Wad plastic or fibre

[Young guns]

I have been told that plastic wad hold a better pattern but fibre I know is better for environment. What is peoples . Fort on pattern from them both

[E.w.]

I would imagine you would pattern test both through your own gun as I’m told they can be different, however I only use fibre on farm land and obviously plastic on the foreshore, I’ve never personally found any difference whilst game shooting as most shots are taken within fourty yards, I’m more than happy to use fibre.

[dodeer]

Fibre are my option for most things as leave no real trace of litter whereas plastic wads stay in the environment I’d guess for 100+ years.

[wymberley]

If by better you mean tighter, then that is largely, but not always, the case. If you decide that fibre is for you, then the first thing to do is to decide what pattern density suits your needs and then try a slack handful of brands at the pattern plate until you find what you want. If you're looking for something for live quarry and at the tighter end of things, then in my recent experience - albeit limited - possibly/probably because of the silly speeds the makers think we need/the makers think that that is what we think we need/we think that's what we need/the makers think they can sell -  which are currently in vogue, then good luck with that.

[hankook1]

They now do cartridges with fibre shot cups !!

[Uilleachan]

49 minutes ago, hankook1 said:

They now do cartridges with fibre shot cups !!

Any advice as to which brands are doing this?

 

 

[panoma1]

1 hour ago, Uilleachan said:

Any advice as to which brands are doing this?

 

 

I don't know whether they are sold in a made up cartridge? If so, my guess would be gamebore? But claygame reloaders were selling them for homeloading...at I think....15p per wad! Ouch!

 

Just checked now £13.50 per 100....13.5p per wad! Still ouch!

Edited December 5, 2017 by panoma1

[wymberley]

Some different figures. Several UK 'names' use V1 in their adverts. The following are also V1 for the ubiquitous No 6 but are expressed in ft/sec.

 1300---638

1350---646

1500---668

1550---675

The first figure on each line is the V1 and the second is the residual velocity at 40 yards. How many of us could tell the difference in just 37 ft/sec at the 40 yards or the equivalent energy of just 0.005 ft/lbs. Unlike the fibre cup, these lower velocities would be cheaper to produce.

The calculations are from the Sierra Infinity suite.

Edited December 5, 2017 by wymberley

[hankook1]

its gamebore i know they do the silver steel cartridge with a fibre shot cup no reason why they cant do any load with this cup and cant see why it would be expensive !!

[rimfire4969]

Fibre for me on everything. We have also made our syndicate fibre only as well.

I hate to walk around the woods, fields or even the beach and see plastic wads. I would like then banned. 

[Uilleachan]

11 hours ago, panoma1 said:

I don't know whether they are sold in a made up cartridge? If so, my guess would be gamebore? But claygame reloaders were selling them for homeloading...at I think....15p per wad! Ouch!

 

Just checked now £13.50 per 100....13.5p per wad! Still ouch!

Cheers for that. 

I'm using a mix of fibre & plastic depending where I'm shooting. Fibre shot cups make sense to me, it'll be interesting to see how widespread they become in commercial ammo. In the meantime I'll checkout Gamebore. 

Edit to add: Jings £3.25 on a box of 25 before adding a primer powder a hull and shot  

Edited December 6, 2017 by Uilleachan

[Pigeon Shredder.]

On 5 December 2017 at 09:30, E.w. said:

I would imagine you would pattern test both through your own gun as I’m told they can be different, however I only use fibre on farm land and obviously plastic on the foreshore, I’ve never personally found any difference whilst game shooting as most shots are taken within fourty yards, I’m more than happy to use fibre.

Is there any chance that you missed a "NOT" out between obviously......plastic on the foreshore.

As with the current Eco drive on plastic in the oceans this could see another nail in foreshore shooting.

[greenergp]

When we are out on the shore we pick up any plastic wads we find as well as other peoples spent shells.

[wymberley]

59 minutes ago, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Is there any chance that you missed a "NOT" out between obviously......plastic on the foreshore.

