Dacron works!!

[waco]

Marlin 30-30 MG barrel Lyman 311041 boolit 13BHN CR lube Hor. GC and 18gr 2400 mix brass

Same load with, and without dacron filler.

99704

Thank you Larry Gibson.....

[bangerjim]

I am a Dacron fan also! I use it in a lot of cal's and have seen the groupings tighten up. Makes the powder burn straight because it is not just lying on the side of the brass when it burns!

banger

[35 shooter]

Worked up a light load of about 1400 + fps with dacron and 4759 powder at the range today for the 35 whelen. Didn't shoot quite as good as your load but did shoot 1.1" for 5 shots @ 100 yd.......look out squirrels and rabbits!;-)

[blikseme300]

I had the same experience when adding dacron to rifle reloads. I was sceptical until I tried it. Thanks go out to Larry as well.

[oscarflytyer]

Just loaded my first ever loads with Dacron - 45-70 405 cast with Unique and 2400. Hoping for results as good as yours!

[crabo]

I use it in my 45/70 guide gun with 40 grains of 3031 and the 460420. Makes a difference of 5 shots into 7/8 or 1 5/16ths at 50 yards.

[izzyjoe]

Works like a champ!

[oldfart1956]

Larry knows stuff...eh! I'm working with the same gun and almost the same load (mine is 14gr. 2400 and the Lyman 311041 alum. checked) and I poked 2 groups small enough to cover with a quarter at 100yds. the other weekend. This with an ancient Tasco scope, frozen sandbags, freezing temps and brass of questionable origin. :) I got desperate enough for brass I pulled the jacketed bullets out of 2 boxes of factory Rem. 170gr. cartridges, dumped the powder, poked out the primers and resized! My groups went from 3 or 4 inches down to quarter size after adding the Dacron. Tried Unique as well (my favorite powder) but got less than stellar groups. (no Dacron with Unique) I'll probably never be able to do that well again...that day God smiled. Thank you Larry! Audie...the Oldfart.

[smithywess]

Careful using dacron, or any filler, with any powder faster than 2400.

[BruceB]

Careful using dacron, or any filler, with any powder faster than 2400.

The thought is appreciated, but the fact is ...."Careful doing ANYTHING in handloading."

We here have used dacron (and other fillers) in thousands upon hundreds of thousands of loads with everything from blackpowder and Bullseye up to the slowest-burners of all, in some extreme examples.

One of the major reasons for using dacron (and other case-fillers) is specifically BECAUSE the fast powders take up so little space in larger cases.

Yes, be careful..... but don't rule out the technique, which can be extremely useful. Drawing an arbitrary line at 2400 makes no sense to me.

[monge]

Worked for me to, I like seeing the fibers coming out of the barrel , turns some heads at the range !

[Larry Gibson]

Appreciate the thanks guys but I am only a proponent of the usefulness of Dacron as a filler under certain conditions. I've no idea who first came up with the idea of using Dacron but I believe it was first used as a wad. I learned of it from the wrappers on Javelina lube. For the return of a wrapper and 25 cents they would send a lube box stuffed with Dacron (polyester) which was enough to do a lot of 30-30s.

Back around '69 or '70 I found the Dacron wad worked just fine when single loading the cartridges but when the magazine was filled with a heavier bullet at higher velocity hang fires were occasionally occurring with the last couple rounds in the magazines, especially if those rounds stayed in the magazine when it was "topped off" for additional shooting. I found this with my .308W and '06 with the 311041 using 4759 and 4895. Pulling the bullets on several rounds that had been in the magazine with 3-4+ previous rounds fired I found the recoil had jarred the Dacron wad loose and the powder had migrated around the wad.

I cogitated on this and figured a filler would/could not jar loose under repeated recoil and perhaps the powder could then not migrate. I loaded 50 rounds of '06, as it would have the larger filler, using a filler of Dacron and put 3 rounds in the magazine and then single loaded the other 47 rounds firing them The load was the max accuracy load of H4895 under a 311284. After firing the 47 shots I pulled the bullets on the 3 rounds from the magazine and the powder had not migrated and the Dacron filler had not compressed or appeared to not have moved.

It was through trial and error of testing Dacron fillers with a lot of fast through slow burning powders under varying cast bullet weights over the years and all the oft repeated horror stories of "wads will ring chambers" that I came up with my own "rules" (post #4 in the filler sticky) of when to use the Dacron filler. As with any such rules there is a bit of gray area of when to use and when not to use the Dacron filler in a given cartridge with certain powders when the cast bullets are of light to medium weight. Thus I've been using the Dacron filler ever since in many applications. However, in many applications I don't use the Dacron filler. Again, I appreciate the thanks but I didn't come up with the use of Dacron with cast bullet loads....wish I knew who did though because I'd like to thank whoever it was.

As BruceB so eloquently said; ...."Careful doing ANYTHING in handloading."

Larry Gibson

[singleshot]

Guys, I started using Dacron in my 223 b/c I wanted subsonic (think quiet) loads. Red Dot alone produced adequate results, but then I was directed by folks here to a few sources of information that caused me to conclude Dacron would help my cause with the 223 and subsonics. All the testing I've done confirms to me (you should do your own testing) that with Dacron, Red Dot, and subsonic Bator boolits, I get greater accuracy and consistency with Dacron than without in this application.

[pls1911]

I use dacron in 45-70 loads over 2400 powder, and used to use it in 30/30.
Using 2400 or slower powder in 30-30 hunting loads now, I don't see the need in 30-30, inasmuch as the case density is higher.
Asided from helping to seal the bullet heel from gas cutting, it also is believed to condition the bore to help preclude leading,
I don't know that it's true, but after a few thousand rounds of 30-30 while shooting silhoette, I can say I never had any lead in the bore.