Shot loads and buffers?

[hobowonkanobe]

I recently watched a vid on youtube of a bloke firing his CVA (yeah, I shuddered too) 20 ga dble barrel. He was doing comparisons 'tween plastic sabot/shot cups and just the felt wad... no cushion, just the felt powder wad and the card board cap wad.
As experiments go, it was interesting to see the dif patterns down range, but I was caught off guard too, by both the plasic cup ( didn't even know they existed) and that he just used the 2 wads sans cushion.
Now, that being said, was I being just naive buying said cushioning wads or was the bloke in the vid being cheap?

 

[Golfswithwolves]

I recently watched a vid on youtube of a bloke firing his CVA (yeah, I shuddered too) 20 ga dble barrel. He was doing comparisons 'tween plastic sabot/shot cups and just the felt wad... no cushion, just the felt powder wad and the card board cap wad.
As experiments go, it was interesting to see the dif patterns down range, but I was caught off guard too, by both the plasic cup ( didn't even know they existed) and that he just used the 2 wads sans cushion.
Now, that being said, was I being just naive buying said cushioning wads or was the bloke in the vid being cheap?

I do not use cushion wads either. Sometimes they can make holes in the pattern especially if they are full thickness and/or heavily lubricated. Other folks do like to use them however; whatever works best in your particular situation is the way to go.

 

[Dryfly5300]

Yes it seems to help tighten up large steel shot patterns some in steel 2's and 1's and really helped B's,BB's, BBB's and T's in my pedersoli ten gauge. My only concern is raising barrel pressure too high if there is already 1.5 oz shot in the load. Thjese were patterned with plastic shot cups. Have not felt the need to use buffer with lead, but have fixed chokes or screw in chokes for that. Biggest suggestion is use a "parachute wad" or "tampon" wad for steel. Someone on a forum had been using them for 20 years and described them as deadly. I 100% agree, much better than even screw in chokes.
PS If you want to be historicaly correct, try bone meal buffer for lead. It was used, but might have been inexpensive and available based on the number of bison bones around at the time (Darn economists).

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Biggest suggestion is use a "parachute wad" or "tampon" wad for steel. Someone on a forum had been using them for 20 years and described them as deadly. I 100% agree, much better than even screw in chokes.

That was member Runnball, who hasn't been around in the last two years. He said that he'd gotten modified to full choke patterns out of a cylinder bore with them in this post and also describes them here. He used plastic shotcups, but others have reported success making them out of card stock (I made some, then never did pattern them). I suggested that he change the name to a more period-styled "Runnball's cotton-tail drogue shot concentrator", but he stuck with "tampon shotcup" or "tampon wads".

Regards,
Joel

 

[Billnpatti]

I've never tried any of the plastic buffers in my shotgun, I was afraid that the plastic would make a mess in my bore. I did play with using a fine corn meal as a buffer. I would pre-measure out my shot and put it in small plastic bottles. Then when loading, I'd pour in half of shot, add some corn meal, rap on the side of my barrel and repeat with the other half of the shot. I quickly came to the decision that such a way of loading was WAY more trouble than it was worth. Then I decided to try mixing the shot and corn meal in the little bottles and just dumping the whole thing into my bore. I couldn't see that adding the corn meal was doing me much good so I gave it up as not being worth the effort. My home made paper shot cups did more good than the cornmeal buffer. They are a bit of trouble to mess with when loading but did tighten up my pattern just a bit. I thought the benefit of using them was worth the bit of trouble in loading with them.

 

[Oudoceus]

Corn meal would be more PC. As long as it's not made from any of that GM corn! :v

 

[BrownBear]

Just curious....has anyone out there tried to buffer their BP loads with modern plastic shot buffers?

I played with buffer from Ballistic Products and with corn meal one day at the range. It was a typical windy day for us, and I figure sometimes I got as much as half in the bore. Kinda neat to get two white clouds from a single shot- one while loading and a second with the trigger. :wink:

I didn't really notice any difference in patterns, and I sure don't want to complicate my field shoots with one more time-consuming step.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I have horsed around with about every combination of wad and shot cups I could think of. Yes it was fun and interesting; when it wasn’t extremely frustrating. You can go down a lot of dead ends.

I know folks who swear by cushion wads and those that swear at them. I use them because I usually shoot skeet with wads soaking is soapy water and they keep the fouling soft.

In the end it dawned on me “Hey I am shooting a flintlock trade gun replica.” Why am I trying to get to perform like my modern gun; rather than learn to hunt within its limits?

The callenge of doing it the hard way was one of the reasons why I switch to muzzle loaders in the first place.

 

[Oudoceus]

I like your attitude Granpa Ron! If everyone thought like you the archery hunting and blackpowder hunting seasons wouldn't be the sad jokes that they have become. :thumbsup: