If you have or can purchase the appropriate diameter arch punch, you can make your own wads. Duro Felt is an excellent source of wool felt: Duro-Felt Products
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Wonder Wads
- Thread starter PaulF70
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I can afford many wads. 
That's not an issue at all.
My point was just that some part of me "likes" the economy of black powder shooting.
I found some and ordered them.
(Re: "sensitive nipples" - my kids find the whole "nipple" thing endlessly hilarious.)
That's not an issue at all.My point was just that some part of me "likes" the economy of black powder shooting.
I found some and ordered them.
(Re: "sensitive nipples" - my kids find the whole "nipple" thing endlessly hilarious.)
smoothshooter
50 Cal.
Buy felt by the yard or square foot from Duro-Felt in Little Rock, AR, a set of punches, and make your own.
No way am I going to pay the prices manufacturers charge for those things when they are so easy to make.
And besides, it’s one less thing you are dependent on someone else for.
Canute Rex
40 Cal.
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If you have a pair of felt liner type boots, eventually the bottoms of the liners get pounded down and you have to get new ones. The old ones make fantastic wads, cut with an arch punch. I melt 2/3 beeswax, 1/3 olive oil and drop them in and fish them out with a fork. If they are too thick you can razor them in half.
bisleyjohn
Pilgrim
You could make your own wads, I do. 1/4 the cost of commercial ones. Lots of youtube videos too.
enjoy your gun
You will need to have a Vernier or digital caliper to do some measurements.
I have found three ways to have a chain fire.
1. An odd shaped ball or undersized ball that doesn't seal the cylinder mouth. Here is the first place for your caliper. Measure your cylinder mouth, all cylinders. You want a ball larger than that diameter to shave that ring of lead during loading. Most of my 36 caliber balls are 0.380" as the 0.375" balls were too small. The over powder wad is a better seal with the shaving of lead to prevent chain fires than a gob of lubricant over the ball. The gob of lubricant is just messy in the long run and did not prevent chain fires when I used some very oddly shaped balls.
2. A pinched # 11 cap on a #10 nipple can allow for a path for the flames at the adjacent firing cylinder to find a path for a chain fire. Remove a nipple and measure the very tip of the nipple cone. The #10 nipple cone will measure about 0.159" and the #11 cone will measure 0.166". Not a lot of difference, but enough to provide a path for the flames to go from one cylinder to the other. Measure the tip of the nipple cone to determine if #10 or #11 caps are best. I like the #10 or #11 Remington caps as they have longer sides than CCI caps and grip the cones better.
You can find out much more than most would care to know about percussion caps at this site:
http://guntoters.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Percussion-Caps-and-Nipples2.pdf
3. Its more of an annoyance, but I have one revolver with the cylinder mouth being 0.375" and the recoil on firing would cause a ball or two to fall out of the cylinder. Made the revolver in that case a single shot.
Newtire
32 Cal.
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If you want to use felt wadding, get a sheet from the lady in Little Rock Duro-felt and a set of little hollow punches that can be chucked up in your electric drill from harbor freight. Soak the felt in 60-40% olive oil-beeswax and you can crank out millions for all sizes of revolvers. If I only knew what gives those Wonder Wads that liniment smell, I’d mix that in too. Those Wonder Wads really keep the fouling down. You can put on those little sections of tubing they sell (nipple protectors or something like that) to prevent chainfires from the back end. Probably could make those yourself too?
For all the comments regarding how messy it is to use lube over the balls, and for those a-skeert of soiling his paws, here is a quote from the Lyman 45th edition loading manual, "...muzzle loading is a he-man's sport and a little dirt only adds to the fun. Anyone who is afraid to get his hands dirty better stick to the lace doilies." LOLOLOL If the shoe fits.... 
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appalichian hunter
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New tire, mix a bit of vicks vapo rub or bag balm for milk cows with your lube it is basically petroleum jelly just a bit should do.
Petroleum products = no bueno with shooting black powder.
appalichian hunter
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This is understood, but the amount needed would not make that much of a difference. Or get some wintergreen extract like used for making candy a drop or two is all it would take. Or even a drop of camphor.
appalichian hunter
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BP, as a side note I had a small tin of military grease black as tar best dam patch lube I ever had, I babied it till it was all gone now any time I get around a gun show or a shop that sells surplus the search is on, never had a bit of a problem with it.
smoothshooter
50 Cal.
Like a few others have discussed, I make my own wads using 1/8" thick 100% wool felt from Duro-Felt with punches from a set I bought at Harbor Freight. The easiest way to punch them out is to chuck the punch in my mill/drill and put a piece of scrap 2x4 in the vise. Rest the felt on the 2x4, turn the mill/drill on, and I can punch out a bunch of wads in a short period of time.
You can use any BP-compatible lube that you can melt and soak the wads in. But the easiest lube I've found to add to the wads is 100% pure neatsfoot oil. It works very well to keep BP fouling soft and all you need to do is soak the wads in the oil and then press out the excess. These wads are perfect for the range. I do not know if the neatsfoot oil would negatively affect the powder if you leave the gun loaded for an extended period.
I'm of the belief that chain fires come from the rear of the cylinder, ASSuming you are using properly fitting, oversized balls. I use .380s in my .36s, .454s in my Pietta .44s, and .457s in my Ruger Old Army.
Also note that the original instructions that came with Colt revolvers did not instruct the shooter to use wads or grease. I only use the lubed wads to keep fouling soft in extended shooting sessions.
You can use any BP-compatible lube that you can melt and soak the wads in. But the easiest lube I've found to add to the wads is 100% pure neatsfoot oil. It works very well to keep BP fouling soft and all you need to do is soak the wads in the oil and then press out the excess. These wads are perfect for the range. I do not know if the neatsfoot oil would negatively affect the powder if you leave the gun loaded for an extended period.
I'm of the belief that chain fires come from the rear of the cylinder, ASSuming you are using properly fitting, oversized balls. I use .380s in my .36s, .454s in my Pietta .44s, and .457s in my Ruger Old Army.
Also note that the original instructions that came with Colt revolvers did not instruct the shooter to use wads or grease. I only use the lubed wads to keep fouling soft in extended shooting sessions.
smoothshooter
50 Cal.
For all the comments regarding how messy it is to use lube over the balls, and for those a-skeert of soiling his paws, here is a quote from the Lyman 45th edition loading manual, "...muzzle loading is a he-man's sport and a little dirt only adds to the fun. Anyone who is afraid to get his hands dirty better stick to the lace doilies." LOLOLOL If the shoe fits....
Most people that shoot percussion revolvers and carry them in holsters are better off not using the grease because when you return the gun to the holster, the dirty grease transfers to the inside of the holster. Another thing to clean.
If you put a clean gun in a dirty holster and leave it there fo several days or weeks the gun can start to rust at the leather/steel contact points. Plus, grease residue inside the holster tends to attract dirt, grit, dried grass pieces, etc.
smoothshooter
50 Cal.
You are correct about the oversized balls preventing chain-fires.
Wads don’t prevent chain-fires.
Almost all chain-fires are caused by loose or missing caps on adjacent loaded chambers.
Another tip: lubricated wads do not have to be chamber diameter, or even round. ( BLASPHEMY!!! ).
Square wads that are slightly undersized work just as well, and don’t have to be made with a round punch if you make your own like I have done for 50 years. I have punches and usually make the round ones, but if I am making up a batch in a hurry I just cut the bulk felt material into long narrow strips with scissors, then cut the strips into little squares before dip-lubing them.
Whichever shape of wads you use, I do believe that uniformity in size gives a very small bit of better accuracy.
To anyone that doubts me about wad shape irrelevance, try them yourself and let me know your results.
Thunder14
32 Cal.
Do yourself a favor buy a punch and order some 1/4 inch thick felt from DURO-FELT and make your own i punch out 100 in about 20 minute.I pay $16.00 for a 10x36 peace of felt and get 2000 wads for my 36 guns and about 1800 for my 44 guns
do yourself a favor make your own buy a sheet of felt from DURO-FELT and a punch set from Harbor freight or some where like that and your set. Out of a $16.00 piece of felt I get 1500 44cal and 2000 36cal wads.
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Harbor Freight has a punch set that is cheap. I use one of them and opened it up a bit and it works fine.
This is totally contradictory!
Are you serious? In in the first sentence you attribute chain fires to ball size, and in the last you invert it and say almost all chain fires occur from the cap end. Which is it?I'm starting to think some of you guys have nothing to offer but nonsensical bluster.
