12ga wads ?

[Paul Harm]

A guy at the club gave me some wads, they were in a Herters box. White, two petals, some were slit and some were attached at the very top. They seem to be 1 1/8oz because 1oz would fill them to the top leaving an 1/8 sticking up [ as I've found with most wads - don't ask me why the petals don't inclose all the shot - the Remington SP 10 ga wads are for 1 5/8 to 2 1/4oz ] . Anyways, the cushion height is very short for some reason. For Claybusters 1oz wads - CB-1100 - the cushion is .965 , for my new wads one is .545 and the other is .445 of an inch. They work great in a 2 3/8 to 2 1/2" shell when useing 700X. Haven't patterned one yet, but I have some old Herter wads for 1 7/8oz shot, two petal unslit, I use to use in a 12ga muzzleloader with buckshot and at 30 paces the wad would stick in a 3/4" chipboard with only one or two pellets next to the wad. Don't ask me when the pattern opened up- it was 30 years ago when I did it. Still have some of them. These new wads must have been for duck hunting. On one box there's factory printing that says 1 1/8oz slit and the other box hand written 7/8oz unslit. Why such light loads with a short cushion height with two petal wads and some are unslit - the unslit are serious long range wads. Must of been for powder that took up a lot of room . I don't know for sure, but with 700x I'd have to use a lot of shot for a 2 3/4" shell. Strange. Paul