Leather wads for C&B

[Saint]

Just wondering if anyone else has ever tried this and if so what were the results. I shoot my revolvers quite a bit and Wonder Wads get really expensive. I tried punching some out of leather and soaking them in hot lube for about an hour. They worked without a problem but as leather is a lot tougher than felt I worry about damaging my pistol. If anyone else has tried this I would love to hear about it. :Fire:

[JeffinNZ]

A fellow shooter used to soak leather wads in Neatsfoot oil for the Whitworth he shot. Raved about how well they went. Neatsfoot oil is great stuff for BP shooting. Available from saddlery outlets.

[oldhickory]

I can't attest to revolvers, but I can't see any harm in it.

If you look at the rifling of old muzzleloaders like a 1817 Common rifle, you'll see that the rifling is rather deep, and almost in a star shape with sharp pionted lands. Thin leather patching, (grease saturated) was the proper patching material for these rifles, not cloth.

[Junior1942]

I suspect the old timers used leather instead of cloth. Leather was more available. In fact, a few years ago I put a micrometer to a brain tanned deer hide, and it measured .015" thick.

[northmn]

Some claimed the old timers used rawhide. It would get soft if greased. Those were the days when a shirt wore out it became a smaller shirt for the kids down to a washcloth. Also cloth liek Linsey Woolsey would not be very good. Some did use true linen. I would gues parts of tanned hides were also used but the rawhide makes sense if you think about. As to wads in a revolver, I used to just cover the ball with Crisco which would not interfere with powder capacity. It worked for me.

Northmn

[KCSO]

Wads could be punched out of just about anything. My Grandfather gave me his wad punches when i got into muzzleloading. he started with a $2.00 smoothbore musket from Sears when he was a kid and then used punchhes for loading brass shotshells. His favorite wadding for shotguns was a cushion wad from old saddle padding and a hard wad from the backs of old school tablets. I've cut wads from just about everything and tried leather wads for both 45-70 and in cap and ball revolvers. I soaked mine in Bear grease and they worked fine if I used a thin waxed wad to keep the grease from running into the powder in hot weather. Since I have a friend who runs a thrift shop I get all the unsold felt hats and this is my main supply of wads now. I tried in the early days using grease patches for my rifle from thin buckskin but gave that up quick. Buckskin might have been handy on the frontier but now days that is one expensive patch to be cutting from $9 a square foot material! In addition it is very hard to get buckskin in uniform thickness and groups with it tend to string up and down.

If you read Osbourne Russell and others you will see that they used what they had, from old clothing to the blanket wads used by the Indians. By 1862 the US Army was suppling the Indians with thousands of square yards of tent cloth a year and yards upon yards of calico. Cloth was a major trade item from 1700 on and you would have to be pretty far back in the woods to not have acess to cloth for patching.

[curator]

As a kid I used punched out disks of harness leather to shoot rats in the barn. We had an old 1851 Navy Colt which was loaded with a .22LR case-full of 4Fg black powder and three 3/8 disks of hard leather. This was deadly on rats and pigeons out to about 40 feet and no worries about livestock or holes in the roof. Usually the three disks compressed into a hard pellet and stay together. Accuracy was surprisingly good at these distances. Be careful using leather wads for reenactments, they might not break the skin but leave big bruises. (don't ask how I know)

[Tom W.]

I've used deep fried (well, almost) Chamois as a patch in my rifle, and it was really good if I wanted to use very sub-caliber balls in it. Accuracy was surprisingly good. Never did try it in a revolver, I just put Crisco over the cylinder mouths.

[R.M.]

Saint, I'd say if you have a cheap supply of leather, try it and see, what can it hurt.
You've probably heard talk of guys buying felt sheets from DuroFelt http://www.durofelt.com/index.html
They sell felt at quite an affordable price. I buy a sheet 12X54 for $14.00 I think, and can get about 2K .45 wads from it. It sure cuts the price down from buying them.

[mooman76]

Aren't wonder wads made of felt? Just buy felt and punch those out!

[Saint]

I gave up on bank accounts a long time ago. I have found nothing but problems with them. Unfortunately that makes it really hard to order things so I tend to stick with what I can get locally. Here in Salt Lake City, Utah I have been unable to find a supplier of good non-polyester felt. I have gone the greased cylinder route and it is just so messy.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

New to shooting Black Powder Revolvers.

What do you need a wad for?

What is its purpose?

round ball? Conical?

Does it matter what it is made from?

