Dacron

[mag_01]

I sometimes on rare occasions use Dacron to hold powder like Bullseye against the primer. Question---Can you get into trouble using a lot of Dacron ? -----Will Dacron act somewhat like a gas check ?--- Reason I'm asking this--When I used a light charge to slug the barrel I recovered the boolit but I also recovered the Dacron which had melted and formed a plastic ring--So dose anyone know it's effectiveness as a gas check ? ----- Mag

[grumpy one]

Multiple versions of this have been debated enthusiastically here, so you should try a search. You said your dacron ended up compacted into a lump. That has happened to me, but only when I did something Not Allowed: I pushed the dacron down over the pistol powder, so there was an air space between the front of the dacron and the base of the bullet. DO NOT DO THIS, EVEN AS AN EXPERIMENT.
My foolishness with compacted dacron accompanied by an air space seems to have done no physical harm to my K98, but it deformed the chamber of my Marlin 336. Considering the violence of the collisions between the dacron wads, bullet bases, case shoulders, and case webs, much worse outcomes could have occurred.

[Dale53]

I have come to the conclusion that any load that requires filler needs a new load.

I no longer use any type or kind of filler. You know what? I miss them not at all.

Dale53

[Larry Gibson]

I have come to the conclusion that any load that requires filler needs a new load.

I no longer use any type or kind of filler. You know what? I miss them not at all.

Dale53

America, what a country! We can can come to different conclusions without repercussions. I still use dacron fillers myself (for 35+ years or so) and am rather fond of them.

Larry Gibson

[lcg119]

I too, use dacron filler, for light loads with medium-fast powders.....both with jacketed and cast bullets. I have never had any negative issues with this. Oddly enough, I have made the effort to find some trace of the dacron wads, ahead of the firing line (at the range)...and I've never found any. Nor have I ever experienced any build-up or deposits in the barrel of my rifle - and I have looked for this very carefully. Finally, when preparing these loads, I push the dacron wad very lightly against the powder charge, at the bottom of the case. I do NOT pack it down....just a light push. This does create some air space between the dacron and the bullet base. As I said, I've not experienced any problems...yet. However, I will defer to those (probably MUCH more knowledegable and experienced than I)....and will stop doing this straight away. I am grateful for the information.

[jhalcott]

before my grand dad died ,he had a theory about dacron and kapok fillers. He thought they would allow movement in the case if rough handling was involved. He said a box of such ammo left in the car(or pick up) COULD be rattled around enough to cause problems. Even tossing the cases around wasn't healthy. The same went for certain "cereal" fillers. I have read that a tuft of dacron large enough to extend from case mouth to the powder,THEN compressed by seating the bullet is alright. I can NOT see how to do this in a bottle necked case>

[Larry Gibson]

before my grand dad died ,he had a theory about dacron and kapok fillers. He thought they would allow movement in the case if rough handling was involved. He said a box of such ammo left in the car(or pick up) COULD be rattled around enough to cause problems. Even tossing the cases around wasn't healthy. The same went for certain "cereal" fillers. I have read that a tuft of dacron large enough to extend from case mouth to the powder,THEN compressed by seating the bullet is alright. I can NOT see how to do this in a bottle necked case>

I've written several responses to like threads regarding this migration of powder and/or the wad when a wad was used. It happens not only from rough handling as your dad surmised but from the recoil of previous rounds fired when such rounds are loaded in repeaters. Depending on the size of the bottle necked case (.222 up through '06) a 1/2 to 1 gr tuft of dacron does the trick. I poke the dacron into the case with a section of .22 cleaning rod and leave some in the neck. Seating the bullet does the rest.

Caveat; I only use the filler with medium burning powders such as 4895. I do not use the filler or a wad with faster powders. Loading desity of most charges is around the 60% +/- loading density depending on the bullet weight and desired velocity. It's not to hard to find the right amount of dacron.

Larry Gibson

[BruceB]

The possible migration of powder into or through a dacron filler was the subject of an experiment I did a couple years back.

I happened to have some clear plastic tubes on hand, which were just a tad larger in diameter than an RCBS 50-515 cast bullet. I dropped a powder charge into one of the tubes, placed a dacron tuft over the powder, and installed a .50 bullet in the mouth.

My normal routine for using dacron is to eyeball the volume of empty space in the particular application, and make a tuft large enough to fill that volume WITHOUT excessive compression, meaning that there's a good bit of airspace "contained" within the tuft itself.

When installing this type of tuft, I push the dacron into the case with a blunt tool and STOP pushing when that tool contacts powder. There's a bit of dacron still outside the case mouth, and this is tucked just into the mouth so that seating the bullet finishes the installation of the dacron. This means that there is dacron within the case volume right from the bullet base to the top of the charge....NO EMPTY SPACE WHATEVER. My plastic "test tube" was built in exactly the same way, except that I also drilled through the tube and bullet to allow the pinning-in-place of the bullet as it was a loose fit in the tube. A few wraps of tape around the pin and end of the tube made it all secure.

I carried that tube in my pocket all day, every day, for over a week. NO MIGRATION of any sort occurred. Every granule of powder stayed exactly where it was positioned at the start of the trial. I have no further concerns about powder movement in my dacron-filled loaded rounds.

If any worries DID persist, I'd simply carry the rounds to the firing place with bullets UP in the boxes instead of bullet-down (as I usually do, to aid in color-coding the primers of experimental loads).