round balls fed wads

[mike_kaleigh]

i load up .678 round balls in fed wads with buffer and 20 gauge nitro cards in my 870. They are accurate but sometimes i blow out the gas seal. Has anyone tried 20 gauge gas seal upside down under the ball to take the place of nitro cards in the 12 gauge shot cup. just wonder who has tried this and did it work because in my head it should work.

[Y-man]

Hi Mike.
What I have done is cast .729 full bore round-balls, and i have used a hollow punch to get 18mm [Outer] and 10mm [inner hole] doughnut wads out of plastic [Punched out of plastic Coke bottle tops.]
This provides a LIGHT, but strong/ firm fitting for -
1. Stopping wads from being forced around the base of the round-ball.
2. Providing a good base for the round-balls - lifts up to crimping height.
3. Centralizing the balls in the shell, and on firing, all the way down the bore - which helps with accuracy.

I have used these doughnut wads even for crudely cast round-balls [Back when I fabricated a mold, and would hand-file the cast "round-balls" into rough spheres.] and they worked! with accuracy out to 35 yards.

You can think of what material to use in making these doughnuts around you there - I have used cork, wood, felt, plastic materials, discarded hard/ brittle curtain blind material [Plastic/ PVC] and they have always worked.

Now I have a Jeff Tanner [JT Moulds Essex UK] round-ball mold [.729"], and I just got a rifled barrel for my Mossberg 500. So I should be good to go for even more accuracy out to 50 to 75 yards.

[Mike Robinson]

Another option for "donut" wads is to buy some plastic tubing at the hardware store, and cut it into 1/4" +/- sections (plastic rings). If the OD is too large (or small) the ring can be cut. If too large you can remove a small section. It too small, the cut will allow the ring to expand to fit the inside of the shotcup wall. Tubing with a 1/2" ID and 5/8" OD should work in most cases. This eliminates the need for punches. However, I would still put a hard card under the plastic ring.

[FullTang]

i load up .678 round balls in fed wads with buffer and 20 gauge nitro cards in my 870. They are accurate but sometimes i blow out the gas seal. Has anyone tried 20 gauge gas seal upside down under the ball to take the place of nitro cards in the 12 gauge shot cup. just wonder who has tried this and did it work because in my head it should work.
I haven't done it, because I don't load 20 gauge, so don't have those supplies---but I've heard of many others doing it successfully.
Are you using genuine Fed 12S0 or 12S3 wads? They are usually pretty robust, unlike some of the clones.
Personally, I prefer to use a cushion wad under the ball; this forms into a nice little cup on setback. Could be fiber, felt, or cork. All of these are softer than nitro cards, so you might give that a try.

I've also used epoxy and silicone caulking under the ball to cradle it; originally, I was trying to find a way to keep the wad attached, but I've concluded that's impossible. Wad plastic is too slick, so even epoxy and polyurethane adhesives don't stick. Of course, if you do this, it will stick to the ball. That works fine out of a rifled barrel, but may not be ideal in a smoothbore.