Well, Ron, you didn't say what you were using it in. Wadding has been used in both fowlers and rifles. I use a lubricated leather or a felt wad as an over powder wad in my rifles. I have found that it improves the seal to keep the hot gasses behind the patched round ball and not letting them cut through the patches. It really tightened up my groups and improved my std. dev. of my MV from 21 down to only 7.
I also use wadding, as does everyone, in my fusil when shooting shot. I use traditional wadding and cards that I buy at Friendship. My fusil prefers only a half of a cushion wad. If I use a whole one, it opens up my pattern.
I do not know what all they used "back in the day" but I do know that some used wasp or hornet nest. They also used tow and I would suppose that they used whatever they could get their hands on that worked for them. Paper would have been at a premium and not something that they would readily use although, if they had some at hand such as a left over bit of printed material, news paper, etc. it would probably find a second life as wadding for their fowler, fusil, or other smoothbore. I don't think they used wadding in their rifles in the same way that I do but there were a lot of people out there and they came from many different areas of the world and brought with them many different ways of doing things. Then given that various materials were so limited, they would be expected to have modified the ways in which they did things to fit their situation in the New World.
Bottom line, they most likely used whatever natural materials were indigenous to the area in which they lived. Wasp nest and tow were probably the most common wadding used.
These are just my thoughts and opinions and involve no research into the subject. They are free and probably over priced at that.
