which wad?

[Old Jim]

Poly wads vs fiber OP wads, which one and why, !

Jim

[Don McDowell]

I use fiber wads, never saw the need for the poly..

[Lumpy Grits]

Tried 'poly'.
Went back to .060 fiber.
'Poly' when really compressed(.370-.390),would squeeze out and bulge the case wall where fiber does not.
Gary

[Kurt]

I like a OJ carton wad about .023" over the powder lube wad and a plastic wad cut from gallon ice cream buckets about .043". I saw the vertical shrink a lot. I think they expand sealing the bore better then the .060" fiber wads I was using. The .44-100 St shoots best with one on the powder and two under the bullet.

[Lumpy Grits]

Kurt-Your OJ wad, is it plastic or 'paper' type?
G.

[Martini2]

Like to add that using cork material wads can be detrimental in some cases. I just finished a shootin session this AM where a load for my 38-55 had been altered. The design was to lower powder amount used a bit and in hast a 1/8" thick wad was added to fill space. At bench first a load using just fiber OP wad was used to tune sights in. Then we switched to new load (with cork added). The impacts were being plotted so the first 2 recorded were close in to previous group (200 yds).
Then as shooting load with cork wad added proceeded the plotted impacts began to spread. Examining bore it appears the added cork wads were so effective at sealing they stripped the bore of lube. After no more than 4 rounds it was like EACH round was a cold/dry bore shot. Fortunately the target was a center stapled in middle of 3 ft X 3 ft. backer or the wild impacts would not have been recorded at all. I guess there will be nothing for it but to burn up these loads at Off Hand practice at very short range. I can use a good 'Ah explanation' for my poor shootin on hide paws

[Gunlaker]

I'm an LDPE man myself. The one thing about shooting bore diameter paper patched bullets without a lube cookie is that you will quickly learn which wads seal the best. I've switched to LDPE for most everything including greasers, although I do use Kenny's wad stack in some bore diameter PP loads. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a veg wad, an LDPE, and a relatively thick felt wad on top.

Chris.

[Kurt]

Gary I use the paper cartons the OJ and Soy milk comes in. I like a very thin wad between the powder and the lube wad to get the most heat on the lube and a soft wad so it does not remove all the lube left behind. The front wad stack under the bullet I want a tight fit that is stiff to remove the fouling left behind by the previous shot. My PP bullets don't have a scrapper front groove to do this job so the wad has to do this to keep the bore with less fouling. My lube wads are very soft, very soft, that needs a well fitting over the powder wad and one that keeps the oil in the soft lube migrating down into the powder.

I have done a lot of snow bank shooting for several consecutive years mostly because the warm up days crystalizes the dry snow changing the recovered bullets slightly. What I have found using cork and felt wads with the 1/16 or my alloy I use with a slight amount of antimony will not upset enough to fill the grooves. Also I have found a lot of bullets with gas cuts mostly using felt. I went through this at Lodi one year with the .44-100 Ren straight getting unexplained flyers some off the target as much as 5' and dirt diggers. I never had this problem using a soft alloy in the .50 or using a GG bullet in all of my rifles that except a GG bullet, but the PP is a different story. I like the cork wads because they give me a very low ES with the GG but the PP suffer so felt and cork is out for me in the PP loads.
I just got back from the range using the .40-65 testing the final load before going to Merrell Wis to shoot some longer ranges and at Alma next weekend for the regionals where I would like to break in little Missy.
Going to a soft or hard wad things change more so for the lighter calibers..........Kurt

[Lumpy Grits]

Kurt-THANK YOU for the detailed information/explanation.
May I ask, if you did any fiber wad testing with .45 cal rifles?
What were your findings?
G.

[Kurt]

Yes I have and I found no problem with the way the bullets looked.