Home made revolver wads?

[IROCZ]

Does any one make their own? I found the Duro-Felt website but what density and thickness do I need for .44 and .36 revolvers? And does anyone know where I can find a good "wad punch"? I guess I could make my own from pipe. I want to shoot my cap and balls more and this seems more economical to make my own. Thanks.

[John Allen]

Irocz, check out buffaloarms.com They have a drill mounted one. I put it in my drill press at slow speed and just start cutting them out

[IROCZ]

Thanks John, up burning the midnight oil too huh? I'll check them out. What do you use as wad material?

[John Allen]

I have not done the blackpowder wads for the revolvers yet. For carding for bp rifle I use the backers of tablets, playing cards and wool. I have to order some myself for something I want to try so hopefully someone posts what we need.

[Nobade]

Just talk to the lady at Durofelt and tell her you want material for revolver wads. She will send you just what you need. 1/8" thick, white, hard, and cheap. As for wad cutters I use and make plenty of them but the best so far is the press mounted one from Fred Cornell that BACO sells. You can punch out hundreds of wads in short order. They are $50 but well worth it since they'll quickly pay for themselves compared to buying wonder wads. Dip the wads into melted Gatofeo #1 lube, let dry on wax paper, and you are good to go. Way better performance than anything you can buy.

-Nobade

[HARRYMPOPE]

For my Ruger OA I use wool hats I find at thrift stores and a 7 Mag case cut off as a punch.I cut them dry and lube them in 50/50 olive oil beeswax 100 or so at a time in a tuna can on the stove.the hats I get vary in thicknesses and stiffness but have all worked.

[bob208]

for .36 get a 3/8 arh punch. for .44 I use a 7/16 punch. truned down on the end to fit a drill press. you can get them at a real hardware store or on line.

[John Allen]

Nobade, I agree totally about the Fred cornel punches you can turn out a ton in just a couple of minutes. I have them for a my 458 and the 451 but still need to grab a 357.

[IROCZ]

Well I googled BACO and Fred Cornell and came up with more posts but no contact info. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks.

[John Allen]

BACO is Buffalo Arms company. Here is the link http://www.buffaloarms.com/

[Odinbreaker]

45 colt brass for 44 and a 38 or 357 case for 36 cal makes a good punch

[Dan Cash]

Why the heck would you want to occupy such limited powder space with a wad? A revolver will not benefit from the protection of the ball or bullet and a grease wad is one painful way to lubricate black powder bullets.

[webfoot10]

Go, to your local golfcourse maintenance shop and ask for their old hollow core aerator tines, Get the ones that are 3/8
dia. Heat them cherry red to anneal them, They then can be cut with a hacksaw. As these are tapered cut till you have the
desired dia. sharpen and reharden. As you use them the wads go up the tapered tine and pop out the top. Make up a batch
of all the sizes you need. Cheap way to make punches. Just use a soft hammer to tap them with. You can go up to .69 cal
wad size. As the top of the tine is 3/4 in outside dia.
webfoot10

[Maven]

Also check out Osborne arch punches on eBay and/or Amazon.

[KCSO]

Upper Missouri Trading sells wad punches for revolver and rifle wads. If you are handy you can make your own punch pretty easy.

[John Boy]

Does any one make their own? I found the Duro-Felt website but what density and thickness do I need for .44 and .36 revolvers? Hard ... 1/8"
http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html

Punches? Make your own or order some ...
http://www.buffaloarms.com/press_mounted_wad_punches_pr-4112.aspx
https://www.google.com/search?q=wad+punches&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb
And with hand punches, a Polyethylene Cutting Board and a 1# dead blow hammer and a nail to push out the wads

Next your going to ask ... Should I lube them? Yes, with melted Crisco and pat them dry in between paper toweling

Powder -Wad - Ball and That's All That's Needed to Know except how are you going to load the chambers?... Happy New Year Gents!

[Hellgate]

Do what Bob208 does. Get the felt. Buy a set of hole punches from Harbor Freight ($7-$10) or your local hardware store. Chuck the punch (7/16" for 44 and 3/8" for 36) into a drill press and punch out a bunch of wads on slow speed over a wood block and then lube them with 50/50 beeswax and lard in a fry pan on low. They will cost about 2c each if that. Otherwise buy a bag or two of 1/2" fiber wads from Circlefly wads, lube them as above and split them into 2 or 3 wads each.

[zardoz45]

I got my felt from Duro-Felt in Little Rock, I think it was $18 for a 18" x 36" piece. It's 1/8" and they specify on their website that it's for black powder wads. A 6 piece punch set on ebay cost me $5.95 plus a few bucks for shipping. I have a piece of railroad track I use for an anvil (with a piece of thick leather over it) and a framing hammer to punch out the wads. It seems to be easier if I lube the sheet of felt before I punch the wads. For lube I used beeswax, canning paraffin, and some olive oil. It seems to work fine.

