Shooting Plastic Shotgun Wads in a smoothbore?

[B P Maniac Shooter]

I tried some plastic shotgunner thingys in a smoothbore recently.
The results were surprising:

 

[user 49399]

Interesting. I was expecting better results. In my .62 caliber smooth bore, I load 60 grains of 2f, a thick wad of jute tow or brown paper, about 65 grains of shot and topped off with jute tow or brown paper wad. I’ve taken a lot of squirrels with this load.

Keep up the good work!

 

[TreeMan]

I use plastic cups all the time in my cylinder bore guns. Yes it does tighten the pattern in two of my doubles and my Bess carbine. I use a ball of TOW under the cup to keep it from leaving stringy plastic in the bore from melting. Powder, TOW, run the cup down on top of the TOW then dump the shot. (Use the skinny end of the ramrod to fit inside the plastic cup when ramming) Two thin cards over cup of shot. Nope it’s not HC but it works.

 

[deerstalkert]

i would like to see the pattern if the powder charge was backed down to 60g.
really tightened up the pattern from my 1857 zulu suppository 12 gauge.
i tried a square load of 80g ff and equal by volume 7.5 shot. i could have dodged through that pattern.
dropped down to 60g ff and 90g volume 7.5 shot and a hummingbird would have died in the pattern.
ain't bp fun!!

 

[PathfinderNC]

You can have great results with them. Here's friends with a .62 Fusil type D that I built last year.

 

[PathfinderNC]

i would like to see the pattern if the powder charge was backed down to 60g.
really tightened up the pattern from my 1857 zulu suppository 12 gauge.
i tried a square load of 80g ff and equal by volume 7.5 shot. i could have dodged through that pattern.
dropped down to 60g ff and 90g volume 7.5 shot and a hummingbird would have died in the pattern.
ain't bp fun!!

It sounds counter-intuitive but it works well that way!

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

When I'm on hog patrol I use regular AA wads to load the 525 grain Lyman "shuttlecock" slugs in my 12g flint canoe gun. It's a perfect fit. With a smear of lube on the outside of the petals, they load very easily. Yes, there is a small amount of plastic residue after shooting, but my normal cleaning routine of boiling water scalds it off the sides and it floats right to the top. No nightmare cleanup.

I use two 1/8" felt wads under the cup. When I was using a hard nitro card, the bottoms of the cups were very very distorted on recovery.

 

[Blackpowderart]

i would like to see the pattern if the powder charge was backed down to 60g.
really tightened up the pattern from my 1857 zulu suppository 12 gauge.
i tried a square load of 80g ff and equal by volume 7.5 shot. i could have dodged through that pattern.
dropped down to 60g ff and 90g volume 7.5 shot and a hummingbird would have died in the pattern.
ain't bp fun!!

Please don't shoot Hummingbirds

 

[hunter thompson]

When I'm on hog patrol I use regular AA wads to load the 525 grain Lyman "shuttlecock" slugs in my 12g flint canoe gun. It's a perfect fit. With a smear of lube on the outside of the petals, they load very easily. Yes, there is a small amount of plastic residue after shooting, but my normal cleaning routine of boiling water scalds it off the sides and it floats right to the top. No nightmare cleanup.

I use two 1/8" felt wads under the cup. When I was using a hard nitro card, the bottoms of the cups were very very distorted on recovery.

YEAS Good idea using a fiber insulator between the plastic and powder to keep the plastic from melting and plastic fouling the barrel

 

[deerstalkert]

Please don't shoot Hummingbirds

I do hope you were not serious.

 

[deerstalkert]

When I'm on hog patrol I use regular AA wads to load the 525 grain Lyman "shuttlecock" slugs in my 12g flint canoe gun. It's a perfect fit. With a smear of lube on the outside of the petals, they load very easily. Yes, there is a small amount of plastic residue after shooting, but my normal cleaning routine of boiling water scalds it off the sides and it floats right to the top. No nightmare cleanup.

I use two 1/8" felt wads under the cup. When I was using a hard nitro card, the bottoms of the cups were very very distorted on recovery.

may i ask what is the shot weight with the 2 felt wads and the AA wads?

 

[kyron4]

Great job ! At the end where it is sped up and piano music, cleaning up the target reminded me of the old silent film era like Charlie Chaplin .

 

[TDM]

Interesting, good info to try out.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

may i ask what is the shot weight with the 2 felt wads and the AA wads?

Sure.

An unmodified AA cup, two felt wads and a 525 grain slug add up to 573 grains


A modified cup, two wads, and the slug weigh 553.8


I shot about 10 rounds with each configuration, and couldn’t tell any difference in performance. The cups are made for 1 1/8 oz of shot.

I was using 80gr of 2f

 

[deerstalkert]

Sure.

An unmodified AA cup, two felt wads and a 525 grain slug add up to 573 grains
View attachment 217077

A modified cup, two wads, and the slug weigh 553.8
View attachment 217078

I shot about 10 rounds with each configuration, and couldn’t tell any difference in performance. The cups are made for 1 1/8 oz of shot.

I was using 80gr of 2f

i must start reading instead of skimming. i thought you were loading shot. at least i think i thought that!
think i will go back to bed.

 

[earlwb]

I like to use the plastic shot cups too. I bought a bag of them many years ago and I still haven’t made much of a dent in the number of cups in it. It was like 2,000 in the bag.

 

[sheriff john]

Loading volume for volume powder/shot, you simply use the shotcup to measure both. Did it for decades. Might be some plastic residue in the bore of a couple shotguns, but they were never smooth nor shiny when I got 'em.

Fluctuate between various wads for no particular reason, but always use plastic cups when shooting steel or bismuth. Steel sucks no matter what.