Over powder wad material question

[54bore]

Which wad material is best for Paper Patched and sized bullets? I see that Buffalo arms carries 3 different Wad materials in bulk form for making your own, they have Vegetable fiber, Poly, and Cork in bulk form, they do not carry Wool felt in bulk. Are any of these 3 that they carry suitable for my PP and sized bullets in my muzzleloaders? I currently use Oxyoke wool, they come lubed in a pack of 100 and get kinda spendy if you shoot a bunch, i have punches to make my own, but have yet to order bulk wool felt. I see an outfit online called Durafelt that sells bulk wool felt in different thicknesses. Would i be better off to order from them? Sure be handy for me if any of the 3 that Buffalo carries would work for my application? Buffalo is only a 30 minute drive for me, i am a well known face there. The vegetable fiber material comes in 2 different thicknesses .030 and .060, The Poly Wad material comes in .030 and .060 as well, The cork stuff is .125 and quite a bit more expensive. Thanks

[dondiego]

I have dealt with Durafelt and they know about us shooters and have a good product.

[Maven]

54bore, Here's what dondego is referring to: http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html They're wonderful to deal with, btw.

[HPT]

The advice I got from one of the top 1000 yd shooters is .060 LDPE. Of course that is if you wipe between shots. I've tried felt, veg fibre & LDPE and LDPE was best

I've tried felt both lubed & unlubed and the only reason to use felt for me was for hunting (wonderwads and Graf 2FG) using paperpatched bullets - allowed me to shoot without wiping for 10 plus shots with no change in point of impact - only worked for with Graf powder - not sure if it is still made or if it is the same - this was powder I bought 10 years ago

[Squeeze]

Ive tried felt and vegetable in a few guns, and only one showed a difference, with a preference for veg. I like veg better, as felt leaves a burnt material smell, so I figured veg must be better for barrel cleanliness. I usually use a .060, but 2 .030 works just as well. (my guns seemed to prefer .060 thickness over .030, but couldnt see much variation from veg or felt.)

[triggerhappy243]

what is LDPE?

[triggerhappy243]

54bore, i was intending on getting some of that wool fibre stuff to try in my 50 and 54 to see if i can tighten things up a bit.

[Edward]

I have used a couple of (mink oil lubed) Dura-felt wads under my P.P.my conicals and even under my P.R.B. with great results ,found how many makes a big difference !

[GhostHawk]

Triggerhappy HDPE is High Density Polyethelene so I suspect that LDPE is low density.

Wiki says "Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) using a high pressure process via free radical polymerization."

If you look at the bottom of a plastic object, somewhere should be a triangle. If there is a 2 inside it it is HDPE and it can be melted down at 350-400 degrees into a block, or into a mold such as a slingshot.

If it has a 4 inside it it is LDPE. And in theory at least could be melted into a sheet and cut wads from it.

[Boaz]

I'll vouch for the Durafelt folks , great people to deal with ...very helpful .

[Boz330]

I shoot a Gibbs in LR competition and the cork has worked well for me, but I clean after every shot. With no wad it throws rounds all over the place. The only reason I tried cork was because I already had it. Most of the guys I shoot with use felt. Felt works just as good but why stock extra if you don't have to.

Bob