[northmn]

The wad is used for prevention of chain fires and for lubrication of the ball. Revolvers have been known to have more than one cylinder ignite at a time. I have never seen it but know a few that have. You do not need a wad if you lubricate the end of the cylinders with Crisco or other lubes over the ball. I have seen a lot of very good shots that do not use wads, and if you have to buy them they are an extra expense. Never shoot any synthetic based cloth material in a black powder firearm as it can coat the bore with plastic. Some claim in a rifle it can smolder and ignite the next charge when poured in. Use cotton, or in a revolver woll felt. Some used to load lighter loads by adding Cream of Wheat over powder to have the ball reach the end of the cylinder so that the jump is not so great. Most of the people contributing seem to like wads for their reasons. They work, and if their use makes you happy use them. I never did and did well with a revolver when I used to shoot competition. I used both the Remington and Colt Replicas. I also shot roundball, some conicals do not fit tight enough in some sylinders to stay in. RB's can be pretty well tailored for any pistol. These revolvers are fun, also "generally" use #10 caps to stay on as "generally" 11's are a loose fit. Good shooting have fun.

Northmn

[Saint]

For me the big reason for using the wads rather than sealing the cylinders with lube is that the lube is really messy. The felt wads are still a little greasy but nothing like using half a can of Crisco per shooting session. Also a note on the caps. My Pietta 1851 Navy .45 will not work with #10 caps it will only work properly with #11's. They don't seat properly and when the hammer strikes them it just stretches the walls of the cap and makes them difficult to remove. Try both and see what works best. I have personally had the pleasure of experiencing a chain fire first hand. I fired one shot and then some of the caps popped off of the nipples. I did not think anything of it and squeezed off the next round and BAM!!! four cylinders fired at the same time. One of the cylinders that fired was the bottom one and because of the curve in the frame for loading it sent one of the balls out the side of the pistol. Since then I started squeezing the caps before placing them on the nipples and it has not happened since. The moral of the story is a lot of people don't believe that chain fires happen from the flame getting past the bullet but as unlikely as it seems I would rather not chance it. I have learned first hand however that chain fires can happen when the flame gets in through an uncapped nipple or a loose cap.

[northmn]

Actually I have heard the theory that the chain fires happens in the way you described. Why would a pistol chain fire if the ball is loaded properly and so tight that it is swaged down the barrel. I can see the advantage of wads for light loads where the ball is seated a ways doen the cylinder. Many old timers use to keep the grease in a cake decorator and squeeze it in to avoid the mess. Shooting BP, whether it be revolvers, Civil War muskets with Minnies aor greased patches tends to be a bit messy. I always squeezed the caps on the nipples and liked Remington caps due to their light skirts for that purpose. some contributers seem to think that is sacrilegous, but I used to shoot a rapid fire pistol event where we would time how fast one could knock four blocks of wood off a plank. It worked very well for me. I liked the stiffer loads also.

DP

[mooman76]

I never have understood the chainfire thing either. If the ball is pressed in tight, how could the flame get past the lead ball and why would greasing the end of the cyl. prevent it. I do believe they happen though.
How about using an old maybe recycled wool blanket for wads. Just get a hole punch like for leather and punch out your wads.

[Bent Ramrod]

The only chain fires I've had were when I didn't put grease over the balls. (And mostly, only the adjacent chamber, except for one instance of two chambers.) A wad prevents chain fires as well as the grease, and a boolit with lubricant in the grooves prevents this as well.

I've had a fair number of caps come off or loosen and never had a chain fire from that condition, but if I forget the grease, it's going to happen. Not often, but disconcertingly, when it does happen.

[Saint]

The only chain fires I've had were when I didn't put grease over the balls. (And mostly, only the adjacent chamber, except for one instance of two chambers.) A wad prevents chain fires as well as the grease, and a boolit with lubricant in the grooves prevents this as well.

I've had a fair number of caps come off or loosen and never had a chain fire from that condition, but if I forget the grease, it's going to happen. Not often, but disconcertingly, when it does happen.

Definitely do agree that it is very disconcerting, but at the time I experienced my chain fire i had the cylinders packed flush to the top with Bore Butter. I figure it's best to play it safe and make sure both ends are sealed. I have heard of people losing fingers and I don't want to be one of the flukes.

[northmn]

If you look at the grease on a BP revolver after the first shot, especially Crisco you see it is melted around the ball. That shows the possibility does exist for ignition of the other cylinders from the front. Never had it happen, but the ranges used to have a single shot rule for bullseye competion for revolvers and would not permit one loading more than one cylinder at a time for that reason. When we had the rapid fire revolver matches, as range officer I would inspect the revolvers both front and back of the cylinders before we let them shoot. Never had a chain on those matches either. But as stated, I know they have happened and have just heard about more of them.

Northmn