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Material for over powder wads

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Thekingd93

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Oct 27, 2020
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Location
Gardiner Maine
Looking for the best material to make felt wads similar to the Ox-Yoke wonder wads. I've been shooting cast .50 cal Lee Real bullets out of my Hawken. The Wonder wads are rather expensive so I figured I'd try and punch out some of my own. Some guys use cardboard milk cartons but that doesn't seem ideal to me. Digging around my garage looking for some sort of felt material that is fairly ridge. No luck yet.
 
Why not try a cloth patch and roundball instead of the REAL. No need for an over powder wad then.
But, if you want to make your own wad, any fabric store carries sheets of felt. The only other thing needed would be a punch in your bore size.
I've shot allot of roundball but I like casting my own Lee .50 cal 250 grain real bullets. 70 grain charge of 3F they hit a little harder than a 177 grain roundball.
 
I have used leather wads for over fifty years. Leather is flexable enough to allow for a tight fitting wad to seal and is fairly burn resistant. Also leather scraps or pieces from varius items are always available for little or no costs
 
I wanted to share some info that was given to me after I provided some vegetable skirting leather to a fellow black powder shooter when he tested my heavy leather wads about 20 years ago. I believe this was 8-10 oz leather (1oz=1/64")

I just wanted to share some data with you that I obtained when comparing leather wads VS no wads. I made some leather wads from the leather that I got from you a few days ago. I punched them out using a half inch hollow punch. The rifle was a .50 cal Hatfield. I was using 50 grains of Goex fffG. My patches were .015 light denim that were lubricated with Bore Butter. I soaked the wads in Balistol and let them dry on a towel for about three days. I made five shots over a chronograph using no wad and five shots using a leather wad. The average muzzle velocity without the wad was 1289 ft/sec with a standard deviation of 21.35. When I used the wads, the average muzzle velocity was 1317 ft/sec with a standard deviation of only 7.00. This proves to me that the wads significantly improve performance.

I had fired several shots using the wads for another project prior to firing the shots to see if the wads made any difference. After 10 shots, during which loading was very easy, I ran a cleaning patch moistened with Rusty Duck cleaner down the bore and was amazed at how little gunk came out. There is no doubt that the wads improve combustion and lower fouling. After doing my test shooting, I went on a woods walk with my club and shot over 25 shots using the wads for each shot and never once needed a cleaning patch. When we finished, I started cleaning my rifle and there was more manure around the nipple than there was down the bore. I am absolutely sold on using the leatherwads with the Balistol on them. My patches were lightly lubed with Bore Butter. A wonderful combination!!

Bill
 
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