Are over the powder wads necessary?

[Castaway]

What rfd said about newspaper between a wad and bullet if you decide to go with a wad. At the range one day with my cap and ball. I had a wad stick to the ball and hit the target frame. The wad was stuck to the frame with the ball directly underneath.

[Walks]

i only use them in my wheel guns. so no chain fires.

I've never seen a chain fire with a C&B revolver.
Back in the 1950's-60's Dad had a Original Colt Navy. He used 20?grs of 3F? Under a .380 ball. He'd add grease over all chambers for the first cylinder, then over the first chamber only until the Revolver tied up from fouling.

However I loaded a felt wad in .44-40 BP loads when Shooting SASS back in the late 1980's.
I used the same type of felt wads in .45-70 BP loads too. Tried them in C&B 1860 replicas, simply because they were less messy reloading during a match.
Never saw a chain fire in over 20yrs of SASS Participation.

[Char-Gar]

You don't want a wad on top of the powder is there is air space between the wad and the base of the bullet. The military rifle load was a 500 grain bullet over 70 grains of BP. The carbine load was a 405 grain bullet over 55 grains of BP. The air space in the carbine load was taken up with two "jute" wad (fiber).

[indian joe]

What rfd said about newspaper between a wad and bullet if you decide to go with a wad. At the range one day with my cap and ball. I had a wad stick to the ball and hit the target frame. The wad was stuck to the frame with the ball directly underneath.

I have a flannelette pad on the loading bench with a damp spot of wd40 on it, every boolit gets its backside wiped on the damp patch then dried (only takes a second or two) before loading over a HDPE (or juice box for smaller calibre) wad - I find it less fiddly and just as effective as the newsprint.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Well I guess with a plain base boolit if you are going to load less than the max then you need some wadding to take up the air space.

[indian joe]

What rfd said about newspaper between a wad and bullet if you decide to go with a wad. At the range one day with my cap and ball. I had a wad stick to the ball and hit the target frame. The wad was stuck to the frame with the ball directly underneath.

We actually set fire to the target like that - tried a thick grease cookie under the ball - made tracer rounds for an 1860 army!!!

[Castaway]

IJ, I’ve done it twice. I try to remember to splash a little water on the backing paper and target before shooting. I tend to saturated my wads with Gato Feo #1. Since I started using GF1, I’ve never had a cylinder bind from fouling

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Okay then, got out in the balmy 12 deg. weather and tried my first 45-70 BP loads. LEE 405 HB over 50 gr. Swiss 2F, tuft of drier lint for a bit of tamping. 4 rds. off the roof of the car at 50 yds. Did not mess with the crono due to the cold. The cluster at the top, the lower ones are .357 out of my 786. Deprimed cases are soaking in citric acid, little dawn and hot water.

[elk hunter]

i only use them in my wheel guns. so no chain fires.

I've owned and shot several percussion revolvers over the years and until a couple months ago I'd never had a chain fire. In that one, and so far only, case it was with a 1851 Navy made in 1867 that a second chamber went off. Fortunately it was the top left chamber so the ball cleared the frame and did no damage. I'm sure it was flash around the ball that caused the problem even though I greased each chamber like I've done for over fifty years with no problems. I'm going to invest in some sort of wads to use in my revolvers as I certainly don't want to damage one of them.