Raw wool instead of flax tow

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Tumbledown said:
Why would you think that? Three different fibers with different characteristics.
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That would be a neat thing to investigate, could Cotten stripped like hemp both loaded as wad, I wonder if it would act different
I shot tow as a wad and dog hair, I had a yourkee that I could brush enough hair from to make good wads, I mixed them with lard and ran a ball down the bore.
I couldn’t tell it in shooting from tow, but it stank, gag a maggot type stank.
Now my go to in .62 is folded paper, and it easier then any other I’ve tried, but I can’t find it shoots ant differnce
 
They used what they had available that worked good enough what was commonly used was a green grass 0r straw rolled into a ball and rammed it down the barrel on top of charge in the 1600s tried it works well keep fouling down a bit musket liked it .I removed a charge from a customer s 1816 Springfield that wads made of card and wood it was a challenge to remove others I have found straw leather wool rags you name it .These loads hand been in them for very long time.Several old farmers double barrel percussion shot guns loaded with card wads the older they are before 1870 it is very unusual to find modern made wads in every day use in wide spread use before 1840 .they were not commonly available in the nether regions and farmers on the frontier 16 and 1700s.Today we circle fly wads that can be had cheaply in many bore sizes to fit most muzzle loading smooth bore guns and musket that work very well indeed.
 
Moleman said:
As of late it's been really dry and under burn bans because of lack of rain, so being careful in the woods is imperative.
I love shooting bare ball using flax tow but it smolders badly after the shot, so what about raw wool?
The loading process would be the same, just replacing the flax tow with raw wool.
Has anyone tried this?
Since wool don't burn is it a viable choice?
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Wool is ok… but the smell of burning wool is not fun. You may not be liked at the range.
 
Moleman said:
As of late it's been really dry and under burn bans because of lack of rain, so being careful in the woods is imperative.
I love shooting bare ball using flax tow but it smolders badly after the shot, so what about raw wool?
The loading process would be the same, just replacing the flax tow with raw wool.
Has anyone tried this?
Since wool don't burn is it a viable choice?
Click to expand...

For dry weather i use cooking parchment or waxed paper as wadding, cooking parchment is made to fire retardant as it is baked on in a cooking oven.

Original paper from the 18th century was naturally fire retardant as it was made from linens, and parchments.

I woudl’t call using modern day factory made paper historically accurate but it works, and I’m not so sure people in the 18th century were worried about starting fires when hunting. They really didn’t care about the same things we do today.

Coffee filters work very well too.
 
Tumbledown said:
That's not a source, that's just a wild guess.


"If they had it, they would have used it." is not proof or evidence.

Another wild, unsubstantiated guess? Do car dealerships sell gasoline, too?
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Guessing aside, histoircal accuracy aside.

I don’t think they really cared.. they used what they had on hand is a better guess.

They didn’t go to their neighbors house that was 40-50 miles down the dirt road to ask for some spare wool, if they didn’t have they didn’t use it, if they had it they may have used it.

It’s not like the hunters and militia were sitting around thinking about what is safest to use to prevent a forest fire, they were worried about putting food on the table or defending their homes.

Sometimes we get hung up with historical accuracy too much.

E.gl If you really want to know what it was like at Valley forge…… eat 500 calories a day a month and don’t shower.
 
cynthialee said:
well if you need exact quotes saying "we used wool" you are not likely going to find it and you are being a little pedantic

Why would he bring up wool in the first place and say that felt and soft brown paper were preferable if no one was using it?!

The very way he speaks of it in his writing indicates it was likely a common practice to use wool. Otherwise he is just the ***** talking about a thing no one was doing in the first place.

When looking at historical documents sometimes one must read between the lines and use a little common sense. And I know that it is a rare commodity and all that but just do some simple extrapolation here!
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One major fact to consider is people in the 18th century didn’t shoot the way we shoot today.

They didn’t go to the range to fire 20-30 rounds, shooting was done when it was needed, resources were limited.

Whether using wool was a common practice or not is really not relevant… one saying it had to have been used is pure conjecture and fantasy.
 
I don’t know much but I’m learning a tremendous amount hanging out on this fantastic site. One thing I know for certain. As FlinterNick said, people were not shooting like we do today. I bet we shoot more in one session than most people shot in a year, unless fighting a war.
 
FlinterNick said:
One major fact to consider is people in the 18th century didn’t shoot the way we shoot today.

They didn’t go to the range to fire 20-30 rounds, shooting was done when it was needed, resources were limited.

Whether using wool was a common practice or not is really not relevant… one saying it had to have been used is pure conjecture and fantasy.
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nobody is going to say option A is the superior to option B if no one is using option B. To do so is silly and to dismiss the idea option B was actually ever used because you don't have someone specifically saying 'we used option B' is myopic.

People MUST have been using raw wool or the author never would have mentioned brown paper being better than wool. If no one was using wool and the dude said that his contemporaries would have been 'that's nice dude...' while looking at the dude like he was a special type of stupid.
 
FlinterNick said:
For dry weather i use cooking parchment or waxed paper as wadding, cooking parchment is made to fire retardant as it is baked on in a cooking oven.

Original paper from the 18th century was naturally fire retardant as it was made from linens, and parchments.

I woudl’t call using modern day factory made paper historically accurate but it works, and I’m not so sure people in the 18th century were worried about starting fires when hunting. They really didn’t care about the same things we do today.

Coffee filters work very well too.
Click to expand...
That’s a great lil nugget of knowledge this chichoko of a smooth bore shooter will squirrel away.
 
cynthialee said:
nobody is going to say option A is the superior to option B if no one is using option B. To do so is silly and to dismiss the idea option B was actually ever used because you don't have someone specifically saying 'we used option B' is myopic.

People MUST have been using raw wool or the author never would have mentioned brown paper being better than wool. If no one was using wool and the dude said that his contemporaries would have been 'that's nice dude...' while looking at the dude like he was a special type of stupid.
Click to expand...
If I am remembering correctly the source simply said ‘wool’ not whether it was raw, felted, woven or waste wool.
 
I switched to raw wool a long time ago, that being said I rarely use a cushion of any kind, I generally just use punched stiff leather over and under the load, dab of lube, no smoldering and works for my hunting, but that’s just me, seems to work.
444B38D8-AC9A-4575-9B24-3E78ADF4A668.jpeg
 

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