historical methods of wadding

[tenngun]

How about potpurri? Smell nice to

All day long my shooting kept reminding me of that week we had in Vienna. Must have been the cinnamon in the air

 

[RAEDWALD]

How about potpurri? Smell nice to

As they say on the Shankill Road: 'No Potpourri'!

 

[Capt. Jas.]

I have experimented fairly extensively with historical wadding, including tow and brown paper. I've also worked out good loads for ball and shot using shredded cedar bark, took all my normal game with it, rabbit, squirrel, dove, turkey, deer. Early on in working with tow and cedar I realized the loads were not as powerful as those with punched wads or modern commercial ones using the same powder charges. I figured there was a loss of pressure from the gasses blowing through the soft, porous wadding material, even when rammed well. I tried something to avoid that which worked very well, using another historical wadding. I tried putting a brown paper wad over powder before loading the tow or cedar, and that simple barrier solved the problem.

My experience made me wonder if Markland's recommendation for both tow and old saddle pierce didn't consist of a punched leather wad over powder, then the tow. No way to know, of course, but that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

Spence

George,
If you are still around, would you send me a private message? I want to pick your brain on references to tow.
Respectfully,
James

 

[sheriff john]

Only encountered one loaded shotgun - single barrel 12 gauge. Shot had turned white, powder solid chunks, wadding was newspaper with hand-set type. Still shooting it.

 

[springfield art]

Hello all, I am looking for some historical methods of wadding a smoothbore. Specifically on how a civilian hunter might wad their gun. I am familiar with tow and wasp nest respectively, and would like to hear some others.

Archeologists pulling guns up around Michigan found grass in loaded barrels. I read about this but can't recall details. Of course we won't do that now, but back in history they had to make-do or die! Just as a joke here, one could always use liberal newspapers as wadding!

 

[springfield art]

Good luck finding that. I've been looking for that documentation for more than three decades but have come up empty. I've asked that question at least a dozen times on various forums with never a single response. I have found one mention from very late 19th century, but it may very well be fiction.

A Turkey Hunt, by David Dodge, Outing Magazine, Vol 27, October 1895 to March 1896, pg. 231.

Outing. v. 27 1895-96.

"His amazingly long-barreled gun, which was an old “flint-and-steel” converted into a percussion, was an object of unbounded interest. The loading proceeded with the greatest deliberation. Matt had his own notions about loading a gun and believed that his way was the only sure one for turkey. The charges had to be measured with extreme nicety, a certain sized shot unmixed with any others, and hornet’s-nest wadding had to be used. The last wad had always to be rammed till the ramrod had bounced out of the barrel seven times."

Spence

Interesting, but I'd guess the '7 times' thing was the shooter's personal 'magic number'!

 

[Grenadier1758]

Archeologists pulling guns up around Michigan found grass in loaded barrels. I read about this but can't recall details. Of course we won't do that now, but back in history they had to make-do or die! Just as a joke here, one could always use liberal newspapers as wadding!

I have found that newspapers of whatever political bias are equally effective as over powder wads at preventing gas blow by. The folded newspaper or thin cardboard wads would work, however, paper in the historical context would have been uncommon and not as available as moss, grass, or tow.

A good dense dry moss would work. The reindeer moss we have would work as well as the Spanish moss in the south. These are not as dense as newspaper and would have more gas blow by. I've tried leaves, but the dry leaves were too fragile and broke apart unless you used a lot of leaves.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Here is a reference to Spanish moss, used as wadding by the southern Indians:



This is from Francis Moore's A Voyage to Georgia in the Year 1735, published in 1744. Note that "green" Spanish moss is made of filaments covered with a velvety, gray-green skin or pulp, but a Moore described, the inner filaments are black. When the moss dies, the black, curly filaments are left in masses, hanging from trees or lying on the ground. I could have picked up a couple of bushels of it this morning while out on a woods walk with my wife and dogs. The dried Spanish moss fibers look sort of like human... umm... body hair. The green moss does not burn well, but it makes a lot of smoke if you put it on a fire. The black moss makes excellent tinder, and it sounds from Moore's wording as if the black moss was used by the Indians as wadding. I have used the live or green moss as wadding, and it works as well as tow. I expect the black moss would be sort of a fire hazard if used for wadding, and I haven't tried it for that purpose.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[smoothshooter]

A long discourse on shooting in England recommended the old felt stuffing from an old saddle. An old gun recovered, I think from South Carolina, had coconut husk.

