Wad thickness?

[Knarley]

Is there, or are there tell tale signs for needing a thicker wad/s?
Or is it one of those "I'm gonna try this" type of deals?
Thanks,
Knarley

[country gent]

There are some tell tale reasons for thicker wads or wad stacks. A lighter powder charge that seems to need a little more compression is the main one. Otherwise it is just testing to see what works. Recovered bullets showing base damage or cutting may benifit from the heavier wads. Also along this thread diffrent wad materials in the same thickness may perform better. Soft felt may seal better than harder materials as it may compress under pressure better. Wad dia can also make a diffrence a loose fitting wad may not seal as well as a snug fitting one.

[rfd]

country gent nailed it. unless you can see an indicator of something that looks wrong with the bullet bases or case indications or how the bullet enters the mark, but for the most part it's trial and results of different recipes and components, since there are SO many things that will affect consistent accuracy.

[Don McDowell]

Sometimes, but not always , a thicker wad will leave less fouling in the barrel, and you may notice accuracy tighten up a bit.

[rfd]

no matter what, this stuff is fraught with subjective uniqueness - it's all words and the proof is in the testing.

[Don McDowell]

yessir and some of us have done the testing and are more than happy to share the "subjective uniqueness" of what we found thru that testing, and some have a computer and an internet connection...

[rfd]

yessir and some of us have done the testing and are more than happy to share the "subjective uniqueness" of what we found thru that testing, and some have a computer and an internet connection...

and yer so happy to share, don.

[country gent]

One issue with wad testing is finding the same basic materials in .005, .020, .030, .060, and thicker. Testing done with diffrent materials and thicknesses would be changing 2 things not just the thickness. A person with a surface grinder could start with the thick and stick it down on the ghuck with double faced tape and thin it to diffrent thicknesses to test them but then finding that material thickness in available forms would be the issue. Newsprint, card boards, waxed milk cartons, plastic milk cartons, playing cards, cork, felt, gasket materials, Ldpp (?), wax paper, and others have all been tried for wads along with other materials also.

[rfd]

yes, consistency is always an issue. i use cornell die punched milk carton and newsprint, and both vary at least a bit in mic'd thickness, particularly where on the milk carton the wad gets punched out. like it or not, a uniqueness abounds as it's not an exact science, but it does merit some testing and trialling.

[Knarley]

yessir and some of us have done the testing and are more than happy to share the "subjective uniqueness" of what we found thru that testing, and some have a computer and an internet connection...

Which is why this site is here...........:wink:

Am gonna start playing with wads, just wondering what to look for. Digging the boolit out of the berm is out, but I suppose retrieving the wads, like one would patches for a ML might shed some light.

[Don McDowell]

Can't tell much by bullets recovered from berms, they're pretty beat up. Best and easiest route is to simply get a bag of .030 and one of .060 from John Walters. Then start loading and testing. You'll find the wads about 15ft.-30 yds in front of the muzzle, unless they stuck to the bullet, or got carried away in the wind. But they won't tell you much except if you're really cheap, you could probably use them over..

[Knarley]

But they won't tell you much except if you're really cheap, you could probably use them over..[/QUOTE]

:lol: :lol:

[Gunlaker]

Knarley, i like 0.060" LDPE wads mostly. With grease grooved bullets at groove diameter I have never noticed a performance difference between wads. With bore diameter paper patched bullets the differences can be huge.

I use the 0.060" LDPE mostly due to a conversation with the late Dan Theodore some time ago regarding finning of bullet bases. Recovered bullets showed fins on bullet bases where the lands cut when bullets were shot with veg fiber wads. Ldpe wads reduced the size of the fins, and hdpe wads eliminated them.

I don't know how much small fins affect accuracy, but the ldpe wads make me feel better. I've recovered bullets for my .45-70 PP bullets and they show very small fins, but the rifle holds vertical very well at 500m.

Chris.

[Don McDowell]

Talking about ldpe wads,,, At the Alliance Ne. gong matches it's not uncommon to be shooting into a head wind, and when those conditions are present it becomes abundantly clear why safety glasses are a good idea even if you're not on the line. If your sitting behind the line waiting your turn to shoot and you happen to be in the wind drift pattern of those ldpe wads, you will be able to collect most of them as they bounce off of you, or fly by.:o Now those you can definetly recover and run again if so inclined.