cedar bark wad update

Over the last few months I've been fooling around with various old wadding systems, some which I've seen mentioned in the old writings and some which modern shooters have mentioned. I tried flax tow, hornet's nest, brown paper and scrap leather. My best results were with flax tow, but I found it hard to come by and expensive. It occurred to me that cedar bark could be shredded to produce something very similar, so I began a series of trials with it, for both roundball and shot. It seemed to work well enough on paper, so I decided to use nothing but the bark for taking all the game I normally hunt, squirrels, rabbits, doves, deer and turkey. Except for turkey, I've managed it.

The secret to both ball and shot loads is to use enough of the bark to create a good seal. For lighter loads 1/2" when well tamped down will do, but for heavier loads 3/4" is better. I worked up loads for ball which gave deer accuracy at 50 yards, and patterns with shot to 25 yards. I found the patterns to be at least as good as those I get with my usual load using cards, frequently better.

There are only two disadvantages which I've discovered. The greatest is that the material is so tender you can usually not pull the load. It just breaks. I learned to just shoot them out at hunt's end. The other is that it is dusty, messy to work with. I have used it for some fairly long shooting sessions and have found no need to wipe the bore. You can feel the fouling, but the wadding seems to scrub enough of it out when loading that it never builds up enough to be a problem.

I normally use about 60 grains FFg and equal volume of #5 for squirrels and 70 grains FFg with equal volume of #6 for rabbit.





One unlucky dove wandered by and gave me a low passing shot, I dropped it with my rabbit load.



The deer was taken at 40 yards from a knee rest, load was 90 gr. 3F and a .600" home-cast ball, a quick, clean kill.



I haven't been hunting turkeys for the last several years, and don't know if I will this spring. If I do, I'll be completely confident that I can take one using cedar bark if the opportunity presents. And, loading it past the severe choke of my turkey flintlock will be a snap, much easer than hard cards.

I'm not going to switch permanently to cedar bark, but I'm certainly glad to know how well it works. I won't panic if I forget to take wads along. :grin: I'm going to lay in a supply of flax tow, because I believe it will work even better and is historically correct for both shot and ball in the 18th century.


Spence

Very interesting results. Good to know when in the woods. I gotta ask though, any embers from the cedar bark getting blown around in the woods? Reason I ask is, I have one flinter I haven't used in a while that shoots best with dry pillow ticking. While hunting ground hogs, I realized a patch was smoldering on the ground and I stomped it out. Don't wanna know what would have happened if I didn't notice it. (I should find other lube for those patches).

Nice group of pictures to document an interesting experiment. :thumbsup: I hope you get a turkey too.

That's the way testing should be done! But I'm not going to accept it as gospel until you kill a turkey, too! :rotf:

Just kidding. Excellent report. As much as cedar bark figured in everything in the Pacific Northwest, I figure it had to have been used. Heck they used it for everything else, right down to weaving clothing out off it.

Flint311 said:

I gotta ask though, any embers from the cedar bark getting blown around in the woods?

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I haven't had enough experience with it to say that never happens, but I haven't seen it. Anyone hunting in conditions of fire threat certainly should think about that before deciding to use it. But, that holds true for any muzzleloader with any load, doesn't it?

Spence

Spence, thanks for the report. We have western red, Port Orford and incense cedar in this part of Oregon, but believe we are too far south for Alaskan yellow. Incense cedar bark is not as fibrous as western red. What species do you have in your neck of the woods?

By the way, I was also thinking kapok might make a decent wad, but it's harder to find now than it used to be. Guess I could tear apart on old life vest ...

But, that holds true for any muzzleloader with any load, doesn't it?

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Absolutely.

BillinOregon said:

What species do you have in your neck of the woods?

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Eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. According to wiki, it's also called Red Cedar, Eastern Juniper, Red Juniper, Pencil Cedar.

Spence

Great info! for the round ball is the bark under it as a seal or over it to keep it in?? or both? I have always used a patch around my RB in my .62 smoothy so it goes in snug. Thoughts?? :hmm:

jrmflintlock said:

Great info! for the round ball is the bark under it as a seal or over it to keep it in?? or both? I have always used a patch around my RB in my .62 smoothy so it goes in snug. Thoughts?? :hmm:

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I usually do it that way, too. I've found, though, that if I put a 1/8" hard card over the powder followed by a 1/2" lubricated Circle Fly cushion wad, then the bare ball and a thin overshot card wad just to hold it in, I get very good accuracy, almost as good as with patched ball. In reading about the old boys and how they loaded I found references to tow being used as wadding for both ball and shot loads, and they apparently used it both over powder and over shot/ball. That's the way I'm doing it. I put down powder, then enough shredded bark so that when rammed it compresses down to about 3/4". The bare ball follows, then a small amount of the bark, just enough to keep the ball in, rammed lightly. This gives me 3"-4" groups at 50 yards on a good day. I shot the buck straight through the heart at 40 yards.

This is the over powder wad.




I found out that if I wasn't using enough bark to get a good seal I could tell it when I shot, the recoil was less, the noise different and the groups inconsistent. For both ball and shot, if I get it right, I can tell I have fired a strong shot. As with any other load, a good seal is critical.

After a lot of years fiddling with shot loads and looking for dense, even patterns at reasonable distances, I have to say some patterns I've gotten with tow and bark are as good or better than I usually get with modern cards. That really surprised me. I may very well switch over and start using tow for all my shot loads. Mikey likes it.

I assume everyone understands all this has been done using a smoothbore, no rifles were harmed in these experiments.

Spence

BillinOregon
I have been thinking the same thing about 'Kapok'. Charlie Dell told me it was a really good over powder wad in Schutzen rifles for breach seating and after trying it I found it to be so. I bought up a few old life vests to have a supply. I believe I will have to try it as soon as I have a Fowling piece to do so with.
Macon

I am so jealous love the rifle and the kills you got. :bow:

When I was a kid back in Georgia I used to wander through the honeysuckle vines and find the round ball nests of field mice woven into the vines. They were about the size of a soft ball and were made from strips of bark the mice had pulled from the vines and other trees like cedar and poplar nearby. The center was made from super soft fine grasses and would be too soft for wadding but the outer nest looks just like that wad in the picture at the end of the barrel.

Winter time - with the honeysuckle leaves all fallen down - would be a good time to search for mouse nest wadding !

"No rifles were hurt,,,," :applause:

I wonder if it would work in a rifle too! The whole lot would revolve in the barrel!!

Hmmm :hmm:

B :hatsoff:

Macon, some of the boys that play with the big nitro cases for British double rifles also use kapok as a filler.
I'm old enough to remember when kapok was what you used to wrap delicate objects that you mailed off in brown paper packages tied up with string.
No styrofoam peanuts in the 1950s!

:grin: