Thread: DIY Fibre wads?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

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.

Thanks for the advice Micky. Will steal the wifeys cereal boxes

I have never thought to use cushion wads without lube so I can't comment on pattern. The theory as handed down to me, is that it not only stops shot deformation, but also softens the fouling, which is then wiped by the following card wad.

You can also adjust your pattern by going either-side of the traditional powder/shot measure, though I should think it would be a nuisance trying to keep track of which shells represent which "choke" out of which barrel!

There's very little lathe work for the old scatter guns, all done by hand. And except in a case of neglect, soft metal, or cheap manufacture i would expect it would rattled off the face long before you'd worn out the tubes.

Sounds like I’ll have some experimenting to do with lubed and un-lubed wads
I’m aiming for some lighter loads, not quite cowboy level but still want to be able to shoot critters without issue.
The old shotguns got some rust putting down the barrels have given it a good scrubbing but still not great, was hoping to machine up some full length gauge adapters so it can still be used, locks up tight just not comfortable with barrel condition to use it, Damascus pattern has become indistinguishable so some work will need to be put in some time, just playing with other things at the moment.

Buy a holesaw and cut the teeth off
Sharpen the edges amd put in a drill press to cut wads and overshot cards

Originally Posted by 11mms

I have never thought to use cushion wads without lube so I can't comment on pattern. The theory as handed down to me, is that it not only stops shot deformation, but also softens the fouling, which is then wiped by the following card wad.

You can also adjust your pattern by going either-side of the traditional powder/shot measure, though I should think it would be a nuisance trying to keep track of which shells represent which "choke" out of which barrel!

so thats with black powder..equal measure of shot and powder BY VOLUME ..less shot= faster n looser pattern less powder = slower and tighter
so IN THEORY if you dropped two measures of shot into your desired case,you can easily work out how much wad column height you need to make up...poke most of that between the two substances and the rest goes in as overshot wad/card
when using lead shot..and lets face it,why would you want to go steel n black powder other than a "take the micky load" to slip into mates gun on opening weekend...plastic wads are optional but not essential.I would happily reuse them for a lower pressure BP load...actually,ones picked up at gun club might be ideal as some already have short petals,not that its hard to snip them off anyway.

Cant say. Always used cardboard but not for BP. Seemed to work. But known blokes to use leather. I think back then they just used what you had.

I’ve got plenty of boxes laying about so I’ll try a few with cardboard, just adding to the list of experiments