wads for light cast loads

[twoshooter]

I tried this on another forum and have not got many answers- for some of you 45-70 and other large case shooters who load light cast loads. My old recipes for loads for many cast loads call for wadding over the powder, a dacron wad, 1/2 grain . aprox 1/2 inch sq by 1/4 thick. Do any of you use over powder wadding and what are you using?

[Smokin Joe]

Lyman no longer recommends this practice.......too many people doing it improperly and ringing barrels/chambers.
 They recommend pulling the filler material apart so it "fluffs" and fills the entire left over air space, rather than placing it right down on the powder.
 With Unique, 4759 and 5744 and 2400 available, fillers are unnecessary.

[Steve P]

I have some fiber wads that I will use with cast bullets.  These are for non-gaschecked bullets with nearly a full case of powder.  Fiber wad goes on top of powder charge just under the base of the bullet.  Per the writings on 45-70 and other early straight wall cartridges, this gives best reliable ignition and accuracy.  Again, nearly full case of powder.

For my lighter loads in straight wall pistol cartridges, I make up a wad cutter and cut my own wads out of those styrofoam trays that you get in the meat department at the store.  .38s/.357s I use a fired (unsized) 38 case, deprime, enlarge primer flash hole, and insert a flat head nail with sharp point coming up through the case and out the flash hole.  Head of the nail is inside the case.  Use the case as a cutter and cut some wads out of the primer tray.  Use the nail to push the wads out of the case.  You can grind off the point of the nail and/or add a pencil eraser to make is easier to push out the wads.

When I have a bunch of these wads made up, I resize, prime, and charge about 50 cases, the put one (1) of these wads in the case.  I use a pencil to push the wad down onto the powder charge.  I then seat the bullet and crimp. 

The foam wad will keep the powder in place near the primer for a more consistent ignition.  When the primer ignites the powder, the foam wad actually shrinks from the heat and blows out the end of the barrel.  No residue in the barrel and better ignition and standard deviations per the chrono. 

I do not use anything for wadding or filler that can mix with the powder or that can allow the powder to move around in the case.  Fillers of this sort (loose dacron for example) can leave void areas between bunches of powder within the case and have been linked to detonations which can damage guns and people.

Use any filler or wading with caution.  Make sure loads with fillers or wading are specially marked on your ammo boxes so you are more careful in packing and storing these rounds to avoid any scenarios mentioned in the paragraph above.

Good luck in your project.

Steve

[dpe.ahoy]

PufLon is a good product for a filler, a little spendy but good.  DP