leather op wads- pic's

[dbutch]

tested some home made over powder wads- from old work boots.. made the cutting tool..3/4 in copper pipe sharpened and notched-some elbow grease and it cuts clean.

Here's a target using standard Oxyoke op wad. all shot today.Holes not marked are 100 gr. fff-goex

This target below shot with leather op wad lubed with olive oil

This target below shot with same leather no lube-DRY

Thought I give the leather a try- the dry leather shot the best.Any one out there use leather op wads?

 

[MSW]

looks interesting ... how thick is the leather? i'm thinking about trying 5-6 veg tan tooling leather (unless i can score some scraps from my eldest daughter's leatherworking business).

i've heard that Ballistol works well.

do you think the leather seals, or does the force of the chamber pressuer cause the wad to wrap around the ball and pull the edges away from the lands and grooves?

 

[dbutch]

The leather measures 80 thousands thick--the leather wad was .825 in Dia. I'm not a leather guy- so do not know what number that would be.

my loading is as follows-

powder.. leather wad centered over bore..short starter centered over leather wad ..push in 1/2 inch of bore..patch lubed ..round ball last. due to dia. of this leather wad it cupped in the bore. I seated the ball down hard over the top.

The leather wad sealed great till 120 gr. FFF then the patch turned black but no burns or tears.

I believe the leather wad seals to bore.

I believe I over lubed with olive oil..very wet!

will try Ballistol next trip to range. Thanks...Dan

 

[Cutfingers]

I've posted before that I now use leather wads in all my rifles, smoothbores, and my pistols. I have found that 5/6 oz cowhide seems to work best.

 

[dbutch]

did you load them lubed or dry? if lubed what did you use ?

 

[MSW]

my eldest daughter (who does leather for a living) says that you're probably at the 3-4 or 4-5 range in your thickness (it's three to four ounces per square something or other) but since they're cut from worn our work boots, the tanning wouldn't be 'veg tan,' probably a commercial chromium process.

i'd guess that this would effect how much lube the leather would absorb.

sounds like cutfingers is using tooling leather, which is what i'm going to start with- i think you guys are onto something which could make my shooting a good bit better (and i need all the help i can get).

thanks to all of you!

 

[ohio ramrod]

I started using leather wads instead of a dry folded patch last fall. I have a lot of scrap leather and enough stress proof steel to make a million wads, and a thousand dies to cut them! So I thought what the heck I'd give them a try , and so far I like the results.

 

[dbutch]

Are you using any lube on them? how much oversize did you punch them? Thanks..Dan

 

[Billnpatti]

Nice data. It closely matches what I found using OP wads. My wads were 5 oz tooling leather soaked in Ballistol. My patches were pre-cut and lubed with straight Ballistol but were wrung as dry as possible. I found that my muzzle velocity, using OP wads, increased by about 10% and my standard deviation went from about 21 down to only 7. My fouling was practically nil. There is no doubt in my mind that OP wads are very beneficial. :thumbsup:

Some purists may find my advocacy of OP wads an aborgation of the sanctity of HC. That's okay, it makes me happy to use them and so I do. To those who find their use anathema, I simply say, don't use them. :hatsoff:

 

[dmowery]

thanks for the info..was thinking of using OP wad for a while in the rb guns...