To lube or not to lube your wad?

[Jarikeen]

How many of you lubricate your over powder felt wads, and how many of you don't?

Do you vary this depending on if you are using a PRB or a Maxi?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I lube wads for my .50 with a dab atop when seating PRB's or REAL slug, my revolvers I don't since I use lubed conicals.

 

[shootemup]

I roll 'em around in melted Crisco for a couple of seconds and them let 'em dry on a paper towel. I store them in a plastic baggie until it's time to go to the field.

I only use the cushion wads in my fowlers, so only have experience with shot and roundball (I don't use maxi's).

Spot

 

[jtmattison]

I soak mine with melted beeswax/olive oil lube and press out the excess on paper towels.

HD

 

[Don B]

Will wool wads soaked in melted beeswax/oil-based lubes affect the powder after some time? Can I leave my gun loaded for several days with a waxed OP wad without degrading the charge?

DonB

 

[oldwolf]

So far I have only soaked my wads in T/C melted lube. Tonight I am going to soak a batch of 100 dry wads I made last night in melted Crisco. I'll squeeze out the excess and sprinkle with corn starch to see if it helps to keep them from sticking together when I put them in a baggie.

 

[prowler]

All of my overpowder wad are punched from felt after being saturated with 50/50 beeswax and EVOO. After punching I just take a couple hundred of them and shake them with a tablespoon of corn starch in a plastic bag. They are a bit stiff, but do not freeze and do not stick together. I think it provides a bit more lube down the longer barrels. From my experience, the accuracy issue has had more to do with powder charges than overpowder wads. I use the same wads with PRB or conicals.

 

[jtmattison]

Will wool wads soaked in melted beeswax/oil-based lubes affect the powder after some time? Can I leave my gun loaded for several days with a waxed OP wad without degrading the charge?

DonB

Not if you remove the excess lube on paper towels after you apply the lube. The wads should be soaked with lube but not to the point where they have excess all over the outside.
I melt my lube in a pan on low heat. Dump the wads in and swirl around until they are soaked. Fish them out onto paper towels and give them a light press to remove the excess. Let them cool and put them in an old pill bottle. I don't have a problem with them sticking together either.

HD

 

[oldwolf]

Are we talking about wads for use with a revolver, or wads used in addition to lubed patches in a rifle?

 

[jtmattison]

Are we talking about wads for use with a revolver, or wads used in addition to lubed patches in a rifle?

I'm talking rifle.

HD

 

[oldwolf]

Someone educate me please.

What are the advantages of using a wad and a patch in a rile simultaneously?

 

[prowler]

The only advantage I have found is that in long barreled rifles, it carries more lube down the barrel. This keeps the fouling softer, longer, allowing for more shots, better accuracy, or both between swabbings of the barrel

 

[Jarikeen]

To sort of answer your question, I've had to change my wiping between shots method due to the use of a different barrel. My first two barrels, I could wipe right down to the breach with them without any problems, but not this one. I still prefer to wipe between shots. I intend to load the powder, then the wad, then wipe, then PRB. This method is common with some target shooters. So the wad helps protect the powder from the wiping process. I could probably also use a card wad instead, but think the felt would cup a RB better.

I remember a post months ago which debated that the wads with a PRB improved accuracy. I could imagine that wad would help make the fine tuning of the patch thickness less critical - but I'm only guessing.

 

[paulvallandigham]

1. An OP wad provides a greater seal against the gases than can a PRB lubed patch. That allows the lube in the patch to 2. grease the bore as the ball is being pushed out the barrel, rather than having to do that AND try to seal gases behind the ball. With the OP Wad AND cloth patch in use together, 3. you get more consistent velocity, slighly higher pressure, and a more complete burning of the powder, so you have 5.less residue to move around between shots. 4.The consistent velocity gives you smaller groups.

If you then lube the barrel after seating the PRB,5. the patch around the ball only has to grab the ball and transfer the spin of the rifling to the ball, while the lube in front of the ball insures that there is no dry spot in the barrel to catch and hold powder residue. 6. That mean soft residue, that is easily cleaned out of the barrel, and 7. a cleaner barrel, because the lube is heated and fills the pores of the barrel BEFORE any crud or residue can get into the pores.

I think 7 reasons to modify your loading technique should be good enough reasons to do so, don't you?

 

[Sharp Shooter]

I leave mine dry. I might try lubing them though

 

[uncrichie]

I use a wad to take some of the heat away from the exposed patch, a dry wad by the way. Uncrichie.

 

[roundball]

Someone educate me please.

What are the advantages of using a wad and a patch in a rile simultaneously?

The Oxyoke company made a pretty significant splash in the ML world when it added it's prelubed wool over powder wad (wonderewads) to it's product line of prelubed patches. Their advertised benefits of a prelubed OP wad are:

A firewall to protect the patch to avoid any chance of patch failure which can affect accuracy;

A better seal of the gases behind the patched ball yields more shot-to-shot velocity consistency, therefore improved accuracy and smaller groups as a result;

A beter seal of the gases behind the patched ball results in increased velocity for the same powder charge;

The prelubed OP wad puts more lube into the bore and reduces fouling.
(wonderwads also protect the base of lead conicals)

=================================================
I've used them in all rifles & calibers with all my high power hunting loads based on those above advertisements...I haven't measured the velocity part, but all the rest seem right on the money.

In fact, I like them enough that I use the next caliber size wad in a given caliber...ie: .54cal wad in a .50cal[url] rifle...in[/url] the belief that if a bore size wad gives those benefits, then a larger, tighter fitting wad should be even better.

When I pick up the fired next caliber sized wads at the range, there are alternating marks around the edge that look like tiny gear teeth where the excess material was forced out into the grooves by the pressure which should help seal the gas even better...no science to my thinking, just attempting to draw some logical conclusions...but if I'm gonna buy and use some, then I buy and use the next larger size.

 

[jtmattison]

Roundball,
Your oversized wad theory seems like it would hold true not just to conicals but more so to PRB. I can assume the wad forms itself to the contour of the PRB when fired. The oversized wad should provide a better seal in this case because it will fill the grooves easier.

HD

 

[roundball]

Roundball,
Your oversized wad theory seems like it would hold true not just to conicals but more so to PRB. I can assume the wad forms itself to the contour of the PRB when fired. The oversized wad should provide a better seal in this case because it will fill the grooves easier.

HD

Interesting thought about the wad conforming to the shape of the ball...I have had similar thoughts regarding PRBs out of my smoothbores, but am still undecided about it with rifles as I wonder if the rifling and twist rotation drag would keep it fairly flat behind the ball, don't know.

But I learned that wonderwads caused an occasional flyers in .54 and .62 caliber smoothbores and concluded that the wads were conforming to the ball shape, possibly inconsistently, and every now and then caused one edge to blow-out and tilt at muzzle exit...would put 4 balls into a ragged hole and have one 3-4" off to the side...almost 1 out of every 5 shot group...stopped using wads and they went into the center...introduced wads again and the flyers returned...but with rifles, there are never any flyers so I was assuming the rifling and twist rotation was controlling the wad compared to a smoothbore...dunno.

An interesting experiment I'll try after hunting season will be to use Circle Fly 1/2" lubed cushion wads in the smoothbores instead of the thinner flexible 1/8" wonderwads...if I get no flyers with the 1/2" thick stiff cushion wads that'll tell a story.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I drop a dry vegetable wad over my powder when deer hunting. That way I can leave the charge in overnight without the lube leaching into the powder. For round balls I don't see a difference in accuracy. With c..c..conicals it made a big difference. Dry wads improved my shooting.

Back when I shot . . . those things. ;-)