I bought a 1000 bag of veggie wads in the .454 sized variety. They are dry and these are thin but tough. I don't use lube on them due to possibly filling filling powder the wads are sitting on. So far as I can tell they really are just dry filler to help keep chainfire possibility at zero. But after shooting for awhile I've noticed my nipple end is the weak part of the whole setup. Pour powder, set dry wad gently with rod to get consistency, then .454 ball with lead sliver THEN touch chamber wide with grease (use any really, more for ez cleanup, imo). That's the chamber end. Affix cap in place and done. Now I left it this way for over a month and it fired fine with only 1 cap not igniting powder. I use 777 3f and ignition temp is MUCH higher then BP. 770ish degrees compared to 450 for BP (so says hodgon website). I attribute almost all my misfire to caps not hot enough (so far). Powder stays dry from both ends. Definitely from chamber end. No modifications on 1860 colt at all.
I used to put a dry wad covering bullet lube for long term storage and so the lube wouldn't get blown off during firing but I think the chamber pressure increased dangerously. Hodgons states no wads or fillers using 777. But I still dry wad over 777 and get great velocity. Here's a pic of 40 grain 777 w/.454 ball and dry wad. Had a 6' muzzle flash.
