Felt wads

[WALT53]

Iwas wondering what kind of success you guys that use the wonder wad style felt for op or cushion wads .Ive been thinking of giving them a try and thought I’d ask you gents who have more experience than myself.thankyou in advance. Walt

 

[Ed C.]

My experience has been that the wads soaked in a lube foul the rifle faster and decrease accuracy. But the untreated 1/8" durofelt wads do seem to give accuracy a slight advantage. In my pistols I use wads soaked in a 1:1 beeswax/olive oil mix and there they work great.

 

[SDSmlf]

Iwas wondering what kind of success you guys that use the wonder wad style felt for op or cushion wads .Ive been thinking of giving them a try and thought I’d ask you gents who have more experience than myself.thankyou in advance. Walt

I have had success with dry felt wads under paper patched bullets (rifled bore), while lubed wads seem to help more between the powder and ball in revolvers. In smoothbore ‘shotguns’ have had best results as far as pattern density with lubed wads over the shot. Basically a version of the Skychief loading.

 

[HR694]

"Using OP wads in 20 ga. .40 cal., and 50 cal. rifles produces LOWER Standard Deviation in Velocity(SDV). Whether it improves accuracy depends on the shooter.

 

[Brokennock]

Well,,, this is the "smoothbore" section, so I'm a little confused by some replies...

However. I've used them in both of my 20 gauge smoothbores and had no issues. Certainly not fouling issues. If I lube them they decrease fouling. If I don't, loading gets rough quickly. Not necessarily difficult, the bore just feels rough. This is with shot loads.
I generally use them below the shot load. Standard load looking something like this in order: powder, thin card, lubed felt wad or two, shot load, thin card. Sometimes I replace the felt with lubed tow, I mostly look at them as a way to carry the fouling softening lube.
My roundball load is the same for my smoothrifle. The only thing different for my roundball load in my Fusil des Chase is that I replace 1st thin card with a dry felt wad. It does not seem to like any stiff card between powder and ball so gets; powder, dry felt wad, lubed felt wad, .610 ball, two thin cards.

The Skychief load uses no lubed felt wad and it gets difficult to seat that nitro card (the only load I ever use them with) after a couple shots.

I get mine from Eastern Maine Shooting supply. I've gotten to like the cheaper grey ones instead of the "premium" white ones. The grey are softer.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I used to use felt wads before I went to leather (I have a large supply of free leather to work with). I liked the results.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Felt wads work very well for shot gunning. I don't use the "wonder wad" thin ones. There is an outfit that sells 3/8" wads cut from blanket material that works great.

 

[Lorne Johnson]

Felt wads work very well for shot gunning. I don't use the "wonder wad" thin ones. There is an outfit that sells 3/8" wads cut from blanket material that works great.

Can you give us (me) a lead on the "outfit" that sells 3/8 inch felt wads? Sounds really good for my original smooth bores.

 

[Ballshooter]

Felt works for me in shot gun mode and in roundball loads as well in my smoothbore!

 

[oldwood]

Use of thick felt wads tends to open a shot pattern , due to felt wads don't dropout of the way of the shot , once it leaves the muzzle. Over powder wad is all that's needed. Don't forget a thin over shot wad as well.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Can you give us (me) a lead on the "outfit" that sells 3/8 inch felt wads? Sounds really good for my original smooth bores.

I'd have to google for it. You could probably do it faster. Try a specialty shot gun loading site. It's been a long time since I bought any.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Use of thick felt wads tends to open a shot pattern , due to felt wads don't dropout of the way of the shot , once it leaves the muzzle. Over powder wad is all that's needed. Don't forget a thin over shot wad as well.

Always been just the opposite for me. I'm talking blanket type material here, not that real dense Dura Felt stuff.

 

[user 43911]

I'd have to google for it. You could probably do it faster. Try a specialty shot gun loading site. It's been a long time since I bought any.

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Fiber-Cork-Felt-Filler-Wads/departments/100/

 

[Lorne Johnson]

I'd have to google for it. You could probably do it faster. Try a specialty shot gun loading site. It's been a long time since I bought any.

