Nitro cards

[hbasajaun]

Sirs, what material is the Nitro cards made of? It is possible to do it my self? Thanks

 

[snakebit]

I like the ones from TOW. They are fairly priced if you buy in bulk. But I'm sure you could figure out something that would work well. I know several guys that make their shot cards out of 12 pack pop cartons.

 

[Flinter 2]

Sirs, what material is the Nitro cards made of? It is possible to do it my self? Thanks

There are several thicknesses for doing different jobs, there are over powder card wads that are thick dense paper, then there's over shot card wads that are made of thinner paper stock, and then there are cushion wads made out of compressed fiber they are the thickest but are softer to the touch and can be compressed with finger pressure.
Over powder wads are too thick to use as over shot wads because they raise load pressure, over shot wads are to thin to use as over powder wads because they may burn through and let hot gases blow by and lower the loads effectiveness.
If you intend to shoot smoothbore regularly you'll want all three types of wads, when you order make sure to order in the bore diameter of your gun.

 

[Brokennock]

Sirs, what material is the Nitro cards made of? It is possible to do it my self? Thanks

Well, seems you asked specifically about "nitro cards" and got answers about thin overshot cards and stuff about thin cards, cushion wads and whatall.
Nitro cards are thicker and stiffer than over shot cards but thinner Tham so called "cushion wads" but seem far more dense. I've had a hard time determining exactly what they are made of. They seem to be some type of very dense cardboard but may be some kind of fine grained particle board. The material reminds me of a very thick version of the stuff my dad had a peg board to hang hooks for tools made of. I seem to recall some drawer bottoms made of it too.
I suppose if you found the right material you could make your own if you could find the correct size plug cutter.
Personally I wouldn't bother.
I only use them for the Skychief load and I only need that a few times per year. Many folk use a stack of cheaper/easier to make thin overshot cards instead of a nitro card of they feel the need for that thick a card. Benefits of doing so would be carrying less different items because the thin cards cam be used in a variety of ways, the thin cards fall away from the shot pattern easier, and the thin cards can be easily and cheaply made at home.

If you feel the need for them and really want to make your own, take one down to a lumber yard, craft center, and an art store, between those someone will know what material it is and may be able to sell you some.

 

[Brokennock]

Oh, and o.p.,,, read a bunch of the posts from @Britsmoothy and note all the game and pests he kills with a smoothbore,,,, all year round....
Without a variety of wads, cards, and other components before you buy into a bunch of hogwash about "needing" a bunch of different stuff and the "reasons" why.
There's going to be a lot of folks telling you how you need this and that and don't use this or that other thing might be dangerous,,, might even call my 1st response that,,, and that is okay,,,,, look at the posts of someone who gets results, and gets them often.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Just use two or three or more, if you like, thin cards brother.
Plus 1mm diameter for your bore diameter, at least.
Forget nitro cards, you may break a rammer. Forget cushion wads, unless someone gives you some!

 

[leadhoarder]

Edit. Sorry posted in the wrong thread.

 

[Sparkitoff]

I have two types of "nitro cards" that are "original". First, let me clarify that Nitro powder is smokeless and there is no muzzleloading item named such. I have an original box of Federal that dates to approximately 1937 and a box of Winchester that dates to approximately 1952. Federal refers to them as Over Powder wads and Winchester refers to them as Cardboard wads. They are intended to be loaded in shotshells with smokeless powder. Both have very similar construction. You can look closely and see there are multiple layers. The flat surfaces are very smooth while the sides are just a little rough. Within my collection of "stuff" there's two different anecdotes for these Nitro Wads. One is instructions on how to use the machine and the other is the composition of the wad itself. For the machine, it says to "insert the compressed paper sheets into the guides, making sure each corner is captured, filling the guides to the indicator. Lower the weighted arm and center it over the sheets in the lowest position. This will allow the punch to fully and cleanly penetrate the stacked sheets and the guide cone will extract the cut wads from the tube". While there's more to it, this tells us a few things. 1) the wads are made from compressed paper sheets, 2) they are punching more than one sheet at a time that are piled on top of one another. The other notation refers to "the starched, compressed paper...". My interpretation of that is the "starch" is some kind of glue. A homemade concoction that mimicks Elmers Glue, or the "paste" in paper mache' is often made from flour and water - flour being a starch. There are other references in art that call for the left over water from boiling pasta being painted on and left to evaporate - pasta being a starch. Then there's spray starch used in laundry. Regardless, the wads are obviously made from layered paper "glued" with some kind of starch. So, with all this in mind - the common corrugated cardboard would not be the proper substance as it contains wrinkles and is not truly "compressed". You need a "Fiber board" or a flat, smooth card stock that is made from glued layers if you're trying to duplicate original "Nitro cards". If you're going to make your own stock, I think brown paper used for grocery bags, butcher wrap or packaging will do. I think the easiest way to gain the thickness you want is to fold it, and smooth it with a warm iron. Experiment with a starch-based glue or just spray between the layers with laundry starch. Once you have the sheet, either store bought or homemade, you can punch them with the type of punches previously mentioned in the preceding posts. Depending on the punch's depth and sharpness you may be able to punch through several sheets at once, creating multiple nitro cards with one punch - much like the machine did - but the machines punch was about 12" deep and hydraulically powered. You're talking 2-6 sheets at a time manually at max.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Whatever the hard ‘Nitro’ cards are made out of, I found that they disintegrate when shot. My 1st shots were over a large white tarp so I could recover the wads, just for curiosity.

