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What is workinf for me right now...

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Daryl Crawford

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While my .62 fusil patterned "ok," I've been playing to tighten my group for turkey and squirrels. I used the skychief load and it gave improvement but I continued to mess around until I came to what is working for me now.
My current load employs a bit of skychief logic and some advice from a friend.
I am using 70gr 2F, 2 overshot cards, a paper shot cup (I'll show below) with 80gr of #5 shot and an olive oil soaked wad.
The shot cup is just that, a cup I make on a dowel, start in the barrel and then pour my shot into it.
 

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I apply three short cuts into the top of the cup to avoid it from not opening and causing slugging.
It is not tied shut, it is not lubed, the base is folded shut like a coin wrap. A dab of glue can be added if the base doesn't want to hold.
 

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I really like those slits you used. I tried simple Post-Its shot cups before playing around with a SxS and got the occasional slug.

Thanks for the post.
 
While I've had good success with the pre-made and pre-charged shotcups I've posted before, they are complex to make. But, for all their complexity they ate consistent, don't slug, and I don't have thicker than needed paper where I want to twist and tie them closed.
However, I've been working on making some like you've shown, bit in a way that I can knock out a bunch pre-made out of paper.
Recently I saw something that has me thinking of revisiting an idea I had when I 1st started messing with shotcups. I saw a woman make a beautiful vase and some other stuff for dried flowers and other decorations,,,, out of eggshell cartons. Basically she made almost like a paper mache out of shredded cartons. I'm thinking of trying to make some cups like yours out of the same material.
I like the results you're getting.
 
I am using 70gr 2F, 2 overshot cards, a paper shot cup (I'll show below) with 80gr of #5 shot and an olive oil soaked wad.
I just reread your o.p.
I'm assuming you are putting the soaked cushion wad right on top of the open shot cup.
Maybe try a thin card between shot filled cup and the oil soaked wad.
When I was 1st playing with the Skychief load and realizing that any little change made to what @Skychief originally wrote would change the performance, I found that leaving that thin card out would result in more even patterns than I usually got, but not necessarily tighter patterns. Putting that thin card between shot and oil soaked wad tightened things up.
 
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