmer said, “but the bullets were too expensive to produce and were discon-tinued.”
For a time Hensley & Gibbs manufactured their own version of the bullet, winding coils of copper wire, inserting them into bullet molds, and then introducing the molten lead. According to Elmer, his father’s experiments proved the wire must be wound onto the bullet after casting in order to achieve best accuracy. Besides, pouring molten lead onto the coils burned away the wire’s cotton covering, “which defeated the main purpose of the wire patch,” he said.
WINDING DOWN
Elmer began casting bullets at National Projectile Works in 1901 and worked there until 1904; his father left the company in 1906. Owner D.H. Armstrong moved the company to Napa California, where he continued to manufacture the wire-patched bullet at least as late as 1911.
“The wire-patched bullets were made in all calibers popular at that time and were in great demand by shoo-ers,” Elmer wrote in 1942. “I am a strong believer in the efficiency of the wire-patched bullet and am sure if they were manufactured again they would quickly be adopted by most shooters due to their great reduction in recoil, flatter trajectory, longer life of barrel and better killing properties.”
Whether the wire patched bullet failed to live up to Lisle’s claims or it succumbed to the advent of metal jacketed bullets that require no lubricant at all is historically moot. While many shooters today enjoy casting their own bullets, mixing their own lubes, and even paper-patching their own bullets, the wire-patched bullet is forgotten. It certainly seems too complicated for the casual hobbyist to manufacture at home, at least by Lisle’s method. However, perhaps a CBA member with too much money and time on his hands might find a new challenge in duplicating Lisle’s odd bullet.
One has to wonder, though, with the current resurgent interest in shooting the older cartridges, where those old “patching machines” might be…
WINDING UP
Early Lisle bullets had a winding of very strong cotton or similar fabric, but the inventor found it lacked sufficient strength. After some trial and error, National Projectile Works settled on manufacturing the bullets by first casting the lead in bullet moulds, then rolling them in a machine to ensure roundness and to open the shanks to accept the wire winding. “Patching machines” next wound the bullets with coils of cotton-covered copper or soft iron wire and swaged them to size. Lubricating the bullets and then loading them into cartridges finished the operation, except for final packaging. In addition to the winding, at least some of Lisle’s bullets also featured an extended copper gas check on the heel that formed a high base.
“The .22 cal. wire wound bullets were a revelation because they cleaned the bore after every shot and firing could be maintained indefinitely,” Elmer said, “but the bullets were too expensive to produce and were discon-tinued.”
For a time Hensley & Gibbs manufactured their own version of the bullet, winding coils of copper wire, inserting them into bullet molds, and then introducing the molten lead. According to Elmer, his father’s experiments proved the wire must be wound onto the bullet after casting in order to achieve best accuracy. Besides, pouring molten lead onto the coils burned away the wire’s cotton covering, “which defeated the main purpose of the wire patch,” he said.
WINDING DOWN
Elmer began casting bullets at National Projectile Works in 1901 and worked there until 1904; his father left the company in 1906. Owner D.H. Armstrong moved the company to Napa California, where he continued to manufacture the wire-patched bullet at least as late as 1911.
“The wire-patched bullets were made in all calibers popular at that time and were in great demand by shoo-ers,” Elmer wrote in 1942. “I am a strong believer in the efficiency of the wire-patched bullet and am sure if they were manufactured again they would quickly be adopted by most shooters due to their great reduction in recoil, flatter trajectory, longer life of barrel and better killing properties.”
Whether the wire patched bullet failed to live up to Lisle’s claims or it succumbed to the advent of metal jacketed bullets that require no lubricant at all is historically moot. While many shooters today enjoy casting their own bullets, mixing their own lubes, and even paper-patching their own bullets, the wire-patched bullet is forgotten. It certainly seems too complicated for the casual hobbyist to manufacture at home, at least by Lisle’s method. However, perhaps a CBA member with too much money and time on his hands might find a new challenge in duplicating Lisle’s odd bullet.
One has to wonder, though, with the current resurgent interest in shooting the older cartridges, where those old “patching machines” might be…