Wad Lube factory

[Major Crimes]

Diamond Curly kindly set me up with some advice for making wads for my new Pietta 1851 Yank Sheriff 44 C&B.

 

The guns are in Australia (I ordered them in Nov last year after a previous attempt ended in failure after 18mths) but still going thru formalities, should have them next week

 

The photo is of my homemade wad lube factory. I now have 1000 lubed circle fly wads ready to go.

 

The formula is 50/50 bees wax and Crisco (the Aussie equivalent I could find is Solite).

 

Thanks DC

[Tom Bullweed]

I buy 3/32" felt material from a hobby store and punch it out with a 7/16 (.4375) die.  The wads measure around .45.  I lay them out to spray with aerosol lithium grease.

About a penny each versus $.11 each for WonderWads.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Let me tell you what I did wrong.

I punched out the wads first, then dipped them in my half and half of bees wax and Crisco.

This formed a shell but did not saturate the interior.

On firing I was amused at the smoky corkscrew spinning downrange, until I set the dry-grass field afire.

Soak the felt FIRST, let it SATURATE, THEN cut out your wads.

(I was using thick felt. Thinner felt would not have as much a problem!)

[Major Crimes]

The wads I have are fibre rather than felt.

 

I do know that they are soaking up the lube though as the level was dropping with each handful I threw in the pot.

 

From their web site:

1/2" Fiber Wads - Dry

This wad is used as a shot cushion. May be used dry or lubed for blackpowder applications. Also works well as a filler in cartridge loads.

 

500 count bag

$12

 Available  in 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ,11 ,12 ,13 ,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 28, 32,  410 gauges and .310”, .320”, .360”, .380”, .412”, .430”, .450”, .455”,  .460”, and .510”.