Tenngun, if you could give the name of the long poem/treatise on “ The Art of Shooting Flying “ originally published in England and included by Robert Held in his book “ The Age of Firearms “? I have a couple of copies of it myself, but it might take a couple of days to put my hands on one. I think you have it too.
Many of the readers here would enjoy looking it up on the Interweb and reading it. Lots of information on loading and shooting, and hunting techniques of the mid-1750’s.,
The poem was written by a guy named Markwell in the 1759’s or so.
It is titled “Plygeteria “, or something like that.

 

[tenngun]

Tenngun, if you could give the name of the long poem/treatise on “ The Art of Shooting Flying “ originally published in England and included by Robert Held in his book “ The Age of Firearms “? I have a couple of copies of it myself, but it might take a couple of days to put my hands on one. I think you have it too.
Many of the readers here would enjoy looking it up on the Interweb and reading it. Lots of information on loading and shooting, and hunting techniques of the mid-1750’s.,
The poem was written by a guy named Markwell in the 1759’s or so.
It is titled “Plygeteria “, or something like that.

Yes I have Helds book, there is another passage printed fifty years later that was also informative, also in Helds book

 

[Brokennock]

Tenngun, if you could give the name of the long poem/treatise on “ The Art of Shooting Flying “ originally published in England and included by Robert Held in his book “ The Age of Firearms “? I have a couple of copies of it myself, but it might take a couple of days to put my hands on one. I think you have it too.
Many of the readers here would enjoy looking it up on the Interweb and reading it. Lots of information on loading and shooting, and hunting techniques of the mid-1750’s.,
The poem was written by a guy named Markwell in the 1759’s or so.
It is titled “Plygeteria “, or something like that.

It is available I believe on Spence's website, Bob's Blackpowder Notebook.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Pteryplegia

https://books.google.com/books/abou...1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[waksupi]

For any who like hornets nest for wadding, I just so happen to have a full gallon baggie full I would part with. I took the soffit off the cabin this summer, and it was loaded!

 

[bud in pa]

How about our brown paper shopping bags? I have been thinking about cutting the rectangles out of them and lubing them.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@bud in pa, the brown paper bags work very well as wads. Use 1" wide by 2" long, fold into a square and load.

 

[Brokennock]

How many shots do you think this will provide?

Also, how do those that use it carry something like this around while hunting?

 

[toot]

How many shots do you think this will provide?View attachment 170060View attachment 170061




Also, how do those that use it carry something like this around while hunting?

WOW!! now that is PRESICIOUS! I would like to have it attached to my HOUSE EVES! use it all! even the PAUPS when used will lubricate your barrel!

 

[Artificer]

Pteryplegia

https://books.google.com/books/abou...1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

James,

With all the leather work you do, I imagine you have a scrap bin even larger than mine and full of different thicknesses of leather. Have you experimented with different oz weights for over the powder and over the shot "cards," and if so, do you have any recommendations? Also, just wondering if you have ever tried thick leather as a wad?

Gus

 

[waksupi]

How many shots do you think this will provide?View attachment 170060View attachment 170061




Also, how do those that use it carry something like this around while hunting?

I've tried the paper wasp nest before, hard to work with. The honeycomb appearing nest is what you want.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

James,

With all the leather work you do, I imagine you have a scrap bin even larger than mine and full of different thicknesses of leather. Have you experimented with different oz weights for over the powder and over the shot "cards," and if so, do you have any recommendations? Also, just wondering if you have ever tried thick leather as a wad?

Gus

Gus, I've used some thin but rather firm tempered pieces just playing but have never used them in serious patterning to date. Too many things to do and too little sunlight ; )
They make a good seal and pressure though.