What a difference a thin wad can make...

[Daryl Crawford]

I've done the Skychief with shot and it improved my pattern. In the case of patched round ball, I don't think I ever put an oil soaked wad over top of the ball.

 

[Brokennock]

I guess the next range day is 70gr 2f, overshot card, .25 inch wet fiber wad (olive oil soaked), then patched round ball. I'll try it verses itself (3 rounds) and with 80 grains.
That is a lot in the column but if it reduces fouling and gives me good groups I'll be very happy.

Just in case I caused some confusion.
I am not using a patched ball when I am using my load with lubed felt wads. They are two different loads.
The purpose of the overshot card on top of the powder when I shoot roundball with no patch, just a lubed felt wad, is to keep the lubed felt off the powder.
In this case, using a patched ball, it will serve that purpose too, but was mainly added in order to try to reduce fouling.
That said, a patched ball over a lubed felt wad, with a card of some type keeping all that lube off the powder and scraping the bore on the way down, should shoot pretty clean I would think. You'll be moving a lot of lube in and out of the barrel every shot.

 

[Leadball loader]

I have followed this topic closely and want to add my primitive method to the mix.
I try to use materials close to what would have been available in the F & I era so I use wasp nest or news print treated w/ boraxo soak to give it some fire retardant quality.
I use my 20 ga FDC a 65gr charge of ffg a wad covered with a dab of crisco,ball and a dry wad to hold it all in the gun.
I can shoot twenty plus times and not experience a tight bore on when reloading. This done from the bag using a round tin to hold my grease.
If I was a better off hand shot I would have a nice tight group. I have placed consecutive shots touching at 25 yds.
The load and the gun work great but the marksman is inconsistent.
Just wanted to say a over powder wad is how I do it.

Just in case I caused some confusion.
I am not using a patched ball when I am using my load with lubed felt wads. They are two different loads.
The purpose of the overshot card on top of the powder when I shoot roundball with no patch, just a lubed felt wad, is to keep the lubed felt off the powder.
In this case, using a patched ball, it will serve that purpose too, but was mainly added in order to try to reduce fouling.
That said, a patched ball over a lubed felt wad, with a card of some type keeping all that lube off the powder and scraping the bore on the way down, should shoot pretty clean I would think. You'll be moving a lot of lube in and out of the barrel every shot.

 

[ppg1949]

A sort of ring, but not brass. I simply bent a clip out of wire. I attach the clip to my pouch strap and can simply pull one off as needed.
View attachment 23272
Spence

I have a reprint of a book from the 1700's on wing shooting and choosing a proper barrel. The author used brown paper in 2 inch squares held together like yours. This allowed him to tear them off as needed. Your method is definitely HC. Thanks for sharing.

 

[George]

The author used brown paper in 2 inch squares held together like yours.

The use of paper for shot loads was apparently quite common in the 18th century.

Thomas Page, The Art of Shooting Flying, 1767
"But I cannot yet find any thing better, or so ready as thin brown paper rubbed soft, and cut into pieces about one inch broad and two inches long; so that when it is once doubled, it is an inch square. I punch a small hole at the corner of each piece, put a sufficient quantity upon a key-ring, hang them into my button hole, and tear off one as I want it. This being doubled, put it into the muzzle, and close the corners up about the rammer (the end of which ought to continue of the same bigness for at least half an inch, or rather somewhat smaller just at the end) and thrust the paper thus put into the barrel gently down upon the powder. Your rammer will come back without danger of drawing the paper back, and will leave it closed against the sides of the barrel like a half cartridge. Put in another in the same manner after the shot. When your gun is quite clean, it is necessary to put in a second wad after the shot, to prevent its getting loose."

The Sportsman's Companion or an Essay on Shooting, Illustriously Shewing in What Manner to Fire at Birds of Game, in Various Directions and Situations - By a Gentleman Who Has Made Shooting His Favorite Amusement- 1783:
"...my bird net fixed pretty high, to avoid catching in the brush and cover, with a certain number of square bits of soft gray paper run through the middle with a thread and sewed to a convenient part on the right breast of my coat;…. empty the powder in my gun, take one of my square papers for wadding, and ramming it down, I 3rdly, fill my measure with shot, put it in the barrel, take another bit of paper, ram it down, and, returning my measure and rammer, I am ready."

An Essay on Shooting, Wm. Cleator, 1789:
"Next to hat, therefore, experience teaches, that nothing is better for wadding than soft brown paper; it combines suppleness with consistence, and moulds itself to the barrel;"

Spence

 

[ppg1949]

The use of paper for shot loads was apparently quite common in the 18th century.

Thomas Page, The Art of Shooting Flying, 1767
"But I cannot yet find any thing better, or so ready as thin brown paper rubbed soft, and cut into pieces about one inch broad and two inches long; so that when it is once doubled, it is an inch square. I punch a small hole at the corner of each piece, put a sufficient quantity upon a key-ring, hang them into my button hole, and tear off one as I want it. This being doubled, put it into the muzzle, and close the corners up about the rammer (the end of which ought to continue of the same bigness for at least half an inch, or rather somewhat smaller just at the end) and thrust the paper thus put into the barrel gently down upon the powder. Your rammer will come back without danger of drawing the paper back, and will leave it closed against the sides of the barrel like a half cartridge. Put in another in the same manner after the shot. When your gun is quite clean, it is necessary to put in a second wad after the shot, to prevent its getting loose."

The Sportsman's Companion or an Essay on Shooting, Illustriously Shewing in What Manner to Fire at Birds of Game, in Various Directions and Situations - By a Gentleman Who Has Made Shooting His Favorite Amusement- 1783:
"...my bird net fixed pretty high, to avoid catching in the brush and cover, with a certain number of square bits of soft gray paper run through the middle with a thread and sewed to a convenient part on the right breast of my coat;…. empty the powder in my gun, take one of my square papers for wadding, and ramming it down, I 3rdly, fill my measure with shot, put it in the barrel, take another bit of paper, ram it down, and, returning my measure and rammer, I am ready."

An Essay on Shooting, Wm. Cleator, 1789:
"Next to hat, therefore, experience teaches, that nothing is better for wadding than soft brown paper; it combines suppleness with consistence, and moulds itself to the barrel;"

Spence

Yup, it was the book by Thomas Page that I referred to about using paper on a clip. Thanks for the other information. It's amazing that two and half centuries later their information is still relevant. Thanks again.

 

[Brokennock]

I have followed this topic closely and want to add my primitive method to the mix.
I try to use materials close to what would have been available in the F & I era so I use wasp nest or news print treated w/ boraxo soak to give it some fire retardant quality.
I use my 20 ga FDC a 65gr charge of ffg a wad covered with a dab of crisco,ball and a dry wad to hold it all in the gun.
I can shoot twenty plus times and not experience a tight bore on when reloading. This done from the bag using a round tin to hold my grease.
If I was a better off hand shot I would have a nice tight group. I have placed consecutive shots touching at 25 yds.
The load and the gun work great but the marksman is inconsistent.
Just wanted to say a over powder wad is how I do it.

Generally I try to keep things as hc/pc as possible, and to use products that are natural and readily available. Olive oil, beeswax, lemon oil, coconut oil, felt, repurposed cloth (linen or cotton), etc.
This load experiment was really to come up with a special purpose load, thus the modern all natural gun cleaner/lubricant as a patch lube. Oddly, even though that product cleans well when used as a cleaner, and lubricates well as a lock oil, and patch lube, I thought that with it being a "cleaner" that it would keep fouling to a minimum and it did not. Thus, the introduction of the thin card to the load combo.

 

[tenngun]

Personally I don't recommend that. For a start it is to much fiddle.
Let the wad, cookie or card be your "swab".

I have with a rifle left a jag on the ramrod, then pushed the load home with a damp patch on the rod. But found it easier to swab between shots