What do y'all think of Caywood's prep of optimum patte

[Mike Brooks]

Yep,I have had some guns that only liked 1/2 of a lubed fiber wad, generally shorter barreled guns.I have found lubed felt to work almost universally. Circle fly sells 3/8" which carrys a good amount of lube.
I can shoot all day with out cleaning when using lubed wads. With just OP cards I can get maybe 1/2 dozen shots before loading becomes difficult and patterns go all to hell.
Circle fly also sells a lubed fiber wad that works great too. I've been using them in BP cartridge shot guns with great success, here again, shoot all day with no cleaning, and I'm talking 100's of rounds.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

... Alcan made plastic shot cup inserts, as well as plastic collars back in the 1950s. It simply never caught on, as the plastic wad/cups that succeeded those ideas were so much quicker to load. My late friend, Jim Gabbard, Jr. had some of the Alcan plastic insert cups, and gave me samples, so I have seen and held them personally.

I tried to copy the plastic cup design on cardboard, tracing it on the board, and then cutting it out using a Exacto knife, but the cardboard was too thick, and my finished version didn't want to fold where it should have.

Paul, try using old business cards and similar-weight card stock - it works fine for me. I don't usually bother cutting out the circle in the middle, just the two cuts that almost separate each petal. I bend the petals up and wrap them around my wad starter, then wrap the corners of the square in the middle up over the bottom and start them into the barrel. If the card stock is a bit stiff, I might pre-form them ahead of time and maybe crunch any little peaks/corners round, then open them out (more-or-less) flat again for carrying - this makes them easier to form and start when loading.

Regards,
Joel

 

[paulvallandigham]

Joel: Thank you for the suggestion. The cardboard I used came from the side of a cereal box- and was a bit too thick. Much thicker than card stock. Your idea of preforming the strips, and bending the petals to preset them is sound.

I didn't pursue the idea with card stock at the time, because the idea of making a package of the shot, using Post-It note paper came up and seemed to offer some advantages. Since I was working with my 12 gauge shotgun at the time, my late friend came up with some old paper 20 gauge wads to use inside the paper sleeves, to help form the cup.

We used those to figure out how to make a paper cup that would withstand the pressure and friction of being shot in front of BP. However, while they stood up, I was not impressed with how the spent cups looked when recovered.

Then, the idea of using Fabric strips to form the cups was introduced here by makesumsmoke, and, as I just bought some ticking to try with my new fowling piece in 20 gauge, that idea seemed worth trying in both guns.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I'm going to give the muffin mix a try, never heard of the technique before and figure it sounds crazy enough to work. Would work for a hunting situation, but would be too time consuming for trap or skeet competition.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

My impression is that the muffin mix was preferred over corn meal for the finer texture. I realize that it is likely a regional thing, but corn flour is often available in ethnic stores or in ethnic-food departments of large grocery stores, if you want to avoid the sugar & such. I've seen it in Mexican, Caribbean, and/or Middle-Eastern/South-Asian contexts.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Supercracker]

What keeps the Corn meal and muffin mix from compressing into a solid slug when fired?

When I squeeze it that's what it seems like it does. Seems like it would do the same thing in the bore.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

We used those to figure out how to make a paper cup that would withstand the pressure and friction of being shot in front of BP. However, while they stood up, I was not impressed with how the spent cups looked when recovered.

With the light-card-stock shot-cups, if load and/or bore conditions start producing scrub through, one can easily do the same as you mentioned for the cloth shot cups - two nested at right angles. I haven't needed to do that for normal light to moderate loads in a lubed but un-swabbed bore, even with the somewhat rough bores of my 16ga double and somewhat heavy 1.1/4oz-3.1/4dr loads (normally, I use 2.1/2 or 2.3/4dr of FFg with the heavy loads).

And for other sources of material, old phone-book covers and similar-feel advertising fliers, with clay giving the shiny finish, work too, as does the laser-printer photo stock that I tried, but not the ink-jet photo stock that I've looked at (the shiny finish was plastic). I used the same burn test one uses to check for all-natural cloth.

