!2ga Fiber wad question

[foesgth]

I found this load on the NRA website. They are using Ballistic Products HCW12 wad.
Now, I know with plastic wads you shouldn't substitute but what about fiber-wads?
Most of my shotgun shooting is currently on steel popper targets. The bays at the range all have piles of plastic wads in them. I find that is kinda-like littering. I am also cheap and I have several bags of Circle Fly fiber-wads. Do you folks think that would be a usable substitute? Would a nitro card help or hinder the load?

[megasupermagnum]

You will never find anyone who will say you can swap any plastic wad with some kind of fiber/felt/cork/etc. wad. It's just not that simple. My OPINION, and that's all it is, based on only a few pressure tests that I've done, is that you are fine swapping basic lead shot loads with natural wads. An example would be a load I tested in the link below, load C. It's a basic 1 1/8oz lead shot load with a Federal 12S3 wad. I swapped in natural wads with no other changes. Pressure went up about 600 psi, which is inconsequential.

When you are working with such loads, you will need some type of gas seal. A nitro card is a perfect example, and is a time tested method to do that. If you only used fiber wads alone you will find a lot of gas leakage, although they probably would fire fine. This is something I have tested in a muzzleloader, although I've not specifically tested lubed fiber wads alone. I would not want anything lubed sitting right on the powder. Speaking of which, I generally do not use lube in shotguns. Not in shotshells or muzzleloaders. Another really good gas seal you could try if you have it is leather. I found cow leather to even be superior to nitro cards for their thickness.

For filler, it doesn't matter a whole ton as long as it can compress. That is important to maintaining safe pressures. If you did nothing but a stack of nitro cards, pressures would go way up. Fiber, felt, and cork all work fine. I'll be testing some loose fillers like cream of wheat this spring. There are small tricks you can pick up. One I use with fiber wads specifically is I add an overshot card between the fiber wads and the shot to keep them from imbedding.

When it comes to how they perform on the patterning board, I'll let you be the judge.


https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...52#post5472352