plastic wads

[kokomokid]

Anyone have a good source for 1/32" HDPE for wads and will it leave residue in the barrel? LB

[Tom Myers]

1) Buffalo Arms (http://www.buffaloarms.com/poly_wads_pr-4116.aspx)

2) No

[freedom475]

I would use the veggie or gasket fiber wads! I buy rolled gasket material from CarQuest and cut my own with the Buffalo Arms wad cutter...there die cutter is a work of art!...there drill punch will work, but not near as nice.

I don't like plastic,the reason being is that "yes" there are many guys that swear they get residue from plastic. There has been a few articles written in the BPCR News about plastic fouling and plastic sticking to bullets.

The big reason that I do not to use the plastic wads is that I have personally found so many of these plastic wads at the ram line (550yards down range) that there is no way they are as accurate since so many of the wads make the ride with the bullet.

That being said, some of the best shooters in the nation use or have used them with great success....so to each his own:smile:

[Gunlaker]

Does Buffalo Arms sell HDPE wads? I buy lots of LDPE wads from them. I've shot thousands of them without any plastic fouling problems. Interestingly I often find the wads landing at my feet, and have sometimes even found them behind me if there is a headwind. I don't believe that I have issues with them sticking, but then there is always a first time :-)

Chris.

[Tom Myers]

Does Buffalo Arms sell HDPE wads? *************
Chris.

Oops!
I read HDPE as LDPE.
I have purchased and shot 1,000 of the Polyethelene wads from Buffalo Arms and, as far as I can tell, there was never any plastic in my bore and I never found any of the wads more than about 20 feet down range. I fact, I have found a few about 50 feet to the right of the muzzle and surmised that they were imitating a frizbee after separating from the base of the bullet.

When first using the LDPE wads, I had heard the reports of possible sticky wads and was using a newsprint disk between the wad and the base of the bullet but, after a while, I stopped because I could not see that it made any difference in the accuracy of any of the loads that were using either plastic or vegetable fiber wads.
The wads all showed up about the same distance from the muzzle, whether or not the newsprint disk was in place.

The only time that I did have problems was one time when I was using a Lyman lubrisizer, was pressed for time and and did not make sure that there was no lube on the base of the bullet. Many flyers and, although I never found any wads down range, when I started making sure the bullet bases were absolutely clean, the flyers stopped so I assumed that the lube on the base of the bullet was causing the wads to cling to the bullet base and then were coming off somewhere between the muzzle and the target then spinning away somewhere.

[kokomokid]

I just got back from a two day match and did NOT shoot real well but my shooting partner won the match so I had a partial victory. Reason I ask about the HDPE is that the LDPE punches out egg shaped .413 x.4145 and gives me egg shaped necks on my 40-65 where I only seat a money bullet .250 deep. Thought maybe a harder plastic would punch out round but wanted to try something that someone else has used. I have never had residue from the LDPE that I get from bac, LB

[Remmy4477]

I have used both plastic and card stock, honestly as far as being accurate, both in my opinion were the same. However when using either I always wipe the bottom of my boolits just to make sure no lube will cause sticking problems. My wad cutter preffers the plastic over the card stock, seems I can punch more plastic in less time than I can the card stock, so I use plastic more often than not. I also have no problems with plastic residue in the barrel. I have also noticed on the wads that I have recovered, none of them were melted, singed maybe but all still looked as though they were freshly cut, just blackened a bit. I use the old coffee can lids!

[montana_charlie]

Reason I ask about the HDPE is that the LDPE punches out egg shaped .413 x.4145 and gives me egg shaped necks on my 40-65 where I only seat a money bullet .250 deep.
Are you using the press mounted wad punch from Buffalo Arms?
How many layers of wad material do you punch out on each stroke?
CM

[kokomokid]

Yep Charlie I use a press mounted Cornell punch and found some HDPE but it comes out egg shaped also. I have just got a .411 punch and will try it. I use a parchment paper wad between plastic and bullet. I got the parchment paper after reading how great it was for paper patching and can vouch for it not sticking to the bullet. LB

[montana_charlie]

Yep Charlie I use a press mounted Cornell punch and found some HDPE but it comes out egg shaped also.
That's thought-provoking.
I'll have to measure some wads to see if that happens with mine.

Later ...

CM

[montana_charlie]

Well, it's later ...

I used a dial caliper for measuring. Some believe that is not much better than using a broomstraw, but I trust mine ... and the 'feel' I use with it.

I first checked some .030 LDPE wads that were probably punched two or three at a time. They seemed to be 'oval' by at least a thousandth when taking two readings ninety degrees apart. Actually, they measured three of dour thousandths different, most of the time.

Then, I checked some .030 vegetable fiber wads punched recently. I think I punched them two at a time.
These measured essentially 'round'. I tried a few different ways of presenting the wad to the caliper jaws, looking for a way to get some variation. In all cases the wads measured .460".

Finally, I punched a strip of LDPE wads (still .030) and punched them singly. They also turned out to be 'round' for all practical purposes.

My suspicion is that running two or three layers through the punch can cause irregularities, and punching too close to the edge of the plastic may also allow some inadvertant 'stretching' that throws off the 'roundness' of the wad.

All of this is just 'looks to me like' and 'mebbeso'. So, use whatever parts of it seem useful to you.

CM

[country gent]

Check the punch face with a straight edge to see if its flat domed sligtly. Then with a good square check to see if it is angled any. An angled face is sometimes used to lwer shear pressures. A domed face will stretch the material slightly deforming it. An angled face can allow it to slip slightly. Thicker materials or stacks magnify this effect also. We had to "relieve some punch faces to get truly flat parts at work. Leave a ridge around the outside .060- .080 wide and the relief .030 deep. If punch is angled then this will not work. Also check punch for roundness / concentricity and its size to the die. What you are talking as out of round here is within shear clearences of punch and die. We had shim punches made up at work for punching holes in steel shim stock. They almost never made a round hole new vut the punch expanded to die with use and became true hole.