Plastic shotgun wads

[Darryl]

I am slowly learning how versatile my Brown Bess can be. I've fired patched round ball, unpatched round ball, round ball using overpowder and fiber cushion wads, all with much success. My questions to the learned pundits on this forum...when using the Bess as an 11 ga. shotgun, can I use regular 12 ga. AA type shotgun wads? Should I cut off the plastic cushion part and just use the shot cup part on top of the op and fiber cushion wads? Will I be looking at a sorry mess of black powder interacting with the pastic wad?

 

[roundball]

There is the need to use sufficient overpowder cards / wads so there is a firewall to prevent the fire and gas pressure from bleeding up into the shot charge and wrecking it.

I am not an authority on the subject at all...I have done a lot of study and made several testing trips to the range with .56cal, .62cal, and .12ga smoothbores, and found the best and simplest choice for me was to use OxYoke prelubed wonder wads.

I put 2 or 3 of them over the powder as a firewall, and to provide natural lube 1000 in the bore to minimize fouling, and to serve as a cushion wad for the shot cup to sit on.

In the .56 & .62 I use home made paper shot[url] cups...in[/url] the .12ga I take a modern .12ga shotshell wad and cut off the skirt just below the floor of the shot cup itself so the shot cup sits down on the stack of wonder wads. In all cases I then use the normal .030" over shot card to hold the shot in place.

I know that a pure traditionalist would not use the plastic shot cup as I did, and would experiment with different wad, powder, and shot combinations instead until one was found that produced the best pattern out of the cyclinder bore.

But since my .12ga Navy Arms SxS is a percussion to begin with and not a flintlock, I decided to try the plastic shot cups for Doves a couple times last year and they did fine. Time permitting, I may go back and see what I can do without the plastic shot cup.

 

[musketman]

I think you can use it...

The Lyman Black Powder Handbook show a black powder load (12 gauge) using 1 Remington Power Piston and 1 over shot card on top of a black powder charge...

The 12 gauge bore diameter on their (LYMAN) test barrel is .725
The Brown Bess' bore diameter is .745, so 12 gaude wads will work...

A 12 gauge with a modified choke is tighter still, and it can use plastic wads...

You can try a plastic wad with the wad base intact, recover it after the shot and see if it's melted, then you will know...

 

[Birddog6]

I have shot them for years with plactic wad cups. I take a bore size felt wad & hot glue it to the wad cup (I cut off the base) and them lube it with nNtural Lube or Bore Butter. The lube will lube the barrel going down & when the ignition occurs it wad is compressed thus squeezing it to the bore for a seal plus squeezing out the lubrication to lube the barrel going out again. I can shoot mine 35 time in a day without swabbing when I quail hunt with it.
Als you can use dif lengthos of shrink tubing on the petals of the wad to make dif. choke patterns. If you wold like a photo of them made up send me an email & I will send it to you.

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Custom Flintlocks & Custom Knives

 

Some of the guys use plastics here at rendezvous for the trap event, but they (guys) are easy to beat with a normal BP load with thick card over powder, 1 or 2 fiber wads and overshot BB wad.(thin card) the problem is most guys use too much powder & too much shot. This blows the pattern. With card, then fiber wads(1 lubed under shot)1oz. to max 1 1/8oz. & 2 1/2 drams (65gr.) The 12 bore will shoot a very good pattern. It's best to try it on the pattern board & work up our own load. More shot, tighter pattern more powder open patterm. On ducks, I've used 3 drams(82gr.) Card, fiber, 1 3/8oz 5's, .080" BB over shot, to good advantage over decoys.
: One of the guys had a Navy Arms MAGNUM 12 bore - so he used 4 1/2 drams powder, 2 ounces of shot and never hit a bird - but is sure did purple his shoulder and cheek.
Daryl