Smoothbore wadding ...

My buddy text me a few days ago ...he was tearing down a hornets nest , did I want it . SURE says I and darn nice of him . I have a good bit of hornets nest , outside material , now for wadding but ....ya really should get it , tear down and collect hornets nests in the winter time !! SHEEW !!! You can see where I separated the inside , nest proper ( junk ) , from the outside material , the stuff you use for wadding .Neat stuff . They used it a lot " back in the day " , it wont burn so won't catch fire the woods on fire and ....its free !!

Darn, you remind me that a friend was having a service coming to knock down a large paper wasp nest, and I asked him to save it for me, and the last time I saw him a couple days ago I'd completely forgotten to ask if he still had it.

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wiscoaster said:

Darn, you remind me that a friend was having a service coming to knock down a large paper wasp nest, and I asked him to save it for me, and the last time I saw him a couple days ago I'd completely forgotten to ask if he still had it.

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Ahw shoot !!! Give him a call ...maybe he kept it for ya ....

Rob M. said:

A
Ahw shoot !!! Give him a call ...maybe he kept it for ya ....

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Hey I won some wasp nest here a while back on the site a good big wad over the powder and enough to hold the shot in and your in business.

WALT53 said:

Hey I won some wasp nest here a while back on the site a good big wad over the powder and enough to hold the shot in and your in business.

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Very cool ... You ever want any hornets nest just holler ....ya gotta use it in your nest wind chime set !

We don’t get them here. Do they catch alight at all?

That's a score! I collect them in the summer, before daylight on cool mornings. Just quietly slide a trash bag over the nest and squeeze the top closed tight. Put a zip tie on it and throw it in the freezer. After a couple days I separate the good stuff and the chickens clean up the rest. I get stung sometimes, but never more than 3 or 4 times. Best wadding I've found.

Rob M. said:

Very cool ... You ever want any hornets nest just holler ....ya gotta use it in your nest wind chime set !

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Ya you ve heard my wind haven’t you sounds nice .lol

Nope , they won't burn ....weird , huh

I get so many of them and people often let me know when they have found one.
Dad used his .22 and shot a massive one out of a tree that was built onto a 3/8" diameter branch. It was in such good shape I have it hanging in my hunting den.
I use it but it makes a heck of a mess in my possibles bag

I have a bunch but I shoot patched RBs in my smoothbores because I don’t like cleaning the lead off the walls of my barrels.

Juniata said:

I get so many of them and people often let me know when they have found one.
Dad used his .22 and shot a massive one out of a tree that was built onto a 3/8" diameter branch. It was in such good shape I have it hanging in my hunting den.
I use it but it makes a heck of a mess in my possibles bag

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Very cool ....yeah , thank goodness my shootin bag has a separate pouch in the front , perfect for a handful of hornets nest ,no mess with the other stuff ....lasts a good while too ....

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RiverRat said:

I have a bunch but I shoot patched RBs in my smoothbores because I don’t like cleaning the lead off the walls of my barrels.

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Yeah , I use it mostly for shot charges ....

Juniata said:

I get so many of them and people often let me know when they have found one.
Dad used his .22 and shot a massive one out of a tree that was built onto a 3/8" diameter branch. It was in such good shape I have it hanging in my hunting den.
I use it but it makes a heck of a mess in my possibles bag

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This one hanging in my living room.

jackpine54 said:

That's a score! I collect them in the summer, before daylight on cool mornings. Just quietly slide a trash bag over the nest and squeeze the top closed tight. Put a zip tie on it and throw it in the freezer. After a couple days I separate the good stuff and the chickens clean up the rest. I get stung sometimes, but never more than 3 or 4 times. Best wadding I've found.

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Thats cool ! No pun intended ! LOL .... Aint yer first rodeo !!

Th

RiverRat said:

This one hanging in my living room.

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Thats a dandy !!

We don’t have the round nesting hornets around here in Middle TN that I know of. I’ve never seen one in the wild. Maybe they’re out there, but I’ve never run across one.

On the other hand, we have red wasps and yellow jackets that make the flat paper nests. They’re fairly plentiful. I’ve been meaning to make a collection.

Can you still use them after they dry out if they’ve been squirted with the wasp spray?

Ain’t never tried the big round hornet nests but I used to use wasper nests. The wasper nests made good wadding but were tedious to work with. I now use stuff like jute tow, leaves, corn husks, brown paper or whatever. It doesn’t take anything special to make a good seal in a smooth bore for squirrel hunting. At least the squirrels don’t think so. If the wadding is dry, I’ll usually lube it with spit or some homemade lube to keep from catching the woods on fire.

Terrier said:

We don’t have the round nesting hornets around here in Middle TN that I know of. I’ve never seen one in the wild. Maybe they’re out there, but I’ve never run across one.

On the other hand, we have red wasps and yellow jackets that make the flat paper nests. They’re fairly plentiful. I’ve been meaning to make a collection.

Can you still use them after they dry out if they’ve been squirted with the wasp spray?

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I’ve used the nests you mentioned after they were sprayed. I would stomp them flat and leave them in the sun a few days. I had to put them in a ziplock bag inside my shooting bag or else they would crumble and make a mess in the shooting bag. But, I don’t like anything plastic or nylon with my traditional accoutrements and was another reason I stopped using them.

w

Terrier said:

We don’t have the round nesting hornets around here in Middle TN that I know of. I’ve never seen one in the wild. Maybe they’re out there, but I’ve never run across one.

On the other hand, we have red wasps and yellow jackets that make the flat paper nests. They’re fairly plentiful. I’ve been meaning to make a collection.

Can you still use them after they dry out if they’ve been squirted with the wasp spray?

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The hornets nest is useless to me if someone doused the nest with hornet killing spray , its flammable then ...