Creating a shotcup for a shot load, using ticking fabric, is no more complicated than using a ticking fabric patch around a Round Ball. YOu traditionally cut strips to do this, and either suck on the end to wet it with spit, or otherwise wipe it over some lube carried any number of ways before putting the strip over the muzzle, and starting a RB down with either thumb pressure, or with a short starter. You use a patch knife to trim the patch at the muzzle, just as you would to cut off the strips that form your shotcup.
EASY. KISS.
If you make a "shortstarter" for form the shotcup with one shove, it becomes even more simply and more easy to make the cup and load it with shot. The shank of the starter has to be enough undersized that it does not stick to the sides of the lubed fabric and pull it back out. The starter has to be just long enough to make a cup deep enough to hold the shot load you want to use. I am using a gauge or caliber UNDERSIZED OS card in front of the short starter, so that the end of the starter does not stick to oiled fabric, and instead pushes down on a clean, Dry, hard, slick surface of the OS card.
For example, for a 20 gauge, use 24 gauge OS cards .58 caliber). The card also helps to form the bottom of the cup, keeping it SQUARE to the bore. And that card will give a hard, flat surface to push the shot load out of the barrel's muzzle at the same time, improving patterns. For a 12 gauge, use a 16 gauge OS card; for a 10 gauge, use a 12 gauge OS card; for a 24 gauge, use a 28 gauge OS card; and for a 28 gauge, use a .50 caliber ( 36 gauge) OS wad. The thin, (.010") OS cards can be perforated with an off-center hole, using an awl, or nail, so that air will cause them to quickly drop away from the shot and fall to the ground. Until the shot separates from the oiled fabric, the card will fly with the shot, taking it a bit further down range than if it was used without the fabric shotcup. We are talking feet- not yards, however.
Since I use OS cards for my gun now, I am only adding one additional item to carry - the undersized OS card, with the oiled ticking strips, which I roll up and carry in a plastic sandwich baggie. I already make a habit of carrying a towel to wipe my hands when I am hunting or shooting my BP shotguns, and often supplement the hand towel with paper towels carried in my game pouch.
Considering the improvement in pattern performance using the oiled ticking strips, I think its well worth doing this for certain kinds of hunting. Shooting rabbits, at close ranges, hardly qualifies for such effort, however. And, the same can be said for most squirrel hunting, as squirrels are rarely shot at ranges in excess of 25 yards.
In fact, most rabbits can be walked up on close enough to use a revolver to shoot them in the head. Using more than a half oz. of shot to kill rabbits seems to be a waste of lead, IMHO, and only necessary if you are shooting at running, bounding rabbits on the fly. It is this kind of hunting where a cylinder bore shotgun with a bare lead load shines, because it gives the biggest patterns to allow a hit on an animal that can almost jump over your shot pattern on occasion. :hmm: :thumbsup:
