Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Harm
The proper length fiber wad or cushion area in a plastic wad is your best bet. Thanks for the story though.
|
I think you missed the point. There have been discussions without end on the board about fillers for light loads. A large contingent use and recommend beans etc. I have never agreed with this approach due to the shot intermingling with the beans and the significant weight of the filler. Stacks of fiber wads also have a significant weight. They are biodegradeable but with a life probably measured in decades. The peanuts I have, and I found are available in every office supply store, seem to offer a better alternative than any of the others. They are almost weightless, they show a lot of structural strength (more than a regular peanut), they are an ideal diameter to completely fill the bottom of a 16 or 20 gauge shotcup, they can be cut to length to achieve the proper crimp length and they will degrade instantly on the first contact with rain. (I have tested this). They in fact can be eaten by animals since they are simply vegetable starch.
I guess the point is that I don't believe the statement about plastic wads and stacks of fiber wads being the best solution. The problem from a practical standpoint is that plastic wads are not commercially available in lengths suitable for a lot of combinations of components for light loads. For the reason stated above I have never been a proponent of large stacks of fiber wads due to the weight increase. Spend the time to look up data for loads that differ only buy shot weight. A small increase in shot load weight leads to a significant increase in pressure. It is a function of mass and the pressure/accelleration curve. All things equal, the load with a given shot weight and lowest total ejecta weight will give a lower pressure.
The ideal solution, to me, is to load multiple cartridge lengths based on the minimum load length for the recipe. This doesn't bother me, because I don't mind segregating cartridges to a few lengths. The reason I made this comment is that it seems to me to possibly be the first "ideal' method if you if you stick to standard cartridge lengths.
Hybrid Mode