Regards,
Joel

 

[paulvallandigham]

The use of corn muffin "flour" is as a BUFFER that fits between the shot pellets in your load. It can't become a " Solid" as you fear as the mass of the flour is separated by the shot pellets themselves. NO? If the filler is placed inside some kind of shot cup, the cup will prevent any moisture from being absorbed by the flour, too. That, and the OS card(s)that fit over the top of the shot load. Without moisture, I don't see the filler going " solid" at all. Its not been my experience, using fillers that any of them become a solid "slug", whether its used instead of an OP wad, or as a "buffer" in the load of shot.

In fact, if you have to shoot into the wind, expect to get some of the flour back in your face! It doesn't burn, either, you see. :shocked2: :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I would not bother with using a buffer in a skeet or trap load, either. With this new ITX shot that BrownBear has used so successfully, I don't think its needed with that non-toxic shot, either. The early steel shot loads made by Winchester had the shot buffered with Grex- a product similar to Puf-lon. That did give SOME protection from the hard steel pellets boring holes through the side walls of the plastic cups used in those shells, so that the shot was not scoring the barrels, particularly through the chokes.

Since most MLer smoothbores are still made with Cylinder Bores, we normally don't have to deal with this kind of problem, particularly shooting soft lead shot.

I am thinking the most agreeable use of buffers in a MLer shotgun would be when trying to increase the density of patterns a " little further" when hunting Turkeys- the feathered kind, of course! :grin: You don't expect to shoot a lot of shots, nor reload often in the field. You load the barrel in the dry comfort of your home or cabin, or trailer, before exposing the gun to the weather.

Depending on the state where you hunt, you may have to leave the nipple uncapped( or the pan unprimed) until legal shooting time each morning, but that should not affect the status of the load of shot and its buffer. The difference in weigh of the two substances- large shot pellets made of lead vs. fine granules of corn flour--- will cause the buffer to quickly fall away from the shot pellets when they leave the barrel, and separate from the cup.

When I have watched other shooters fire loads that have these kinds of buffers in them, you see a light CLOUD within a foot of the barrel form, with the flame of burning powder punching through it, and the black smoke pushing right through it, too.

Best of wishes to you on trying this out. I can't claim credit for the idea, and won't. But, I surely want to thank the member here who first posted the idea of using the corn muffin mix vs. Corn meal. The Corn meal is much coarser, and heavier. The finer muffin mix flour flows easier down between the lead shot pellets than do the corn mean granules.


At the time this idea was suggested, I was talking to another friend who was complaining about the high cost of Puf-lon for use in his large caliber rifle cartridges. I took him a box of Jiffy Brand Corn Muffin Mix- $.44 per box at my local store-- and he was delighted with it. It performed every bit as good as the more expensive buffer. :hmm:

 

[Mike Brooks]

I am thinking the most agreeable use of buffers in a MLer shotgun would be when trying to increase the density of patterns a " little further" when hunting Turkeys- the feathered kind, of course! You don't expect to shoot a lot of shots, nor reload often in the field. You load the barrel in the dry comfort of your home or cabin, or trailer, before exposing the gun to the weather.

I completely agree with you.... :shocked2: :haha:

 

[Supercracker]

a BUFFER

No need to yell.

lol

 

[aeatwood]

When doing pest control around my Dad's barn or shooting clays, I don't bother with lubed wads - just hock a loogee on the shot charge after you load it and the OS card will clean the bore. I've fired dozens of shots in a day with that and the last loads as easy as the first. A spray bottle with water in it works just as well.

If I'm hunting, I use a 1/8" hard felt wad cut from the same stuff I use for my revolver wads, and lubed with the same beeswax/tallow/paraffin mix. It to allows unlimited shooting, and doesn't promote rust.

 

[robertdale]

Well now we got it. if a guy was to use gravy mix added to this load we could get the whole meal :rotf: :v