Plastic shotcups

[Todd Rickard]

Why do BP shooters worry about plastic shot cups leaving residue in the barrel? I've used my cartridge shotguns for years and never worried about it.
I've only used plastic a few times in my ML. I used a nitro card over the powder and I don't think I had melted plastic issues.
I've found a free source of plastic wads and they are already flared to help seperate them from the shot column. The trap range is littered with em, and they are only slightly used.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I've never gotten consistant results with them. I opt instead for jug choke. It is consistant all the time.

 

[BrownBear]

I used the heck out of them for 15 years or so, right up till we were finally required to use steel shot for waterfowl up here. Probably shot 200-300 a year on average. Never had a single issue with plastic residue. Could be my choice of wads (WAA12R) but residue was as common as an honest politician.

One huge advantage to cups- You can trim the length of the petals on the cups and change your "choke." Intact petals give something approaching full, perhaps improved modified. Cut them to half length and you get something approaching modified. One quarter length gives a respectable IM, and remove them completely for cylinder. You pocket knife turns the setup into a set of interchangeable chokes.

 

[Bearbait2]

Mr. BrownBear,
If you would not mind my asking, which powder were you using and how much?
Best Wishes

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Black powder gives a more prolonged heat than smokeless. I've reloaded plastic shot shells with black and find that after just one or two firings the mouth of the shell, though still intact, becomes too soft to hold a crimp. It becomes "rubbery" as best I can describe it. That heat also affects plastic wads. Some people have no trouble with them but I have pulled long strings of plastic out with a bore brush.
In the couple of dozen barrels I have pattern tested, both choked and cylinder bores, I have yet to find an advantage to plastic wads. Two 1/8" hard cards over the powder and a thin card over the shot seems to be about the best one can do.

 

[Todd Rickard]

Powder charge, one dry wad, liberal dribble of liquid lube, then another nitro wad, then shot, and finally, one or two overshot cards. That is exactly how I load now, but I was thinking of messing around with some plastic wads, and the free supply of them got me thinking about it. I shot a few with the nitro card under them, and I even lubed the collar of the plastic wad to ease loading. I then recovered the plastic wad, and couldn't see any evidence of melting. Some of the wads were broken, though.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you use plastic wads in either a ML or BP cartridge gun, you have to protect the base with some kind of wad. An OS wad or two should do the trick. Unless you lube the barrel after seating the load, you can expect plastic to scrape off on the bore when the load is fired. Even with lube, you may still get a build-up of plastic over several shots. A bore brush must become a part of your cleaning routine is you use the plastic shot wads. For hunting, this is rarely a problem, since we fire so few shots in a given day. At the range, you probably need a second range rod with the bore brush mounted on it, along with your cleaning jag, so that you can attack the plastic every few shots, to maintain your patterns. Some of the modern plastic solvents probably should also be part of your kit for this purpose. I am using Shooter's Choice, but there are other products available to dissolve plastic.

Using Black Powder in plastic shutgun hulls will definitely ruin the mouths of the casing and make recrimping difficult if not impossible in a few shots. There are Brass casings available today, for shotgun use. They last forever, and would seem to be the answer to people who want to shoot BP cartridges in their breechloading shotguns. I have them for a 100+ year old side by side double gun.

 

[BrownBear]

I was using DuPont black then, the only thing I could get. As I recall the charge was 80 grains, granulation was for sure FF, the only one I could reliably get.

No experience with contemporary shotcups, but the old WAA12R wads never showed any sign of melting. I don't know if there's any magic to their plastic or not when it comes to black powder. I always use a felt wad under them, so who know how they would perform without it.

This was all in my beloved old NA double 12 with no choke constriction and in the days when we could still use lead shot. No problem at all seating the wads, but concerns about it have kept me from starting up again with a new Pedersoli and chokes.

Though I used mine exclusively for hunting, it wasn't uncommon to shoot over 30 shots in a day for ptarmigan (The limit is 20). No limit on snowshoe hare, and with our great beagles it wasn't uncommon to have 20 rabbit days, either. I used it almost exclusively for my waterfowl hunting for a handful of years, and the way I shoot it usually took a dozen or more shots to take home a limit of 7. Add in a sea duck limit in those days of 20, and you could huff away a lot of charcoal in the course of a day, even when our days are only 5 hours long.

 

[Shelby Skinner]

All I know is that as a long time Registered Skeet shooter you will have issues with plastic fouling in your barrels if you shoot enough. In a modern gun all the plastic builds up on the choke. After about 250 rounds I got enough buildup in my guns to be able to actually tell it was affecting my groups. After about 400 rounds it would be enough to start blowing some groups. In a typical registered skeet shoot you will shoot 250 12 guage shells in a weekend, plus 100 each of 20, 28 and .410. Yes...550 shots for a weekend tournament. You can add more if you end up in the shootouts.

Many hunters clean often enough and don't shoot enough to ever notice it. But I can tell you that in my guns the plastic can get so thick and built up around the chokes you can literally cut it out with a knife!

I've never used plastic in a muzzleloader so I can't speak from experience there....

 

[Leatherbark]

When I tried them in my 12 guage I would cut off the bottom "Power Piston" part and just use the cup on top of a card wad and cushion wad. The plastic wads are sized to fit inside of a 12 guage shell and I always figured the power piston type of wad would not seal very well..........Any way I didnt see any difference in my thin patterns...............But I should have experimented more..................Bob

 

[paulvallandigham]

Bob: If you are not seeing an improvement in your pattern, you are using too much powder. Back it off and you should see the patterns fill out.