Felt vs card wads

[Wayne/Al]

Been shooting a 12 GA sxs pedersoli for several years. When I first got it had a heck of a time getting a decent pattern.later on I read MrVM Stars book about shotguns and have went with his method with pretty good results for several years.Lately I have read that some folks are using felt wads with good results so I gave it a try . Seems to work good and loads through the choked barrel with no problem.The only difference I can tell is a little less recoil with the felt. That seems to indicate that the gas seal is not quite as good as using cards.my load with the felt is one dry felt wad and one lubed wad over powder and one dry felt over shot.Mr Starr used two cards over powder and one card over shot. I would like to know if anyone else has compared these methods of loading and what your results were.Thanks for any input or opinions.

Wayne/al

 

[wattlebuster]

All I use in mine are card wads that I cut out of cereal box's. 2 go over the powder an 1 over the shot an I use Fg powder. I get very good results :thumbsup:

 

[Billnpatti]

When I had a 12 ga. SxS like yours, I used felt OP wads made of this material http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html I cut my own wads with a punch made by one of our members who goes by the name of Ohio Ramrod on this forum. He will make you a custom punch cheaper than you can buy one anywhere else. The OP wad needs to be tight and can be contrary to get through a full choke but it will go and it is easy to straighten up and seat properly as you press it down with your rammer. I liked to lube mine with just a bit of Bore Butter. I would lightly butter a piece of the felt like buttering toast and then put it in the microwave just long enough to melt the Bore Butter into the felt. When it cools, I would use my punch to punch out my OP wads. The felt should be just slightly lubed, not juicy. Not nearly enough lube to foul your powder. I used commercial OS cards. If I were using a light charge, one OS card was enough but if I were using a heavy charge, I would use 2 OS cards jut to make sure that the charge in the unfired barrel did not move forward when the other barrel was fired.

Pattern your loads to see which one gives you the best pattern. If you are finding doughnut holes in your pattern, this is usually caused by the OP wad going through your shot column. I have found that if this happens, as it did with one of my smoothbore fowlers, I just started using fiber wads and would separate them into two or three pieces before loading. By doing this, they did their job inside the bore but upon exiting the muzzle, they flew apart and quickly lost velocity and dropped away behind the shot column.

I had one fowler that gave me problems with the shot pattern having holes in it. It would scatter the shot and give a poor pattern. A good friend gave me this tip. Make paper shot cups to encase the shot in the bore. It is simple thing to do and works quite well as a way to tighten your pattern. Another advantage to the paper shot cups is that you can use a tiny dab of glue to stick your OP wad to the center of the paper cup. Upon exiting the muzzle, the petals of the shot cup open and act as a parachute to very quickly slow the OP wad and keep it from going through your shot column. If you are interested, give me a PM and I will explain how to make and use the paper shot cups.

 

[BrownBear]

I'm real fond of what Track of the Wolf calls a Type A Card over the powder. It's .125" thick and really stiff, but provides a great seal in the bore while nicely scraping fouling from the previous shot as you load it. It doesn't load for poot going through a choke, but with CYL bores it's a snap to start and push down.

Most of my hunting involves lots of repeat shots, and without that scraping along with a lube that keeps the fouling soft, you can load into loading difficulties from accumulated fouling. Best lube I've found is plain old olive oil in a cushion wad between the Type A and the shot.

Tried just plain over-shot cards between powder and shot, and it worked fine.... For the first half dozen shots. Then the loading difficulty sets in. Lubed felt is fine, but I actually get along quite well with the fiber wads. Zero sign of donut patterns, but then I'm shooting mild loads and not trying to turn my muzzleloaders into modern guns with heavy shot loads on top of lots of powder.

 

[RP3543]

When I'm hunting (and conditions aren't too dry) I use newspaper for wadding. When I shoot Skeet I use (2) .125" cards OP and (1) .025" card OS.
The patterns with the newspaper are a bit less uniform but adequate. Tried the felt wads and wasn't impressed...patterned about the same as the newspaper wadding. Haven't tried fiber or cork...maybe someday.

 

[Wayne/Al]

Thanks for the input from everyone. I also make my wads, both card and felt, I use a punch chucked up in a drill press slow speed and just punch them out. My card wads are .050 and the felt wads are made from duro felt and lube with olive oil. My pattern are not bad but always looking to improve if possible. Just thought might loose some muzzle velocity with felt because the felt is pourious and might get some bleed through. I am going to keep working on it and will let you know if I discover anything earth shaking.