Pennies and corn

[Keith Parrish]

I got tired of having to drop a pinch of shot in the top of my shells because the bar is dropping lighter than should so I'm going to go with puffed wheat the generic brand. over the top.

I also have been told when the shot is above the wad's fingers this can wear down a barrel. and with the 1 oz wads i'm using when I add a pinch of shot to get a better crimp It does bring the shot just above the top of the wad fingers. So all in all I'm going to have to find a good filler for the top of my shells and one that brings a good looking crimp.
Anyone experience this delima????

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Keith Parrish

I also have been told when the shot is above the wad's fingers this can wear down a barrel.

You couldn't possibly shoot enough shells (lead shot) in your lifetime to have any measurable effect on the barrel wall thickness. Cleaning the barrels with a brass brush would be more abrasive than shooting it. The internal parts of the receiver will be trashed from use long before there is any neglible wear to the bore.

Too much of any kind of filler on top of a shot column can have the potentially unwanted effect of opening or blowing a pattern.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Keith Parrish

I got tired of having to drop a pinch of shot in the top of my shells because the bar is dropping lighter than should so I'm going to go with puffed wheat the generic brand. over the top.

I also have been told when the shot is above the wad's fingers this can wear down a barrel.Anyone experience this delima????

Lead shot has been fired without polymer shot cups for a couple of hundred years with no damage to barrel steel regardless of whether the barrels are composite or fluid steel. My experience has been that if lead fouling is not periodically removed from the bores, especially in the chokes, poor pattern results can be experienced. I bought a 28 ga. VHE which had very tight chokes in each barrel but something wasn't quite right so I dry-scrubbed the bores, paying special attention to the chokes, and could hardly believe the amount of lead dust and filings that came out. I don't remember the exact measurements but the before and after measurements were significant.