Leather wads???

This month's Muzzle Blasts, page 32, has a quote from Arnold Burges (The American Sportsman, 1885), part of which reads....
"Those living at a distance from the city had better always be provided with a 'punch' for cutting wads, so that in case of need, or for economy's sake, they can be cut out of an old hat or stiff pasteboard or leather."

Has anybody used leather as a wad before? What might make leather better as a wad than the various cardboards typically used today?

About three months ago I began using leather wads in all my guns: 40, 54 (rifle and pistol) and 62 smoothbore. In every case my accuracy improved. Would strongly recommend your trying them. My combination is powder, leather wad and then patched round ball.

Leather wads tend to hold up better to the energy that is imparted on a wad at the muzzle when the wad hits the air at high speed. You can often reuse them. Same with Leather patches around a RB.

In the days when there were no controlled seasons, and you could hunt every day, leather was at hand all the time, from the skins of small game, and varmints, or pests.

You could rarely get enough money for rabbit or squirrel pelts to make it worth while to flesh, dry, tan, and soften the leather, so the skins instead would be used for any chore or used needed.

The Fur could be scraped off the hide, in the field with a knife, and stuffed down the barrel to act as a "filler". Then the thin leather would be placed over the muzzle, a ball seated, and the leather Patch cut at the muzzle. Lead and powder were expensive, so you didn't fire until you were 99% sure of killing your game. Then you recovered the patch, to be used again, on your way to pick up the game. Then you cleaned the gun, and reloaded it. Tow was used for cleaning guns, but there were a large variety of plants and tree fibers that could be easily obtained, and used in place of tow. Any plant or tree fiber that can be used to make Cordage( and rope) can be used to replace Tow. Tow was the waste material from the Flax plant, and was commonly available in the back country. Dog Bane, a common weed, is the source of strong fibers that can be made into cordage. :hmm: :thumbsup:

I have never seen anything to indicate leather was used similar to a shot cup but it seems to me it would be a perfect holder of shot and work better than home made shot cups people use today which can end up being a solid slug sometimes. I don't see that with a piece of leather big enough to hold over an oz of shot and a card over that. Anyone ever tried it?

I haven't used leather wadding but it sounds reasonable. I think you would need a punch to make 'em.

paulvallandigham said:

Leather wads tend to hold up better to the energy that is imparted on a wad at the muzzle when the wad hits the air at high speed. You can often reuse them. Same with Leather patches around a RB.

In the days when there were no controlled seasons, and you could hunt every day, leather was at hand all the time, from the skins of small game, and varmints, or pests.

You could rarely get enough money for rabbit or squirrel pelts to make it worth while to flesh, dry, tan, and soften the leather, so the skins instead would be used for any chore or used needed.

The Fur could be scraped off the hide, in the field with a knife, and stuffed down the barrel to act as a "filler". Then the thin leather would be placed over the muzzle, a ball seated, and the leather Patch cut at the muzzle. Lead and powder were expensive, so you didn't fire until you were 99% sure of killing your game. Then you recovered the patch, to be used again, on your way to pick up the game. Then you cleaned the gun, and reloaded it. Tow was used for cleaning guns, but there were a large variety of plants and tree fibers that could be easily obtained, and used in place of tow. Any plant or tree fiber that can be used to make Cordage( and rope) can be used to replace Tow. Tow was the waste material from the Flax plant, and was commonly available in the back country. Dog Bane, a common weed, is the source of strong fibers that can be made into cordage. :hmm: :thumbsup:

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Any documentation on this? Ever skinned a rabbit? The skin is way too thin for patches. Sounds like 1950's Daniel Boone lore to me. :haha:

Buckskin makes a very good rifle patch. Just looking at it one may think it way too thick but when wet with saliva it becomes so pliable as to load very easily, with a greasy feel as it goes down bore.
I've cut lots of wads for shotgun and revolver from thick cowhide scraps left from holster and knife scabbards. It punches out much more easily than thick cardboard. Your wad cutter will stay sharp much longer, especially if it's not made of the best steel. I've cut lots of revolver wads from 1/8" cowhide using an old steel .45 ACP cartridge case as a cutter. If you spin the cutter in a drill press you can cut leather wads even with a brass cartridge case, though you have to go easy on the down pressure. Leather revolver wads can be soaked in any sort of liquid or melted lubricant and will leave the bore much cleaner than when firing just a greased ball. I would imagine that the frontier folk found leather much more available than any sort of thick pasteboard.

