Are you sure you have the right size patches? I had a whole bunch of 54 cal patches I had from my thunderhawk and tried to use them on my 50 cal and it was really tough. I cut them down a little and they work well. Triple seven burns pretty clean in my ML's, I don't swab between shots either I clean when I get home, unless I am firing mass amounts at the range. Theres a lot to be said for playing with bullet and powder charges. Last season my big horn was squirrley, spent the last few weeks trying several different sabots and powder combos and its deadly now. Same bullseye hole every shot at 50yds 2 in group at 100, never shot like that before. I am so pumped for saturday I couldn't sleep last night, my wife says my new hunting obsession is getting out of hand. Good luck out there.