Blanket Wads

[Runewolf1973]

Yesterday I was out shooting my 20 gauge Caywood NWTG. After trying patched roundballs, I realized it just didn't feel right in my trade gun to shoot patched roundballs. I wasn't likeing it too much. So I went back to shooting crumpled newspaper wads as I would normally. One crumpled piece of newspaper over the powder and another crumpled piece over the ball (.600 ball). This works actually pretty good in my gun, but then I recalled seeing Duelist1954 using only powder, bare ball and just a single wad of blanket to hold things in place. I tried this same method, but with only one crumpled ball of newspaper and it shot great. Somehow my accuracy and consistency actually improved without the addition of the second wad between the powder and the ball. Single wad shooting also meant less trips down the barrel with the ramrod

So today I went to the antique store and found an old 100% wool blanket for $15 that I plan to cut up for traditional blanket wads. How many of you guys have tried blankets wads? This blanket is about 1/4" thick if you don't squish it between your fingers. So should I just cut it into 1" square pieces? Is that a good size for a single wad, or should they be a bit bigger...2" square? Also, should a blanket wad be greased, or just left as is?

Thanks.

 

[Cruzatte]

I've tried it once. I'd like to repeat the experiment again and see if I get any different results.

 

[Runewolf1973]

Here is the steel target I was shooting at. My first several shots were a combination of experimenting with patched roundballs and/or using double wads of newspaper...(powder, wad, ball, wad).

Didn't seem to matter if I patched roundballs or wadded, I was always seeming to shoot down and to the right. I wasn't until I tried bare balls with no bottom wad, only a single top wad to hold things in place that I was actually hitting where I was aiming. The results of my bare balls with top wad only are the fresh splatters you see. I painted over the other shots. This was at 30 yards. I'm still getting used to this gun, but so far I love shooting the smoothbore way more than the rifle.

I really want to try out some of these blanket wads. 1-1/4" squares seem to fit down the bore nicely and from what I've read they work good lightly greased. I just found a really good supply of lead for a good price too. Picking up in the neighborhood of 50lbs tomorrow. I'll have lots to experiment with.