fiber wad question

At the range this weekend shooting my newest original 16ga. smoothbore to work on obtaining the best pattern possible. The bore in this gun is a little rough and so my load to obtain a good seal was 1-1/8" hard card, 1-1/2" fiber wad, a cloth patched load of shot, and 2 thin shot cards to keep it all in place. I had been shooting for some time, when a guy came up to me and told me I was loading my 1/2" fiber wads the wrong way!?!? :idunno: The 1/2" fiber wads I was using have one end with "hard card" built in and the other is a soft end of just compressed paper. I load the with hard card side up and the soft side against my 1/8" over powder card. That way the portion of the fiber wad pushing against the shot charge is firm and flat. The gentleman told me that you need to load it with hard card end "down" to get an even push from the 1/8" hard card over the powder. He also told me I needed to add a bit of lube on the face of the fiber wad to provide more softening power for the 1/8" over powder card to clean the bore. :slap: I did not have enough time to test fire loads both ways, but what do you say...hard card side of the fiber wad up or hard card side of the fiber wad down and why??? :stir:

Try both ways and see what your gun says. Listen to the gun. :wink:

Unless he's the previous owner of that gun and tested the loads himself, he's spouting gas out both ends. Like DH sezz, only way to know which is better in a particular gun is to try both.

As for extra lube to soften fouling.... Maybe. Same answer- I wouldn't bother with it until you're bothered with hard fouling.

I like my brother's answer for guys like your new best friend: "Is that right?" Read it as you might.