The Nitro wad disintegrated and we only found small pieces, we found smaller or thinner slivers for remnants of the lubed Cushion wad (that was a full one cut in half), and found all the Over Shot wads.

I tried the trick I read on here of placing an OS wad on top of the Cusion wad so the pellets don’t stay or stick into the Cushion wad and blow a ‘doughnut hole’ pattern. Worked slick!

But bear in mind my chokes are modified and full. The Sky Chief Load is recommended for open bores …

 

[LongWalker]

With the OP being in Madrid (Spain) he may not have convenient access to US suppliers. One option he might consider is the method espoused by V. M. Starr in his little book The Muzzle Loading Shotgun It's Care and Use (conveniently available online here: V.M Starr on ML Shotguns ). Starr used two cards punched of posterboard*, each about 2-2.5 mm thick, over the powder and one card over the shot. These can easily be punched with an arch punch or gasket punch of the proper size. I learned to load a shotgun from Starr, and while I sometimes try other methods I seem to always return to this method. It just works.

*"Posterboard" is a thick paper or cardboard, often used for signs or displays. It can usually be sourced from art supply stores, and once you know what you're looking for you can find more-convenient sources. In high school I used to punch wads from the backs of notepads.

​

 

[hbasajaun]

With the OP being in Madrid (Spain) he may not have convenient access to US suppliers. One option he might consider is the method espoused by V. M. Starr in his little book The Muzzle Loading Shotgun It's Care and Use (conveniently available online here: V.M Starr on ML Shotguns ). Starr used two cards punched of posterboard*, each about 2-2.5 mm thick, over the powder and one card over the shot. These can easily be punched with an arch punch or gasket punch of the proper size. I learned to load a shotgun from Starr, and while I sometimes try other methods I seem to always return to this method. It just works.

*"Posterboard" is a thick paper or cardboard, often used for signs or displays. It can usually be sourced from art supply stores, and once you know what you're looking for you can find more-convenient sources. In high school I used to punch wads from the backs of notepads.

I​

With the OP being in Madrid (Spain) he may not have convenient access to US suppliers. One option he might consider is the method espoused by V. M. Starr in his little book The Muzzle Loading Shotgun It's Care and Use (conveniently available online here: V.M Starr on ML Shotguns ). Starr used two cards punched of posterboard*, each about 2-2.5 mm thick, over the powder and one card over the shot. These can easily be punched with an arch punch or gasket punch of the proper size. I learned to load a shotgun from Starr, and while I sometimes try other methods I seem to always return to this method. It just works.

*"Posterboard" is a thick paper or cardboard, often used for signs or displays. It can usually be sourced from art supply stores, and once you know what you're looking for you can find more-convenient sources. In high school I used to punch wads from the backs of notepads.

I am from Spain, it is just what I do, I buy cardboard in art supply store, but I would like like to try the sky chief load, I have a open bore.​

 

[hanshi]

I got good results with a card wad (punched from a cereal box) followed by a dense felt or leather wad over the powder. One card wad over the shot or two if you like.

 

[shaman]

"They seem to be some type of very dense cardboard but may be some kind of fine grained particle board. The material reminds me of a very thick version of the stuff my dad had a peg board to hang hooks for tools made of. I seem to recall some drawer bottoms made of it too."

That would be Masonite.

My guess is that Masonite would be too stiff.

My advice to the OP:

I buy my cards and wads from TOW. However, if I was going to DIY, I'd start with finding the right sized punch from Amazon. Then, I'd take a sample of the wad up to Hobby Lobby or an art supply place and see what they have. I measured my TOW Nitro cards for my .75 cal Brown Bess. They measure .125" thick.