One of my references regarding shotguns written in England in the mid 1850’s indicates that leather was an acceptable shotgun wad material but that it could shrink under the heat of the exploding powder causing pattern issues. Felt was considered the best wad material. Old hats, saddle pads, blotter backing were listed as possible wad material. If leather were used, belt, saddle and heavy boots were the listed sources.

Yes, I have skinned rabbits, Mike. And I have some rabbit skins with fur on them. Yes, they are thin- too thin for wads, but would work in some guns for a patch around a ball. If you want a leather WAD, I would think skirting leather- the heavy, thick kind used by harness makers would be first choice.

Documentation? No. The early explorers and long hunters were not very literate, and the few journals that have survived are 19th century items. By then, cheap paper was available at least East of the Mississippi. If leather was used by hunters as wadding, or patch material, it was replaced by paper by the 20th century for sure.

When I was boar hunting in Eastern Tennessee, back in 1989, I spoke to some local hunters who marveled that we were using MLers to hunt boar. They talked about their Grandfathers using MLers, and mentioned that at least one of their ancestors used small animal skins for patching, when he was a young man. That would put the age back around the time of the Civil War. The man telling us this was the first member of his family to finish grammar school, and get his GED in the service. So, NO, I am not holding my breathe for someone to produce original 17th or 18th century diaries, or letters talking about using animal skins for patches on long hunts.

The alternative is that Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Davy Crockett, Jim Bridger, etc all took a couple of newspapers with them to use to make wads for their smoothbores and a couple of yards of cloth to make patches for their rifles, on those year long, or longer trips to the West. NO??

:hmm: :thumbsup:

Okey Dokey Paul.....

Well now I have one for you. In the late 50's I was talking with man who told me that his father used eel skin to patch round balls for his squirrel hunting rifle. I have caught skinned and eaten eels but I sure would not be interested in using the skin as patching material. Has anybody else ever heard of this?

Eel? A new one on me! :idunno:

hanshi said:

Eel? A new one on me! :idunno:

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Well, it would be naturally lubed or would it be slimmed in this case?. :haha:

chuckpa said:

Well now I have one for you. In the late 50's I was talking with man who told me that his father used eel skin to patch round balls for his squirrel hunting rifle. I have caught skinned and eaten eels but I sure would not be interested in using the skin as patching material. Has anybody else ever heard of this?

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"Good for another 40 yards."

trent/OH said:

chuckpa said:

Well now I have one for you. In the late 50's I was talking with man who told me that his father used eel skin to patch round balls for his squirrel hunting rifle. I have caught skinned and eaten eels but I sure would not be interested in using the skin as patching material. Has anybody else ever heard of this?

Click to expand...

"Good for another 40 yards."

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Is this the first use of electronic ignition? Seems like loading would be problematic........ :shocked2:

I have used split leather from a saddle shop. This is the left over leather when the hide is "split" to reduce its thickness. They were about 1/16" thick. I used it only because I could get it and did not have felt. I cut the wads with gasket punches from Harbor Freight. I cut them large enough that they would "cup" instead of going down the bore on edge. They worked good, I used them both lubed and dry.

Went downstairs to where I have a tanned rabbit hide. I was struck by the feeling that without hair, properly oiled, it would make nearly a perfect patch. Now...weren't thin animal membranes used for other important purposes as well?

Dan

I am sure they were. I once saw an "antique " pair of leather pants that had patches made from both rabbit, and what felt like Squirrel skin. Who would have thunk it?? I am told that the leather from Ground Hog pelts makes excellent thongs, or boot laces.

I don't have a lot of personal experience with leather, but I do try to glean information from any trapper I meet, and from small game hunters. Fur Buyers are also a great source of information. :hmm:

for over twenty years I used a dry patch over my powder charge to prevent the lubed patch from "wetting " the powder charge. This last summer I started using leather "wads" instead and find I prefer the leather wads. Since I have a garbage bag full of leather scraps I intent on using them in my shotguns as well , right now I have over 1000 felt wads to use up but I plan on trying the leather wads in a couple of weeks.

If you folks want to believe these frontiersmen were using untanned rabbit and eel skins for round ball patches, and then picking them up and reusing them go right ahead..... :wink:
Although I have never tried leather wads for shotguns or over powder wads in rifles I suspect they would work quite well as long as they are consistent in thickness.