Thanks!

 

[Timber Wolf]

I have shot home made lubed wads (Durafelt soaked in 50/50 beeswax and Crisco) over powder and under a snug ball and thin card (shotgun shell box) in my Pedersoli Trade Gun. This Gun has a rather large .630 bore which works well with these larger naked balls (whose size escapes me right now). I also shoot PRB with spit lubed .018 Ticking wrapping a .606 ball (dropped from a supposed-to-be .610 mold). I have not had a chance to try shot out of it yet. Also have not tried a wad under a PRB, although I don’t think there would be much advantage.

 

[pacanis]

Use of thick felt wads tends to open a shot pattern , due to felt wads don't dropout of the way of the shot , once it leaves the muzzle. Over powder wad is all that's needed. Don't forget a thin over shot wad as well.

This is exactly what I was told in another thread.
The use of thick felt wads and Nitro over powder cards can blow through a shot pattern. The thinner overshot cards, even stacked over the powder, will fall away and not disrupt the pattern.
Consensus in that thread seemed to agree with this. But I haven't played around with it yet myself.

 

[user 43911]

Use of thick felt wads tends to open a shot pattern , due to felt wads don't dropout of the way of the shot , once it leaves the muzzle. Over powder wad is all that's needed. Don't forget a thin over shot wad as well.

A few things to consider before blaming the felt wad for blown pattern,
1.)
The driving force (gas propelling the load) dissipates in all directions at the muzzle reducing the driving force on the wad that is pushing the entire load out of the gun, items do not accelerate when they have left the gun.
2.)
At the point the load is exiting the barrel the shot has been forced backward into the wad surface, the complete load is compressed, after it has left only resistance and drag are acting on the load, the wad is light with a large surface area, it is left behind as the shot has weight and momentum. Even shot changes position in flight within the shot column because of mass for a given shot size there are some smaller and larger shot (if you buy 7 1/2 shot not all are that size), the smaller shot slows faster than larger.
3.)
The wad is often seen with the eye because of it's size ( I'm not talking plastic shot cups) but can be misleading, an example is watching somebody shoot a clay target and when they miss state that they shot behind because they saw the wad, if a breeze was present the wad may have drifted to the side, the reason they missed was more like they stopped the gun, wads go in all direction not always inline with the shot.
4.)
Consider that some people are referencing " a felt wad" not a thick fiber wad full of wax, even heavy wads have are subject to the same physics if the shot volume (weight) is greater, if a wad (felt or fiber) is loaded on the powder then a round ball lighter than the shot load in many cases topped with a card to hold it in place , when shot why does the wad not knock the ball off line, just a thought.
5.)
If the pattern is being blown I would look at lowering velocity, make some fiber wad with paper shot cups attached (not twisted at the front end), shot and card on top, with most brown paper as a cup and a load not over fast the shot will not rub the bore deforming the shot.

Pictures show set back in plastic cup and fiber wad with card over, shot has gone. Just my 2 cents after doing a 3,000 round test a few years ago.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Only way to find out is to try some different loads out.

 

[Magungo1066]

Iwas wondering what kind of success you guys that use the wonder wad style felt for op or cushion wads .Ive been thinking of giving them a try and thought I’d ask you gents who have more experience than myself.thankyou in advance. Walt

I love the felt wads in my 24 gauge. They are so convenient, and I get excellent patterns and accuracy with them. My go to smoothbore load is a combo of felt wads and a thin overshot card.

 

[Sparkitoff]

I've only used them in a 24-gauge. The stationary patterns are really round and shot is well distributed. This is with a single felt thin wad over powder and a thin card over shot. I've went to a hard card before the felt wad over the powder and got a slight increase in velocity but about the same pattern. Only problem for me is the patterns are great at about 16 yards and fall apart quickly, being sketchy at best at just 21-yards. No choke in the barrels, so that's a "natural" pattern. It works good on some bird situations, but is awful close range for most wild bird hunting. Anyway, the felt wads seem to do a good job in the smallbore.