Shotshell wads

[Tom Bullweed]

I got great responses from a whole wagonload of you on a post of mine. I asked about the plastic remnants left in my scattergun barrels after shooting my first match in Frontier Cartridge. To keep this from happening again, I want to find a suitable material to use as wadding between powder and shot. Felt and cork were recommended. At the match, one of the shooters used what appeared to be cross-shredded newspaper.

Have any of you cowboys tried this? If so, what do I need to know about the shredding, measuring and lading processes?

[Iron Pony]

Tom just call Circle Fly and get their over powder card wads. Used them with their fiber wads before I gave up and just started using red wads.

[Mad Dog Jack, SASS #77862]

I get my supplies from Buffalo Arms. I use a square load of powder and shot with a prelubed .5" wad over a .135" hard wad mostly, sometimes I use more powder and no .135" wad.

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Howdy

 

Here is how I avoid getting any plastic in my barrels. I use a .125 card wad over the powder, followed by a 1/2" cushion wad.

 

Circle Fly

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

Circle Fly Wads make a card wad that should protect the base of the plastic wad. They come in a variety of thicknesses.

 

I'm not sure that this will eliminate the plastic goo in your barrels though. A few of us went looking at plastic wads that we'd used in BP shotshells and the bottoms were not melted. It was the fingers of the wads that were burnished and you could see where many of the wads had holes in the fingers where shot had come through the base of the finger because the finger had given up so much plastic to the barrel.

 

I'm not sure of the physics behind this. We were wondering if BP might have a different pressure curve that forces the shot to "compress" more into the cup which would thereby create more pressure pushing the fingers into the barrel. We're not physicists or ballisticians, but the theory made sense to us.

 

Please post your results and we'll compare notes.

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

Here's one other thought about using plastic vs card wads. I ran some tests once where I loaded twenty rounds with the exact same squared shot and powder combination. In ten of the rounds I used a stack of card wads and in the other ten I used a AA red wad. The compressed red wad was the same height as the card wad.

 

All twenty rounds were patterned on 10"x20" squares of cardboard. The ten boards hit by the red wad loads had 35% more pellets than those hit by the card wad loads.

 

Same load. Same recoil. Same boom and smoke. 35% more energy being transferred to a knockdown target, all by using a plastic wad.

 

And cleanup is a cinch. Healthy squirt of Ballistol/water in each barrel. Let it sit while cleaning the receiver and pistols. Push a paper towel with a bore bush down the barrel, but make sure the muzzle is over a trash can to catch the big booger that will come out. Maybe a second towel wad will be needed. Oil with Breakfree and reassemble.

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Yep, red plastic wads are a lot cheaper, tighter more consistent pattern and easier to find than card/fiber wads. The cleanup is easy. Get over the fact that you get a plastic snake skin. It's what most of us knock out in ten seconds after letting a little solvent loosen up the plastic (PAM, moose milk, windex or just soapy water). The red Win wads, or red CB or red DR substitutes, are all great with BP loads because they have large shot cups and very short cushion columns, thus they let you load the large volume of BP you need for normal velocities.

 

Loose shredded paper in the load is NOT going to make you popular when (not if) you start a fire on the range. At EOT, you'd likely be run out of NM on a rail for that sin.

 

I, too, have found most of the plastic comes off the side of the wads, not the base. Here's my physics model. First shot, barrel gets hot and fouled from BP residue. Second and subsequent shots, the friction of the wad against the rough fouled surface melts/scrubs plastic off the fingers, coating the barrel and collecting fouling. Each shot, more friction, more fouling. There's lots of friction due to the high speed, and the "self-expanding plugging action" of the shot forced down into the wad cup by inertia. And, the fouling is faster and deposits more plastic as the day is hotter and drier. Here in NM at EOT, when it's 90+ deg F and 15% humidity, fouling can be pretty severe.

 

Smokeless - no BP fouling, lower temps, so barrels stay smooth. Thus, no plastic (or very little) melts off the wads and smears onto the barrel, because there is little friction on smooth steel.

 

BP does not have the same pressure curve as smokeless, in fact, it's easier on the barrel than smokeless. BP pressures do not usually get above about 10K CUP. Smokeless pressure limits in 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch shells are closer to 13.5K CUP. The pressure rise is slow, and significant pressure is still present when the wad reaches the muzzle. Proven by two facts of BP shotguns - 1) a longer barrel greatly improves velocities in BP shotshells, and 2) the boom (a pressure effect) is louder than the bark of a similar smokeless load. SO, it's not due to either high pressure OR early pressure that BP fouls shotgun barrels.

 

Good luck, GJ

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Howdy Again

 

Don't forget that Black Powder burns hotter than Smokeless. That might have something to do with why you guys are getting melted plastic.

 

Of course you get a better pattern with modern plastic shot cups. That's why they were invented. They contain the shot all the way out the muzzle, and they don't allow it to rub against the barrel, deforming the outer pellets. On top of that, modern shotgun forcing cones are longer than the older ones. That allows a modern plastic shot cup to bridge the cone better without upsetting. Separate card wads tend to upset in the longer modern forcing cones.

 

Despite all that, even with my open choked old Stevens, I can always put enough pellets on a knockdown to kick it over. I prefer to use separate wads. I buy them once a year so I have plenty for the season, no problem finding them. It takes a little bit longer to load them, but I don't have any plastic to mess with. And I ain't set fire to any stages.

 

Yet.

[Fairshake]

I have no problem with my clean up of my SXS after shooting wads and BP. Spray the dickens out of the Windex/Vinegar down the tubes and allow it to set level for just a few seconds. Run a 12 ga chamber brush down the tubes and you will have what appears to be a shed snake skin come out the end. Repeat this once more and then you may use your Moose Milk for the final clean up. As has been posted the wads melt from the heat of the charge. I first started using the old card wads to load but after having several KD's remain standing I went to the plastic wad and no more misses. You can find a card wad that will work but it requires the cutting of some wads that are used at least in my trials and it takes more loading time.