Another quirky load for dense patterns

[Skychief]

Alden, I think I've scared everybody away from this thread! :haha: :idunno:

 

[Alden]

Huh, who, what thread? Oh, the one with light fiber wads pushed by lead shot maintaining downrange velocity better than the pellets!? Yeah... Can't say I've seen it around here lately either.

 

[Rifleman1776]

So do I need a card under the wad when I load it on top of the shot? :blah:

Wait a minnit....
Whose on first??? :shocked2:
I think I lost track of wads wats under wats wads where. Sorta. I think.

 

[tozzybum]

is this an advert for Confused.Com :surrender:

 

[Britsmoothy]

Not done anything conclusive yet but I connected with a dove with my .45.
I used one card, one leather, oiled, one card, shot, two oiled leather and a card.

More testing to follow. I should take a roll of paper with me!

B.

 

[ptaska]

My two cents: I have watched a few of those Shooting Sports shows and almost every one has an extreme slow-motion of the bullet exiting the muzzle with the gas cloud right behind. Not sure how they do that, but, a video of the shot leaving the muzzle would answer a lot of questions.

 

[kituwa]

Try a $20 bill. Them thangs vaporize the second they are expossed to sunlight as it leaves the barrel. I tested it by laying one on my desk and went to the fridge for a drink,,sucker was gone when i came back and my wife and daughter swear it just vaporized right in front of them. I am sure a $20 used as a wad will have no chance of blowing a hole in your pattern.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Hmmm, well our £20 notes often blow great big holes in my wallet!

B

 

[Matt PA]

Skychief,

One small piece of advice if I may about how you are testing your loads to evaluate them better head to head.

It's very easy to assume that all loads will shoot to the same point of impact and also that we are actually aiming at the exact same spot everytime!
Shooting at small targets such as 8x10" sheets of paper can be very misleading from one load to another or even one shot to another with the same load.

Its just too small to make any sort of real comparison. You could pull the shot slightly or have a small change in actual POI and send the densest potion of you pattern clean off the paper.

Head over to Lowes if you have one nearby and grab yourself an $8 roll of what they call builders paper.
Its a big brown paper roll about 3ft wide.

Cut big 3ft squares that will hold your entire pattern and simply draw a circle in the middle to give you a reference to aim at.

After you shoot your eye will find the densest part of the pattern. Then use a round standard to measure actual pellet strikes......I like to use 10" circles since I turkey hunt myself.

Take the circle and trace an outline around the densest part of the pattern and THEN count pellet strikes. This way the best part of your pattern has no chance of hiding like it would if you were just shooting a small piece of paper.

This will be much better for accurately testing what your loads are doing.

Thanks for posting your findings! :hatsoff:

 

[Billnpatti]

Here's another idea that you might have fun with. Give it a try and see what it does for you.
http://www.muzzleloadingshotguns.com/articles/candlecartridges

 

[Skychief]

Thanks Matt for the suggestion regarding the builders paper. :thumbsup:

I have looked for a roll of something like this before and came away empty handed. I'll be buying some.

I use newspaper sheets as a backing to the sheets of paper when patterning. Not ideal as the print makes finding pellet strikes a bit of a chore. :slap:

Thanks again, I'll be buying a roll of that stuff, Skychief.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Well I tested this theory today in my short Bess and I can say that from now on I will be just loading two cards on the powder, shot and then half a fibre wad!

Good patterns indeed. That wet wad must clear the shot better than a thin card!

I also learnt my muzzle needs adjustment, it shoots high and right for my mount.
So a retest will follow on again!

B :thumbsup:

B.

 

[Zonie]

I wonder how long it is going to take before the big shotshell companies come out with their latest "Miracle Load Long Range Shells" (MLLRS).

They are made just like their regular shells but they have this big thick fiber wad placed over the top of the shot.

Oh. They also cost more per box. :hmm: :rotf:

Stranger things have happened.

 

[Skychief]

I should maybe apply for a patent. :hmm:

I can see it now...."The Skychief Special"! :haha:

Thanks for trying the load Britsmoothy. Glad that you found the results that you did :thumbsup: .

Best regards, Skychief. :hatsoff:

 

[Britsmoothy]

Ok, steep learning curve today, I bent the barrel! A first for me! But no way could I accept near 2' high and 2' to the right patterns at thirty yards!
Now it is going more or less where I am looking!

So, loaded traditionally, wet fibre wad, shot and card.

Looks like a big hole in the middle to me!

Next image, load, two thin cards, shot and half a wet wad on top.


Not perfect but better. I must add that this is not just the two shots that I have seen an improvement over! Some this morning, yesterday and from the little .45!

B.

 

[Skychief]

:applause: :thumbsup:

Looking good Britsmoothy!!!

Thanks for posting these photos. I wish that I were more handy at posting them. I could show the results of my using the "Skychief Special" loads too. :haha:

We're these patterns fired from 30 yards then?

Thanks for sharing, Skychief.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thirty strides and only 1&1/8oz of very course shot, bb and just below sizes!

 

[Skychief]

:applause:

 

[AZbpBurner]

Just to add to the confusion, I'm taking a bag of TOW to the range tomorrow to try instead of overpowder wads, cushion wads, over shot cards and all that confusing stuff.

 

[AZbpBurner]

Here's another idea that you might have fun with. Give it a try and see what it does for you.
http://www.muzzleloadingshotguns.com/articles/candlecartridges[/quote]

Seems simple enough: dump shot into a tube, then pour melted tallow in & let it cool.

I've got a tube cooling in t freezer at this very moment. I cut out a section of 12 oz. aluminum can, then rolled it tightly around several 20 ga. fiber wads to give me the proper diameter. I removed all but the bottom wad, then placed an over-shot card over the fiber wad to reduce hot tallow absorption.

Next I inserted a paper shot cup (made of 2 crossed strips of 1/2" x 2 1/2" grocery bag paper. A 3/4 oz load of shot was poured in then tamped down to better fill the wad material in the tube.

Next I melted some rendered beef tallow and poured it in to cover the shot.

It's cooling in the freezer now, and to remove the hardened candle slug, all I need to do is push up on the fiber wad from the bottom of the tube.

The article says that the candle slug was made first, and then wrapped in paper, but mine would be too large in diameter if I wrapped it in paper after making a candle slug, since the 20 ga. fiber wads determine tube diameter.

** I mixed the tallow 1:1 with canning parrafin, to keep it together in warm Arizona summer weather **