Thread: DIY Fibre wads?

Originally Posted by NAKED_GOOSE

@Tedz50
Those wads look quite good, is that all from felt?
Did you cut them with a hollow punch or something else?

Did you know what they charge for the felt, don't seem to have any luck finding a price

I would go in and pick through their scrap bin and buy offcuts,but our locals were very helpful.
Any punch works as long as it is sharp and end grain soft wood for a backing.

I am looing to load 410. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the overshot card. Is it ok to just use cardboard which has a plastic or painted coating on one side. Im also keen to try cork or other wads such as felt in due course. I might try the pinex board and see if that works

Damned right about the cheap punches, grabbed a set from the tool shed and they were rusty out of the box and blunt as anything, they’ll be going back when next I go into town,
Looks like felt will be the best option for now atleast I’ll be able to cut it with some hollow punches,
how is it priced? By the square meter?

For overshot cards you can use cereal boxes or similar, printed side is normally water resistant as a bonus

Originally Posted by omark

I am looing to load 410. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the overshot card. Is it ok to just use cardboard which has a plastic or painted coating on one side. Im also keen to try cork or other wads such as felt in due course. I might try the pinex board and see if that works

you can buy plastic wads easy enough......this thread gets in ones head and makes a fella think of other ways to do things...the ONLY reasons I can see to abandon plastic wads in the wee gun is to use black powder but Im also thinking a single skinny cardboard disc under plastic will work. steel shot not an option as need special wads to stop barrel scouring....petalless will allow bigger payload,but you can fit 3/4oz in with existing stuff now...Ive used cereal box or milk carton as overshot wad in .410...both work,we used them even when crimping as results were often not perfect columb height wise and it gave wiggle room without shot falling back out crimp.

Originally Posted by NAKED_GOOSE

Damned right about the cheap punches, grabbed a set from the tool shed and they were rusty out of the box and blunt as anything, they’ll be going back when next I go into town,
Looks like felt will be the best option for now atleast I’ll be able to cut it with some hollow punches,
how is it priced? By the square meter?

From memory roll width was 900mm and minimum cut length was 500mm

A good size chunk that will make many hundred wads.

I use the 9.5mm grey for all my felt wad needs
With a good punch, decent wood block and a big soft face hammer you are made

Micky Duck: I'm interested in fibre wads because plastic wads get stuck in the base of slugs, causing inaccuracy. The wad needs to be something that will support the base of the slug symmetrically and drop off immediately after the slug leaves the barrel.

try filling base of slug with rtv/hot glue its one of the "improvements" mentioned quite a lot over on castboolits some of the results being achieved are outstanding for a smoothbore

Hi When reloading solids for the 410 have you thought about just using one big lead ball of the right dia
have shot these via a choke and they still do well .. not as good as a rifled bore though ... might have to go down that Wabbit hole one day ...
cheers to all

Originally Posted by AR7

Hi When reloading solids for the 410 have you thought about just using one big lead ball of the right dia
have shot these via a choke and they still do well .. not as good as a rifled bore though ... might have to go down that Wabbit hole one day ...
cheers to all

the 00 buckshot works well...and 3-5 in payload.... a single pellet cranking along could be interesting...Ive heard of folks using a .357 pistol projectile too...... the options are endless,good accurate results,not so much.

Priced out some felt, the 9.5mm I priced was 11 cents per wad, the 12.7mm was 15 cents per wad, the ballistic products wads look to be around 5 cents per wad, using 6mm cork works out to 3 cents per wad when stacking two together so think I will investigate getting myself some cork and using a hole punch.

Just a quick drain-dump of what I think I know:
Old wool felt jackets and hats can be found at op-shops and normally come 1/8" - 3/8" think And a good coat will last quite a while!
My lube is a mixture of beeswax, parrafin and lamb or beef tallow, melted in a tray, dip your wads, squeeze excess and lay them out on baking paper to dry, keep them in a ziploc bag in a cool dry place.
Wad punches of any specific size are easily made on a lathe out of any hardened bolt or axle shaft.
Wad diameter will depend on your HULLS. From memory the magtechs require an 10gauge card wads and 11gauge cushion wads.
Fibre wads tend to work better in older guns with short forcing cones ahead the chambers The new long cones are more suited to plastic wads.

If you have longer forcing cones you may pattern better/ prevent blow by by increasing wad diameter used

Any old leather will work too. I have just used cardboard boxes.

Did you find lubed wads pattern better?
I was contemplating using a lube cookie to add to the stack height rather than lubing the wads themselves, I suppose its more down to each gun,
I don't have a lathe, atleast not yet lol
magtech does indeed require 11 gauge wads and 10 gauge overshots, but I cant seem to find magtech brass in 12 gauge anywhere at the moment so will be using AA and cheddite hulls, which for what its worth will also require 2 separate sizes of wads, the AA's should be .710" but the cheddites look like they'll be .750" or so.

Im using a magura SxS, not really sure on age so will just experiment a bit, although I do have grandad old shotgun from sometime around 1890-1905 if im remembering the proof marks correctly, although the bores are a bit shot, the solution will be another lathe job though.

@Oldbloke, how would you compare cardboard boxes to fibre or cork any noticeable difference?