traditional/frontier wadding

[Joel/Calgary]

The question has come up of the effectiveness of frontier-correct wadding of tow, cloth, leaves, etc, compared to the use of cards and such. I haven't tried them, and I wonder about how well they seal the powder gasses in the absence of a solid card or leather disk underneath. That seems to be the critical issue - what does it take to seal the bore enough to get a decent, reliable pattern? I use paper or card shot protectors in my 16ga because of rough bores, and multiple thin cards with 1/4" lubed fiber cushion over the powder. I can easily see powder burns on recovered shot protectors (or pieces thereof) when the cards don't seal the gasses - and neither 1/4" nor 1/2" lubed-fiber wads alone will seal.

The postings that I've found generally say that it works "well enough" and/or caution against setting the woods on fire. Can anyone who's tried traditions wadding give a more specific qualitative or quantitative comparison with using late-19th-century-style wadding?

In grateful anticipation, I remain &c,
Joel Vecchione,
in snowy Calgary, with only one grouse in his hunting bag so far.

 

[fatboy]

I dont have a smoothbore yet myself but some of the guys I know use the outside of a hornets nest. From what I've been told it dosent burn like other things, and gives good shot pattern's not sure how much you would use. Of course you need to get the nest in the cold months when they are dorment unless you can find one not in used any longer unless you are a tough SOB !! :m2c: eace:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have used tow extensively. I believe it compresses so much on being fired, pushing an ounce of lead ahead of itself, that it does a very effective job of sealing the bore - if you have used enough. In my .66 cal smoothbore I would use at least enough to lose 1/2" in ramrod seating depth after it was well packed down. That requires what looks like a lot of loose tow. I pack it in well and good and then add shot, and either half again as much tow if I'm feeling truly authentic or an over-shot card the other times.

If your bore is rough you migh need to add a bit more.

I don't know about the wadding of the late 19th century. I'm guessing cork & felt?? I'm a 18th century kind o' guy. I also use the Circle-Fly fiber wads and they are just the berries in my 12 ga. A tow wad in my 42" smoothie patterned every bit as cylinder as did the Circle-Fly wads. If I backed off the powder I could get tighter groups using the Circle-Fly wads, much more so than the tow. Somewhere comparable to modified with 70 gr FFg and 1-1/4 oz shot. I think the difference between tow and pressed-fiber was just as likely caused by the three stages of fiber wads pretty much cleaning all the fouling out of the barrel by the time the next shot was fired. Tow wads won't do that.

 

[Jack Walker]

The biggesst misconception is using cloth. This was an expensive purchase, especially hard to come by for frontiersman. Tow was probably the leader, from here I would say natural materials such as wasp nesting, green leaves and grasses and also deerhide patching. I like to try to stay with natural material as much as I can. :m2c: