WASP NEST WADDING?

[CVA Enthusiast]

YES!!! I like to ask well on behalf of the new guys/gals starting out as well as my own, I checked a few sources, well IT makes perfect sense, something in the saliva of paper wasp a flame retardant I have seen few here posting on using. For us new guys there are questions, Do you use the whole nest? Are the nests dried? Summarily like patch work set ball cut off a plug? Poking at em with a stick, well lets just say it is not the best way of getting them vacated, (DO NOT ASK!!!). How does one go about getting started? Other than flame retardant are there other benefits? I figure others can benefit from the open post

 

[NorthFork]

As far as I know the old timers who mentored me used a pinch torn off a wasps nest as is. No spit or lube. I have a few rifles that DEMAND a wadding material of some sort to get good accuracy. It does not seem to matter what the barrier is. Be it wasps nest, an extra patch shoved down, tow, or an edge lubed wool wad. I 'cheat' these days and use an edge lubed wool wad. Better than messing with stinging insects and tramping around the deer woods looking for nests.

 

[CVA Enthusiast]

As far as I know the old timers who mentored me used a pinch torn off a wasps nest as is. No spit or lube. I have a few rifles that DEMAND a wadding material of some sort to get good accuracy. It does not seem to matter what the barrier is. Be it wasps nest, an extra patch shoved down, tow, or an edge lubed wool wad. I 'cheat' these days and use an edge lubed wool wad. Better than messing with stinging insects and tramping around the deer woods looking for nests.

So true, the trampling around not messing with thems that stings, Here I thought it to be a modern due to recent droughts and dry lands You mention old timers makes me wonder if this was the wad before the commercial wad? thanks

 

[NorthFork]

So true, the trampling around not messing with thems that stings, Here I thought it to be a modern due to recent droughts and dry lands You mention old timers makes me wonder if this was the wad before the commercial wad? thanks

My mentors at the ripe old age of 10-16 (my age) were pushing 70+++. This would of been in 1984 (my age of 10). to 1990 (my age of 16) and the last of mentors, save my father, died. This would of put the oldest mentor's birth at roughly 1914. They claimed they got this from their father. YOU take that as you will.

 

[user 49399]

So true, the trampling around not messing with thems that stings, Here I thought it to be a modern due to recent droughts and dry lands You mention old timers makes me wonder if this was the wad before the commercial wad? thanks

I gather old vacant nests from barn lofts, eaves, etc. In my CVA Kentucky pistol, I load powder, bare ball, and a wad to keep all in. For this purpose, other materials work just as good like brown paper, wool wads, patches, leaves, jute tow, etc.

 

[necchi]

Other than flame retardant are there other benefits?

Nope.
Tried the stuff many times, through many years, with many guns, searching for improvements in rifle accuracy and/or shot column,, and found absolutely nothing gained.
It must be a lost art, or something that was used when nothing else was available. Or it's that our learned modern techniques simply make it impractical.
A wad of green grass plucked from the ground at your feet will do the same thing.
It's miracle works are myth. Kinda like a silk patch will gain ya 40yrds,,
As a matter of fact I have a medium priority box packed with the stuff, I'll send to anyone that wants it, just for the cost of shipping.

 

[smo]

I use it as a buffer between an olive oil patch and the powder during hunting season..

Theory is , it provides some additional protection keeping the powder away from the oily patch..

I also think it provides a little better seal and protects the patch somewhat from burn thru with heavier charges..

 

[Flintlock]

The fun part is the collecting of wasp nests. Probably as close as we can get to today to a attack by angry Comanches. lol. Actually nests give me something to hunt on winter hikes after grouse season closes. I use them primarily for smoothbore wadding.

 

[Gus Alexander]

YES!!! I like to ask well on behalf of the new guys/gals starting out as well as my own, I checked a few sources, well IT makes perfect sense, something in the saliva of paper wasp a flame retardant I have seen few here posting on using. For us new guys there are questions, Do you use the whole nest? Are the nests dried? Summarily like patch work set ball cut off a plug? Poking at em with a stick, well lets just say it is not the best way of getting them vacated, (DO NOT ASK!!!). How does one go about getting started? Other than flame retardant are there other benefits? I figure others can benefit from the open post

I've shot them.. tear the nest apart & throw away the larvae parts. Even the comb part will make wadding. I even carry some in my bad for a overshot wad..."paper" in the furtrade era was an expensive import..

 

[smo]

They can be a pita collecting them at times…

 

[bronko220002]

You can get a paper wasp nest in the late fall or winter. I believe the nests were used as an over powder wad.
I found this:
Habits: During the winter, most paper wasps die, except new queens. Queens survive the winter by nesting in protected places such as under the bark of trees, or in cracks and crevices around structures. In the spring, several queens commonly get together to start a new nest.

 

[Flint Striker]

I wouldn’t battle a nest of angry wasps when a discarded newspaper also works. Just wait until they leave their nests in the fall.

 

[user 49399]

I wouldn’t battle a nest of angry wasps when a discarded newspaper also works. Just wait until they leave their nests in the fall.

Absolutely!

 

[toot]

I also use / shoot & load the inner comb with the Larve / Pupa, that is left & didn't hatch when they all leave the nest in winter. they help too lubricate your barrel and help keep BP, fouling to a Minium. jmho.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

My favorite way to harvest them is with a can of starting fluid and a lighter. Unusually satisfying. I have yet to be counterattacked, as the initial barrage is very effective.

 

[earlwb]

I would collect then during the winter after a good freeze to kill off the larve etc. but I use the wasp insecticide spray in the summer, spring and fall though on the hives. Then collect them later. Wear dark clothing or clothing that blends into the surroundings some. Sometimes you encounter a smart wasp thst figured out your the one spraying the insecticide to kill her sisters.

But like some others have stated I didn’t see any advantage to using the nests for wadding. Except if you had run out of other things then it is something handy to use.

 

[bronko220002]

Cotton balls are safer than trying to harvest a wasp nest too early!!!!

 

[user 49399]

I would collect then during the winter after a good freeze to kill off the larve etc. but I use the wasp insecticide spray in the summer, spring and fall though on the hives. Then collect them later. Wear dark clothing or clothing that blends into the surroundings some. Sometimes you encounter a smart wasp thst figured out your the one spraying the insecticide to kill her sisters.

But like some others have stated I didn’t see any advantage to using the nests for wadding. Except if you had run out of other things then it is something handy to use.

I used wasp nest for a long time because I thought that it was historically correct. Mayhap it were, mayhap it weren’t. I won’t argue either way. Anyhow, I’ve discovered that I prefer other, more easily obtainable materials.

 

[earlwb]

I used wasp nest for a long time because I thought that it was historically correct. Mayhap it were, mayhap it weren’t. I won’t argue either way. Anyhow, I’ve discovered that I prefer other, more easily obtainable materials.

Yeah I also think that they used it out in the wilderness more than where it was easier to get cloth etc. hummm, what did the native Americans use?

 

[Flintlock]

Cotton balls are safer than trying to harvest a wasp nest too early!!!!

Cotton balls are very flammable. a can of wasp spray and "SHAZAM" you have wadding.