PLEASE, get the idea of "speed reloading" a ML smooth bore out of your mind. Speed shooting is a modern concept, and has no place in shooting traditional arms. Safety has to take priority.
Now, when you load powder down the barrel, most will simply pour it down the barrel, whether it starts out in a separate volume powder measure, or in a paper "cartridge".
The first- "OVER POWDER"-- wad that goes down the bore HAS A PURPOSE- and that is to seal the bore against the gases that the burning powder will produce when fired. As it goes down the bore, it pushes air in front of it, which, in a properly cleaned gun, will push THRU the powder and out the flash channel to exit the TH in flintlocks, or the nipple in percussion guns. Its important to have removed the fired percussion cap from the nipple, and to leave the hammer on "half-cock" on percussion guns to allow the air to exit thru the nipple.
Now that the OP wad is seated on the powder properly, you can run additional wads or cards down the barrel, but each will be pushing air down the barrel in front of it, unless you do something. That air can not escape through the powder, because of that OP wad.
You have choices.
A. You can just push those subsequent wads down, and let the air break one or more of the edges, to escape past the wad;
DOWNSIDE: Those broken edges will also then let hot gases pass thru if your OP wad fails as a seal. This results in shot flying who-knows-where, rather than a predictable pattern.
B. You can stack wads together at the muzzle, and drive them down with the OP wad, thereby avoiding the problem of trapped air between the OP wad, and cushion wads.
DOWNSIDE: That is a lot of friction to push down the bore at once, and getting those wads stuck part way down the bore is a common event, particularly when loading a dirty bore. Any "speed advantage" to this technique is obviously lost if you have to stop and pull one or more wads from the bore.
C. YOU CAN USE ONLY OS CARDS in your smooth bore, and poke off-center holes in the cards with a sharp nail, or awl, to let the air between the cards escape thru the holes, and not damage the all-important edges of any wad or card. When loading, simply rotate each succeeding card so that the holes in CONSECUTIVE CARDS DO NOT LINE UP WITH EACH OTHER. This keeps any small shot pellets from plugging the holes, or getting thru them.
Iron Jim Rackham, a former member here, used a small ball of wax/oil lube between the 3rd and 4th OS cards he used in lieu of a single OP wad. In seating the OS cards firmly on the powder, this squeezed the ball of lube so that it flattened out between the cards, and then greased the bore as the load was pushed out the barrel when the gun was fired.
DOWNSIDE: You have to carry some container with little balls of lube made up in it, then manage to pick those balls up to drop down between the cards when loading, w/o dropping them on the ground or spilling the contents of your container. AND, HAVING THE LUBE BEHIND THE LOAD OF SHOT does nothing to prevent lead rubbing off on the sides of the bore as the load is fired.
C-1: My solution is to run a greased cleaning patch down the bore before loading the first charge. This protects the bore from leading, and greases the bore so that fouling is soft. It also protects the bore from RUST in the field when you hunt in rain, or mist, or fog.
For 2nd and subsequent shots, I run another greased cleaning patch down the bore after seating the OS card(s) on top of the load of shot.
DOWNSIDE: you do have to carry your pre-greased cleaning patches into the field in something, along with that towel you should always have to clean your hands and ramrod to keep the gun and your clothes clean.
AND, frankly, it took me some time to get comfortable with this "New way " of loading and shooting a shotgun, after years of carrying OP wads, Cushion wads, and OS cards, with the cushion wads pre-lubed with vegetable oil.
But, Iron Jim was right, as its much easier to carry only OS cards in one pocket, and my greased cleaning patches in a plastic baggie in another pocket. I load 3 OS cards down the bore instead of 1 1/8" thick OP wad. Then the load of shot, and 2 OS cards for my DBL. s x s 12. ga. shotgun. In my 19 ga. fowling piece, I use only 1 OS card over the shot to hold the load of shot in the barrel.
I hope this helps you make an informed decision that produces predictably good patterns from your guns. :hatsoff:
