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Wad thickness

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Thats what I had hoped to hear. No need to throw them out, just renuke them with a little more oil in the mix.
 
I also used a microwave to melt my stuff for wads. I just went slow and kept a good eye on the progress of the ingredients melting so I didn't start a fire. I did it in short increments of a minute or two at a time.
 
I'm assuming you're married. My wife objects to the smell. Maybe my batch of grease is more "odorifalous" than yours. The crisco and lard are several years old.
 
After a week of pondering the situation, I'm kind of assuming that we're talking about the same thing. I'm calling the homemade wads too stiff and they are being called too sticky in another post. The wads that I've made were from an old black felt hat.My experience with old hats is that they do shrink and stiiffen with age. And these "wafers" that I cut out are stiff even before the beeswax.Is there such a thing as too stiff?
 
Not really too stiff. I just place them on the mouth of the cylinder and push home with the loading rod. Are your wads larger than the cylinder chambers? It is just one more step in loading before seating the ball.
 
I made my wads with a 7/16 punch from a Harbor Freight set. I ground it out slightly larger. The wads do fit snugly but don't present any problems that I have noticed. You should be alright. 7/16 is .4375, so if they seem large you are in great shape. Most cylinder bores are in the .445 to .450 range, so if your 7/16 wads fit snug you should be ok.
 
I once made a batch of wads from Duro-Felt and lubed with a mixture of beeswax and mutton tallow. After I got done shooting the fouling was so soft it took one patch and the bore sparkled!! Best wads I ever used, I need to make me some more for my Remington’s belt pistol.

Store bought wads are NOT as good, and they are EXPENSIVE. Some places want $10 per bag of 100, and for what you’re getting, it’s an absolute ripoff. Making wads will save you a lot in the long run, you can make your own bag of vastly superior wads for $2 or $3 per hundred. Cast your own balls, too! With powder and caps rising in cost each year, it can be worth it if you shoot these guns a lot.

You can go REALLY crazy and make your own powder AND caps too, but both ventures are labor intensive and potentially unsafe if you don’t know what you’re doing, and I think at that point it’s at the level of diminishing returns.
 
I'm thinking the wads are a snug / good fit even with possibly too much beeswax. The reason they are difficult to seat is the plunger on my homemade press is too wide at the base or bottom. The rammer or plunger needs to be ground down a little. I mentioned the press would need tweeking. Again I'm guessing??
 
You mentioned grinding out the punch " slightly larger" . How do you "grind out the punch." Emory cloth, Dremal or something else ? What tool do you use? And besides possibly sharpening the punch and making it slightly larger in diameter just what purpose does this serve ?
 
If you use a large enough ball to cut a ring of lead when you load it, you are good. You can always run some crisco, lard, beeswax, ect. over the balls for good measure. No need for cards, wads, etc.
 
I would imagine that no matter how slight of a ring of lead you cut from a ball, any ring at all would indicate that the ball is bigger than the chamber. And that you are making a seal by having that ring of lead. Therefore it should be good to go. That would only leave the accuracy part. Is the ball big enough to be engaging the rifling?
 
I used a dremel with grinding stones to open the punch and checked the diameter with a caliper. I touched up the inside of the punch with emery cloth to get it sharp. I punched out wads with the felt on the smooth end of a stump with a lightweight hammer.
 
Hi All, A method I was taught was load each cylinder with your powder charge (15 grains is all I used), then top each cylinder off with corn meal. When you press the ball in it crushes down in the corn meal, the ball seats well and there is a big buffer of material to protect from chain fire. It is non greasy and not labor intensive and also "thrifty"! LOL
 
Nope. No wad at all. I think it is great if you are loading at a bench, but if you were in the field a pocked full of wads is easier. Just another way to skin the cat....
 
When did this loading with cornmeal and or wads start? Cornmeal or some filler has been around for a pretty good while but even that wasnt called for in the original cap and ball revolvers was it? Way back when , I think they used candle wax over the balls or did they?The use of wads is a fairly modern procedure in loading isn't it? Before Wonder Wads came on the market were any other brand or kind of wads used?
 
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