Wads and spacers for a short 10 load

[Keith Doty]

I am just venturing into the "Short 10" arena. Got my press and dies issues solved with the help the machine tools at my shop. All good. My question/issue is getting a full enough hull to properly crimp with 1 1/4 oz. of shot. From what I read here everyone has some combination of filler they drop in the shot cup and a number are using an over shot card under the crimp. I'm using BPs PT1044 wad as that's what I can get right now. I had to add 2 1/4"felt spacers in the cup to get shot level up to good crimp height (card over). This half filled the wad with the shot well over the top of it in the hull.
My question for the veterans: Why not use a waxed card filler wad UNDER the wad column? They sealed powder charges pre-plastic wad days just fine. That would leave much more of the shot in the protective column, outta cut deformation some and some lead to barrel contact? Are there any taller base wads available? Answers? Opinions? Experiences?

3 1/2" Cheditte cut to 2 7/8
Cheditte 209 primer
30.2 gr. Longshot (what I had that would work, may not be ideal)
BPI PT1044 wad
2 1/4" felt spacers in cup
1 1/4 oz. #7
1 10 ga. overshot card
6pt. crimp or roll

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Keith Doty

I am just venturing into the "Short 10" arena. Got my press and dies issues solved with the help the machine tools at my shop. All good. My question/issue is getting a full enough hull to properly crimp with 1 1/4 oz. of shot. From what I read here everyone has some combination of filler they drop in the shot cup and a number are using an over shot card under the crimp. I'm using BPs PT1044 wad as that's what I can get right now. I had to add 2 1/4"felt spacers in the cup to get shot level up to good crimp height (card over). This half filled the wad with the shot well over the top of it in the hull.
My question for the veterans: Why not use a waxed card filler wad UNDER the wad column? They sealed powder charges pre-plastic wad days just fine. That would leave much more of the shot in the protective column, outta cut deformation some and some lead to barrel contact? Are there any taller base wads available? Answers? Opinions? Experiences?

3 1/2" Cheditte cut to 2 7/8
Cheditte 209 primer
30.2 gr. Longshot (what I had that would work, may not be ideal)
BPI PT1044 wad
2 1/4" felt spacers in cup
1 1/4 oz. #7
1 10 ga. overshot card
6pt. crimp or roll

Have you patterned your gun with this load? You most likely will find it patterns just fine as is, all my short 10's do. Your gun was built in an era before plastic shot cups and protective wraps were invented and should be choked accordingly.

[Keith Doty]

Haven't had a chance to shoot any of these, going to the club tomorrow to do so. I was just curious if anybody was using a filler UNDER the wad as opposed to in the cup. If so was interested to hear about the results. I'm sending some of each out for testing Monday. Some roll crimped, some 6 point. Gonna shoot some paper tomorrow to look at patterns.

[Dakota Jeff]

Hello Keith, I have used a nitro card beneath the wad ,one to take up space,and two to stop powder migration.I have never used a wax filled wad.Might get wax built up on the bore possibly?I also use remington wads.Talking with Tom Armbrust,who I had do some testing for me claims the BP pt1044 wad will raise the pressure higher.There is also an old style and new style sp10 wad.The old style wad has thinner webbing in the crush section than the new wads.Hard to find the old ones ax they got used up.I have a 1 3/8 ounce and 1 1/2 ounce lead load that Tom and I worked up.They are lower pressure with decent velocity.I shoot them in my 1889 Lefever with Damascus barrels.Also have a couple bismuth loads for it.I know the remington wads are hard to find right now..I'm always searching the gun shows for them.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Keith, I use basically the same recipe except for the powder and shot charge. The fiber wad I use in the bottom of the shot cup is a 1/2" 16g wad. If I load spreaders I will cut it down to 3/8" as the X-Stream spreader insert takes up the equivalent of 1/8 oz of shot so the wad needs to be shorter for a proper crimp. I also use the Remington SP10 wad. Both that and the PT1044 work fine. I pretty much use Unique in my recipes and max shot charge of 1 1/4 oz.

[6pt-Sika]

I normally load three different loads for the Short 10 two of them are 1 1/4 ounce and the others 1 1/8 . In all three I use SP-10 wads . Initially I used 16 gauge 1/8 cards in the shot cup . Someone on here made a comment about using Cheerios as a spacer/filler and someone else said they used beans . I was trundling thru the Mexican foods section of the Food Kitty one day and saw bags of red beans so I bought a bag think they were $1.50 . Took them to the shop and put them in my desk drawer still using card wads for spacers and an overshot wad to keep the folded crimp flat (I’m anal like that , I need flat crimps). One day I ran out of cards so I pulled the bag of beans out and tried them . All I can say is it’s a heck of a lot easier and cheaper . I no longer use spacers in the cup or the overshot card for a flat crimp . Cost is less , crimp looks fine and foremost it speeds up the process on the damn single stage loader .

[Milton C Starr]

Sounds like for the short 10 spacers or shot column filler is only needed with plastic wads because with fiber wads and a roll crimp you can just cut the hull down to whatever length you need plus the overhang needed for a proper crimp. I read only about a 1/4" is needed for a roll crimp? I just ordered the 10 gauge manual from BPI hope there are some loads in it that interest me. Id like to recreate these RST 1 1/4oz loads that are 1250fps they shoot alot cleaner than the 1100fps ones.

[Jack Kuzepski]

I got a bag of Polish peanuts (packing material), break them in half and drop the piece on the shot, then crimp the shell. Even if the piece of peanut is a little big, it compresses nicely and crimps nicely as well.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Originally Posted by CraigThompson

I normally load three different loads for the Short 10 two of them are 1 1/4 ounce and the others 1 1/8 . In all three I use SP-10 wads . Initially I used 16 gauge 1/8 cards in the shot cup . Someone on here made a comment about using Cheerios as a spacer/filler and someone else said they used beans . I was trundling thru the Mexican foods section of the Food Kitty one day and saw bags of red beans so I bought a bag think they were $1.50 . Took them to the shop and put them in my desk drawer still using card wads for spacers and an overshot wad to keep the folded crimp flat (I’m anal like that , I need flat crimps). One day I ran out of cards so I pulled the bag of beans out and tried them . All I can say is it’s a heck of a lot easier and cheaper . I no longer use spacers in the cup or the overshot card for a flat crimp . Cost is less , crimp looks fine and foremost it speeds up the process on the damn single stage loader .

Craig, if you use the right legumes in your shells you can both shoot clays and plant a warm season food plot.

[Milton C Starr]

So I took apart one of these RST 2 5/8" loads using a mic it looks like you need 1" of wadding or such to bring 1 1/4oz of shot up to where you need it for the roll crimp.Looks like the easiest method would be just use two 1/2" fiber wads . Back in the day didn't they fill the cases with as much wadding as was needed ? Some of these 8 gauge loads only have a single 1/4" fiber wad with 2oz of shot.