How do you wad?

I was watching you tube and Dualist 1954 has a fun channel. He was doing a shooting experiment with chewed balls in a 20 g fusil. He bought a handy-dandy ball chewer, a rasp plate that fits on a drill dress and a frame to put a ball in to the drill plate then dimples the ball.
So he loaded powder 110 grains 2f, bare ball then a wad of blanket scraps over the ball.
I use blanket at times and I fray it, and push the ball in to the wad as I ran home. I top with a wad to make sure it doesn’t fall out.
I like tow or hemp fibers instead of wool and wad with that more often, pushing the ball in to a nest formed of the fibers. Top off with a wad but in general my load is fairly tight.
Every old loading instructions I ever read put the wad under the ball.
How do you wad when your shooting an unpatched bare ball?do any of yawl ( you all) wad just on top?

I believe that the "wadding" behind the ball pushes the fouling down and also provides additional seal. :idunno:

I make a little ball of tow over the powder then use a bedsheet patch on the ball,its thin enough to easily thumb start and easy to pull if need be, I figure the wad makes a good seal. works for me :thumbsup:

In the past I have just swapped the ball for an ounce of shot and did the wadding and cards as I would a shot load.

My Bess I did Tow in front & behind a bare ball.

Anymore I cotton patch or, most often, use a ball in a rolled paper cartridge with the ball end dipped in beeswax when I make them up.

I don't always do it the same.

Powder, tow, ball, tow
Powder, 1/8" hard card. 1/2" lubricated cushion wad, ball, OS card
Powder, double layer of brown paper, tow, ball tow
Powder, shredded cedar bark, ball, cedar bark
Powder, brown paper, cedar bark, ball, cedar bark

Barrel is 20 ga., ball is home cast .600". All the combinations shoot acceptable groups, but the ones with just tow or cedar bark over powder tend to shoot low. I think that is because they are porous, don't seal well, so I always use an OP card or brown paper over powder with them. The load with cushion wad is the most accurate, for me.

Spence

I also make paper cartridges, the ball end lubed with Lehigh Valley lube. I used .58 caliber balls. I just picked up a .595 Lee mould, will see how that goes.

I use a patch ball, most accurate for me.

I'm still experimenting. I started out loading my gun like a rifle. Worked OK. And then I got to thinking about Osborne Russel's account of the battle of Pierre's Hole. He said the trappers and the Blackfoot were so close together, that Russel could see the blanket wads from the Indians' guns as they fired.

Blanket wads? I thought "that's odd." Fast forward a few years and I saw Duelist 1954's Youtube videos where he's doing some smooth bore demonstrations, and I remembered Osborne Russel's story.

So I switched to .610 balls, and have used the usual Circle Fly 20 ga. shotgun wads and bare ball, tow and bare ball, card over powder wad, tow, ball, and more tow, and maybe a couple of more permutations. Not much difference that I can tell with any of these bare ball/wad combinations. The gun tends to shoot higher with these loads than with a .600 ball and a .010 patch.

I think it shoots higher because of the increased compression or improved gas seal created by whatever over powder wad I'm using.

Or it may shooting high from being a little slower and the muzzle is higher in the recoil phase!

B.

Britsmoothy said:

Or it may shooting high from being a little slower and the muzzle is higher in the recoil phase!

B.

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Could be. I hadn't thought of that.

I have had the best luck in my Caywood .62 fowler with ;

powder, 1/2" cushioned wad lubed with Dutch's secret mixture, chewed .60 ball, OS card.

Doc

with shot I like dry leaves or grasses, not so dry theyre brittle and powder in your hand,never tried green, might have to try it.wasp nest is good too and doesnt catch fire, but I always thought it stinks after fireing it

Ain’t that the truth, I find wasp real stinky. My most stinky was greased dog hair wads. I have a yorkie named shamus. Saved hair from brushing. Mixed with mink oil they made good wads. But stiiiinnnnkkkk!.
I did win a a match using green grass I ripped off the ground because I forgot to pack tow.

Cruzatte said:

Britsmoothy said:

Or it may shooting high from being a little slower and the muzzle is higher in the recoil phase!

B.

Click to expand...

Could be. I hadn't thought of that.

Click to expand...

I think you are correct on the increased pressure making the gun shoot higher, as the projectile has left the barrel before recoil is visible. (with photography)

Best,
Richard.

RJDH said:

Cruzatte said:

Britsmoothy said:

Or it may shooting high from being a little slower and the muzzle is higher in the recoil phase!

B.

Click to expand...

Could be. I hadn't thought of that.

Click to expand...

I think you are correct on the increased pressure making the gun shoot higher, as the projectile has left the barrel before recoil is visible. (with photography)

Best,
Richard.

Click to expand...

That is not strictly true.
What one can see with the aid of photography of recoil is very noticeable.
What is not generally noticeable is the very tiny movement while the ball or other is still in the barrel. Unless Newton got it wrong the equal force is acting immediately in the opposite direction!
The greatest movement does indeed occure after the shot has gone but that does not imply no movement was occurring before.
Look how tiny an adjustment of a site can move the impact point!
Pistol shooting demonstrates this easily being more easily affected by early recoil.
Of course, there comes a point where things balance out again and decreased velocity of a shot will strike much lower.

B.

What is not generally noticeable is the very tiny movement while the ball or other is still in the barrel.

Click to expand...

True. Not noticeable to some, but results are noticeable. That is why bench rest rifles have such heavy barrels. To minimize that "tiny" effect which can mean the difference between an 'X' and a 9.

I maybe should have said the majority of the recoil shows up after the projectile has left the muzzle. I Tiny bit May cause a difference in POI.....

For interest sake only, Pic below shows gun after the projectile left the muzzle, but before recoil becomes apparent.
In full recoil, the barrel was pointed about 1/3 of the way up the trees in the background.
The charge was 75 grs of 2F , a lubed felt wad, and a .60 cal. ball.

I started out loading my 28 ga. like a rifle with patched ball. Then I was shocked when I found I got better accuracy loading powder a cleaning patch wad, ball, and cleaning patch wad. Every gun is different. You just have to keep experimenting to see what yours likes.