Old School Card Wad Shells

[Keith Doty]

Shot a dozen all card wad 10 ga. this weekend along with some that had modern plastic wads (shot these first). Wow! When I cleaned the barrels a considerable amount of what can only be described as a fine lead flaky powder poured out on my tower under the muzzles. Alarmed, I checked and it appeared that all of it came out, barrels looked perfectly clean, could not detect any stuck lead. I don't recall having a pile of lead powder when cleaning from years back. Anyone else getting this when cleaning?

[Paul Harm]

It might be the way your powder was manufactured and any additives. And no, I haven't run into that problem when shooting fiber wads.

[Keith Doty]

Interesting, this was a pretty mellow load of Longshot, plastic gas check over with 2 half inch fiber wads under the shot.

[Milt Fitterman]

I have a lot of 1/2" fiber wads like Milton shows above. They are dry. If I wanted to lube them what would you suggest soaking them in?

[Milton C Starr]

Backing the dry fiber wad with a extra overshot card underneath for me takes care of most of the confetti in my case. I have also rolled the dry wads in mica before as well. I think whats happening is hot gases are blowing around the edges of the fiber causing it to disintegrate. I would think something like cork or real felt would work alot better. We use alot of felt down here for making deer blinds its cheap and tough. Id probably buy a wad punch and play with different materials if you want. I dont really notice the confetti much because im usually wearing sunglasses if im outside in any capacity.

[Paul Harm]

I reread my post and found a major mistake. If going from fiber to plastic go DOWN 10% with your powder charge, not up. Back then plastic wads were new and the reloading data was with fiber wads. So I pick a mild load and go up one grain if using fiber wads.
Milton is right, a hard card on top of the cushion wad was even recommended in the reprint of a 1908 Sears catalog. They claimed it helped patterns because the shot wouldn't stick to the soft cushion wad.

[charlie cleveland]

lots of things I have forgot till you fellas brought all of these up.....I still load black powder with fiber wads most of them I ve punched out myself....makes me want to go load and shoot a few rounds....charlie

[Craig Larter]

I'm working up a fiber wad load for 8ga in case the Remington SP8 becomes unavailable.
One 1/8" card wad over powder, two 1/2" fiber wads, one 1/8" card wad under the shot. 1 1/2oz 7 1/2 shot. Nice crimp.

[charlie cleveland]

real nice load for the 8 ga....charlie

[Mike of the Mountain]

That looks good Craig. Another benefit of the fiber and card loads are lower pressures, if that's a concern.