Using Tow for a shotgun cushion

[lead chucker]

i was watching a video of duelers den and he was using tow for a cushion for the shot. I have tried it and it works. I was making some patch lube the other night so i decided to dip the tow balls in it and let them drain. I figured it would help with the fouling. any one tried this? I have not shot them yet, been raining a lot here.

[lead chucker]

I had Hoyte make a knight 54 cal into a 58 smoothbore for hunting bunnies and spruce hen. Its a lot of fun.

[freakonaleash]

Commercial wads are cheap.

[dondiego]

What is tow?

[longbow]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tow_(fibre)

[stubshaft]

Great idea. I have a bunch of tow that I use promarily for cleaning my BP rifles.

[waksupi]

Go shoot your load at a paper to see the pattern. Then put in the powder, the equivalent amount of cornmeal, no card!, the shot, then a single card wad over it. A friend turned me on to this, you will be amazed.

[jimkim]

I have used felt wads I made from dryer lint. After having surgery back in 07, I was suffering from cabin fever and decided to experiment after reading an article describing the process. Now I just compress it in a tube, and wax it afterward. It works pretty well in my 410.


I started out with paper. You gotta be very very very bored, very curious, or very cheap to try things like this. I was all three.

https://youtu.be/r0NvUcBw624

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[tmanbuckhunter]

I've tried it... it worked better with a roundball than it did with shot for me. Skychief load always performs the best. Also keep in mind the tow, even if lubed, will be about 15 yards in front of your muzzle smoldering. It's a serious fire hazard.

[Gunor]

Where do you get tow cheap and in quantity?

[freakonaleash]

I have never used tow, but I have seen others use it. Looked like extremely unpredictable performance.

[gunther]

Old shotgun timey wad material: Big gray hornet's nests.

[freakonaleash]

Actually, more like old saddle pads and felt hats that has seen better days.

[alfadan]

I remember a book where the characters used spanish moss. I bet the old timers used whatever was around.

[15meter]

Also known as oakum in the boaters world. Used for filler between planks. Kind of a pain to install. Special caulking irons and a wood mallet used to pound the fibers into the joint between planks.

Been there, done that, didn't get the tee-shirt. I'll let the young guys do that.

[LAGS]

I believe that we used Oakum to do Lead Plumbing joints on cast iron pipes.
I also use to find it , when I worked in demolition and tore down old buildings.
I looked for it along with the old lead to use to cast Boolits.

[DaveM]

I've tried hemp tow in my 20 gauge Jackie Brown canoe gun, but not enough to decide whether it's worth pursuing. Note that tow used as a wad will smolder if unlubed and can ignite wildfires. (I tried both lubed and unlubed.)

I bought my hemp tow from Turkey Foot Trading Co.

If you get an old school worm that screws onto the end of your ramrod, you can wrap a ball of tow around it and use it to clean the bore. It works like a primitive bore brush and can even be rinsed and reused. It also works great as a bird's nest for starting a fire with flint and steel.






Track sells the primitive worm shown above. They also have copies of the US M-1817 worm that screws onto a metal ramrod end.

[lead chucker]

The Tow i have is a wood fiber. I used it for making bird bodies for taxidermy, i have a big box of it.
I was watching the video of duelers den he was using it over the powder kind of like a cushion wad i have a lot of it so i figured i could try it. I dont like the fact that it could be a fire hazard. It rains all the time where i live and every thing is always wet so im not too worried about starting a fire.

[Edward]

I've used it along with hornet nests ( useless ) go with the cornmeal as suggested!/Ed