Jim

[John Boy]

Chuck the punch (7/16" for 44 and 3/8" for 36) into a drill press and punch out a bunch of wads on slow speed over a wood block Been there - done this. Found unless one has a drill punch that Fred Cornell makes - you can knock out double layers of felt - faster & with cleaner edges using a GOOD hand punch against a Polyethylene cutting board laying on a concrete floor and a dead blow hammer.

PS: I'm the one that asked Ashya years ago at Duro-Felt to cut smaller sheets of felt for us shooters. Plus, I'm not a casual user of felt for wads. Average 1000-1200 a year for CAS and about 1500 a year for BPCR reloads ... all, the old fashion manual way for 14 different calibers [smilie=1:

[Taylor]

Let's not forget yard sale hats,make sure to read the label for 100% wool.The last one I bought for a buck--a red one at that.

[JMtoolman]

Another way to make your own wad punches. Get a shaft or two off of an old golf clubs. There made out of a hardened steel tube, just cut off at the diameter your need and as long as you want. Sharpen the small end and use a leather hammer to cut the wads. You will have to use a abrasive cut off disk to cut the tubing. Harbor tools have them. The toolman.

[troy_mclure]

Why the heck would you want to occupy such limited powder space with a wad? A revolver will not benefit from the protection of the ball or bullet and a grease wad is one painful way to lubricate black powder bullets.
my gun is way more accurate and tons easier to clean with a lubed wad between the ball and powder.

[Omnivore]

Why the heck would you want to occupy such limited powder space with a wad? A revolver will not benefit from the protection of the ball or bullet and a grease wad is one painful way to lubricate black powder bullets.

It's not about protecting the ball. It's about keeping the fouling soft, so you want the lube behind the ball where it will do its job. The felt helps contain the lube, so it doesn't contaminate the power too much. A lube cookie would be a good choice also. In a BPCR it's both for protection (on subsequent shots) and for fouling mitigation-- they go hand-in-hand in any case. Also; most people shooting round ball from a percussion revolver aren't loading maxed-out chambers anyway, so the same load with or without a wad is plenty short enough to function. In that case, the wad helps keep the ball slightly closer to the cylinder face, which is a benefit. Wads don't take up all that much room as you might think anyway because they compress substantially as the ball is rammed home. Not sure what you mean by "painful" though-- I've loaded thousands of wads and it never hurt a bit.

A well-lubed BP gun, after a day of shooting, will not have the hard, whitish, nitrate coating in the bore, but a soft black goo that can be swabbed out easily with a couple of passes.

Also; for some reason unknown to me (maybe fouling mitigation as above, maybe gas seal, maybe something else I haven't thought of), a lubed felt wad behind a flat based conical in a ML rifle can improve accuracy substantially.

[IROCZ]

I have always liked the lubed wad over the "smear gooey stuff on the front of the cylinder" technique. The first time I fired my 58 I used a beeswax cookie sold as "Revolver seals" that I got by mistake from T.O.W. They worked fine. The pistol ran perfectly for 30 shots. I would worry about powder contamination if it was much warmer. Any thoughts on the melting temp of beeswax or powder contamination if used for a long term load?

[Nobade]

If you are going to keep it loaded for a long time such as hunting or carry for protection, I would tend to use dry felt wads. You can fire a whole cylinder full of those and the gun won't bind up. But for normal range work and firing multiple times, the lubed wads are the way to go.

Oh, the lube should be pretty hard. I tried lubing some with Pearl Lube and that was a failure. The lube squished into the powder when I seated the balls and killed the powder charge. Balls barely made it out the muzzle and lube wads were on fire. I stick to Gatofeo lube - beeswax/gulf wax/mutton tallow for the wad lube and don't have that problem any more.

-Nobade

[Texantothecore]

I use coke can 24 count cases and punch out the wads with one of the Harbor Freight tools. They work well. Cheap too.

[dikman]

I started off with felt wads, but switched to 1/4" solid wax pills (cookies?) made using Gatafeo's recipe. Much cheaper, as felt is expensive here. The pills soften up a bit in the hot weather, but they're not in the chambers long enough to be a problem.

Occasionally I find the wax lining the hole that the ball made in the target [smilie=1:.

[Hanshi]

I make my own wads for all calibers I shoot. I've used leather, card stock and felt, all to good effect. I bought a set of punches from Harbor Freight and felt from Durofelt. This produces very inexpensive wads for most calibers. A .36 rifle, for instance, will use a .375" punched wad as a minimum while a .40 does well with a .470" wad. If a correct punch can't be found for a specific caliber, the next largest is used, i.e. .530" to .550" or thereabout for a .50 rifle. This works for revolvers exactly the same.