Felt wad in rifles

[boker]

Is there any benefit to using a felt wad in a rifles? Thinking about trying them next time out in my Cherokee band T/C maxi ball

 

[Grenadier1758]

There is a probable benefit in using a felt wad under a conical. If the edges are lubricated with a mink oil or olive oil and bee's wax lube around the circumference, the bore will be better sealed to prevent gas cutting that can destroy accuracy. The wads will scrape fouling from the grooves for more consistent shot to shot bore condition. Fe some shooters the wads do help. For others, there's no difference.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a rifle that loves them and rifles that hate them. My .54 groups shrunk by half with a dry wool wad over the powder, this is with a patched ball. My one hole shooter Bill Large barrel in .44 shot absolutely terrible groups with a wool wad over the powder.

You just have to try them and see, my .54 is the only rifle I use them in. My initial reason for using them in my .54 is I may leave it loaded for months if I don't get a shot at a deer. I wanted a barrier between the patch lube and the powder.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I've found them to be very helpful with cast bullets, but I use roundballs at least 90% of the time. I'll have to take Eric's advice and try some of my rifles with the felt wad and round balls, although I'm generally fairly pleased with my roundball accuracy without them.

 

[FishnRod]

Like Eric, my 54 really likes them. Shrunk my groups in half.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I started using an over powder wad in my deer rifles to prevent the lube on the mini's from "wetting" the powder since the rifle would be loaded for a period of time before shooting. I liked the results so well I now use a leather over powder wad on both mini's and patched round ball.I find that the leather wad helps seal the gas and acts as a power swab so that each shot is like the shot after a fouling shot.It prevents the need to swab between shots.

 

[fleener]

Give it a try and see if the rifle likes them. I use them and I also use a fiber card in some rifles.

FLeener

 

[Idaho Ron]

I use an oversized wool wad. I make them .500 for my 45 cal. I use .62 for my 50. The oversized wads pucker a bit when loading. I saw a big increase in accuracy using wads. When I went to oversized I saw another increase in accuracy.

 

[Billy Boy]

I always use them with conicals, just seem to get more consistency, less fouling..

 

[hanshi]

I use op wads pretty frequently. Some guns it helps somewhere between a little and a lot. While often they make no difference, I've never had one cause any problems.

 

[stewart.leach]

My favorite rifle is a lefty 40 cal flinter built by Jack Patterson from Upstate New York. Beautiful rifle, and a great shooter for some years. I don't know the history of the rifle, only that I am the third owner. I know I have put many pounds of powder and lead through it.

Recently it seemed as though accuracy had dropped off, and I was getting an incredible amount of fouling sludge buildup. Got lots of advice from the long term shooters at Ft Lupton ML Club. Learned something- ML barrels wear out in two areas, the muzzle and the area where the load sits. Having been religious about use of a rod guide, the crown looks just fine, and fired patches are pretty.

After really cleaning the barrel well, with several scrubbings and flushings I ran a tightish patch down and sensed a loosening in the 2-3 inches of the bore just ahead of the breech. What to do? Experimented with 1, 2, and 3 lubed hard felt wads between powder and ball. This moves the seated ball forward into an area where the rifling is still good. Accuracy is mush better. Now I have to work more on the big variable- me.

 

[Grenadier1758]

That pitting at the breech has been surmised to catch patches on firing and pull the patch from the ball. The result is loss of accuracy. One cure is to move the ball forward as you have done or cut the breech end off and rethread the breech. Of course the pins in the stock will have to be moved. Of the many over-the-log rifles and table guns we have seen, there are many instances of the rebreeching being done.

 

[Grimord]

I have a heirloom .35 caliber Ohio type rifle with a Penebaker barrel. I was getting poor accuracy from the gun, yet my great grandfather said the gun was a tack driver. I ran an endo-scope down the bore and found that the breech area was eroded. I started using a 1/2" thick dura felt wad that I placed over the powder, then seated the patched ball. Accuracy improved tremendously. I now get 1/2" groups from the bench at 35 yards. This a great old squirrel gun. and it is still taking squirrels after 175 years.

 

[Max Bowers]

I like lubed circle fly fiber wads (shotgun type) seated under a patched roundball in my 54 flintlock radius grooved barrel. Scrapes and lubes the bore between shots, eliminates patch cutting and patch scorching and, in my rifle, improves accuracy.

 

[firestick]

Hard felt wads over the powder under a patched ball have helped both my rifles. One is a CVA Mnt Rifle in .50 cal and the other is a .58 Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter. Lubed 1/8" hard felt from Duro-felt seems to work best.

 

[TCMonts]

I allways use them. I feel it eliminates any chance of lube contaminating my powder.

 

[hanshi]

My .40 has some erosion at the breech but seems okay. It's always been super accurate previously but hasn't been tested recently. Moving the ball forward using wads sounds like a great idea to try out. Thanks.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I use 12 ga. wads in my .54 rifles. Since it is oversized, the felt wad scrubs the bore clean with each loading and also protects the ball patch with heavy charges.

 

[Ajijaak17]

I started using them in my .58 since I had a bunch left over from when it was a smoothbore. Seemed to improve my groups a bit.

 

[Bledfor Days]

What do you make the wads out of? Felt obviously but what kind? I've never used them and would like to try.