"Donut" Wad??

[klcarroll]

I was prowling around the Ballistic Products site, and I came across this item:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q84/klcarroll/122ct2lg.jpg


It's a 1/4" felt 12 gauge wad with a .375" hole in the middle.

Do you think that a felt wad like this would have enough "stuff" to keep a naked 690 ball centered during it's trip down the bore???

Kent

[tommygirlMT]

<cut>

Do you think that a felt wad like this would have enough "stuff" to keep a naked 690 ball centered during it's trip down the bore???

Kent

Works for the Russians -- In Russia and a lot of eastern block countries smooth bore shotguns is all you can legally own and hunt with. Simple lead round ball slugs are also the name of the game when it comes to reloading for big game. They don't have all the fancy molds we have. Pretty standard load is a stack of homemade cardboard punched out wads on top of the powder charge with a homemade card board donut wad on the top of the stack. A big lead ball slightly under bore diameter and then another donut wad, and then crimper her up and put it her to use.

[shotman]

You can use bee wax too. drip some on the fiber wad and set ball on it. Make sure you check the choke to see if the ball will pass through

[longbow]

I am thinking of doing just that and I bet those are real dense felt wads.

I have been messing with all sorts of slugs with mediocre to pretty poor success from smoothbore. So far the most predicable and reliable is the good 'ol round ball.

So far I have done reasonably well with undersize balls in shotcups and with 0.735" balls (cylinder bore only). However, I just recovered some of the 0.735" balls I shot into deep snow in the winter and was surprised to see that even those oversize balls showed uneven swaging into the barrel.

I would have figured that an over bore size ball would simply slide up the forcing cone and self center ~ but nope, wrong again! I have been getting that a lot lately. I found one that had almost no band on one side and a really large band on the other side (as if balls had sides). I can only think that the wad tipped a little under it to force it one way. All loads were over 1/2" hard card wads.

Those felt wads would make a nice centering device for any bore to under bore ball that would fit the hole.

Shotman mentioned some nice cup wads he uses and I have seen other postings here and elsewhere using cups or doughnuts.

I feel another test coming up.

So I guess the short answer is "Yes they should work so give them a a try". How well they work is another story but the 0.690" ball is a nice weight and fits through most chokes so if they work reasonaby well it would be a good combo.

Longbow

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have seen a couple of the Russian rounds in Peru. They were importaed for some time BUT some "spokesman for the people" decided they were to deadly for human usage... they approved 308 in the same breath.
I played with centering "Collars" and I think these should vastly improve RB down any barrel especially trying to shoot a proper sise RB through a choked gun. I did this with my modified barrel Mossy and am pleased with the results.
Looks like I need to spend some time paroosing the Ballistics Web and stocking up.
Mike... Unpacking in Illinois

[webfoot10]

Hello All, Instead of using these fancy wads, why not use a patched RB like in a muzzleloading
shotgun. Just build your wad collumn to where a patched undersized RB will crimp in the shell
and your all set to go. Make sure the spue is taken off the RB, as it will throw the ball out of
balance. My H&R slug gun will shoot 2 in groups at fifty yards with the RB's patched with cotton patches. If shooting in a choked barrel, make sure the ball will drop through the choke
and patch for a snug fit in the bore. The patch will act as a sabot and will not hurt the choke.
Try it , works great . webfoot10

[klcarroll]

Well, ......My big concern would be that the comparison between a muzzle-loading smoothbore and a "modern" shotshell is not a 1-for-1 deal.

In the muzzle-loader, the patch around the ball IS the gas seal; ......and it is "encouraged" to stay in place around the ball by five or six thousand pounds of pressure.

In a conventional shotshell, there's a gas seal, a filler wad, and one or two nitro cards between the burning powder and the ball: .....And if your wad column is performing correctly, very little gas pressure makes it to the ball.

This means that the patching around the ball has no real "following force" to keep it wrapped around the ball: ......and if the patch partially dislodges during its jump from the case mouth, through the forcing cone (something else muzzleloaders DON'T have!) and into the barrel, we could see the same sort of off-center thrust that Longbow was talking about.

The fact that you are getting good results with this approach indicates that some additional testing is merited here: ......But I would want to be sure that the patch can be relied on to stay in place!


Kent

[longbow]

I have seen a couple of posts where people claim to be getting good results by patching the ball but I agree that the jump from hull to forcing cone has got to allow the patch to dislodge.

Where patching has worked for me was in using a 0.662" ball in a shotcup. The 0.662" ball is very undersize for standard 12 ga. cups so I cloth patched as you would do for a muzzleloader but into the shotcup. That worked quite well but of course the patch is contained by the shotcup so no chance to shift.

Longbow