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Couple of questions.
Will the Chinese punches at Harbor Freight hold up to use on Dura Felt? The punches I got from TOTW cost a lot more but have held up for thousands of wads. (The half inch punch is on backorder right now.)

Would a ball of tow lubed with lamb tallow accomplish the same thing as the wads?

Jeff
Don’t waste your money on cheep Chinese junk buy a good set of AMERICAN made ones that will last and you won’t have to sharpen every 2min.
 
I have found (when shooting original guns with pitted bores) that a felt wad over the powder and under the patched ball seems to give better accuracy. Could be due to a better gas seal, but who knows? I also use a felt wad in my hunting rifles during the season, as the gun may be loaded for an extended time, and I believe the wad protects the powder from the lube on the patch. I cut wads, of the appropriate caliber, from old 100% wool felt hats that i get at the Goodwill Store on the cheap.

This. Better accuracy. Less patch burn through. Hopefully less contamination of powder by lube when the rifle stays loaded for a long period.

However, I use paper-wasp nests. I have a whole bag of them and always keep a few in each shooting bag.
 
Couple of questions.
Will the Chinese punches at Harbor Freight hold up to use on Dura Felt? The punches I got from TOTW cost a lot more but have held up for thousands of wads. (The half inch punch is on backorder right now.)

Would a ball of tow lubed with lamb tallow accomplish the same thing as the wads?

Jeff
Check The Log Cabin for punches.
 
General tool has some decent punches. The shank is a bit large for a 1/2 chuck on a drill press but can be easily ground down the tiny bit needed to fit. They do need to be sharpened as mine is pretty dull from the factory (5?8"). Got a 15mm Gedore Arc punch for $14 shipped on Fleabay. New in opened box. There were lots of options for the cheapskates like me.
 
I've used the cheap Chinese punches from Harbor Freight to punch out maybe 1000 wads without having to resharpen them, Maybe I just have to hit the hammer harder. I don't know. I still have a bunch I made a year or so ago. I guess I need to shoot more, but have been shooting rifle more than revolver and so don't need that many. I support buying American, but sometimes my frugality takes over for things I may not use on a regular basis. If I shot multi thousands of wads, I'd get the good punch.
 
Cream of Wheat or Malt o Meal or cornmeal a filler for Nock style breech with chamber smaller than bore diameter. You use the filler on top of the powder when you don't use enough volume of powder to seat the ball on. On one particular shoot they had a 50 grain maximum powder charge and my Nock breech required a minimum 70 grain volume of powder to seat the patched round ball on top of it. If I remember right the cinammon honey malt-o-meal smelled pretty good after each shot.
 
"cinammon honey malt-o-meal smelled pretty good after each shot."

Has anybody ever tried instant oatmeal? I'm serious! The maple flavored would smell great. I've never used anything except Cream of Wheat in 30 or so years since it worked so well.
 
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