As with the current Eco drive on plastic in the oceans this could see another nail in foreshore shooting.

Which brings us full circle back to:

Safe

Effective

Affordable

Non-toxic

I'm sure any self respecting government would have preferred to include 'ecologically' in their definition of 'safe'. If you exclude that requirement from the above criteria, then there's only one which meets all of the others. The UK Government (DEFRA) spent a load of dosh in assertaining the effectiveness of NTS, so perhaps it could cough up some of the revenue it collects in taxes from the UK shooting industry in an effort to fund research into an alternative to plastic which in turn would actually meet their stated four criteria.

[pinfireman]

When it comes to reloading using a progressive machine, plastic every time! 

[motty]

On ‎06‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 09:46, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Is there any chance that you missed a "NOT" out between obviously......plastic on the foreshore.

As with the current Eco drive on plastic in the oceans this could see another nail in foreshore shooting.

Plastic wads in the sea pales into insignificance compared to plastic bottles etc.

[rimfire4969]

24 minutes ago, motty said:

Plastic wads in the sea pales into insignificance compared to plastic bottles etc.

Every little bit of plastic that does not end up in the sea is well worth the effort in my opinion. I get involved with the beach clean down this way and there is always a bag full of plastic wads at the end of it. 

[Walker570]

Needed to reload some 410s for my syndicate ground.. fibre only... and Folkestone Enginnering cam up with a load for me and also the wads etc.  Having now shot these for four or five days I cannot really see any difference to the Fiocchi or Hull High Pheasant(both excellent 410 choices). The reloaded felt wads 18grms #7s do the job if I do. I am slowly amassing once fired shells for next season as I can see that I will be shooting these felt wad loads, other than the ITX loads for ducks which are in plastic wads. Rather than examining the performance of the shot patterns from our cartridges, we need to maybe concentrate on our performance first. Far more important to put it in the middle of the pattern to start with.

[GingerCat]

Fibre for me. I've not noticed the difference between fibre and plastic other than the wad bring left being when you shoot the latter. 

Dont shoot steel however there must be a fibre version. 

[222mark]

On 06/12/2017 at 11:30, pinfireman said:

When it comes to reloading using a progressive machine, plastic every time! 

I'll second that.

[Pigeon Shredder.]

2 hours ago, motty said:

Plastic wads in the sea pales into insignificance compared to plastic bottles etc.

Ah, the good old Ostrich mentality lives on.

On all of my permissions they grow food crops so l have to use fibre, more expensive for me but no plastic into the system and l still get to shoot.

Same at the Clay grounds that l frequent in the area, fibre only as the fields are cut for Hay.

Having seen what plastic is doing to the Oceans and their habitat l would not want the insignificant amount of plastic as you call it to be on my conscience.

With the amount on coastline that we have l'm sure there is a very significant amount of wads being discharged daily making the problem worse.

Just my opinion mind, l'm sure someone will be along too correct me.

[hawkfanz]

by choice i only use fibre wads,like others i shoot over food crops and area,s that have livestock,its my choice and i dont mind paying the extra price,if i need to tighten pattern up,i will change chokes.not go to plastic wads,and steel i only use about 1 box per year.

[motty]

1 hour ago, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Ah, the good old Ostrich mentality lives on.

On all of my permissions they grow food crops so l have to use fibre, more expensive for me but no plastic into the system and l still get to shoot.

Same at the Clay grounds that l frequent in the area, fibre only as the fields are cut for Hay.

Having seen what plastic is doing to the Oceans and their habitat l would not want the insignificant amount of plastic as you call it to be on my conscience.

With the amount on coastline that we have l'm sure there is a very significant amount of wads being discharged daily making the problem worse.

Just my opinion mind, l'm sure someone will be along too correct me.

I think you have missed the point slightly. How is it a nail in the coffin of shooting, when there is tons more plastic being littered around the coast, mainly in the form of plastic bottles?

When I helped with the marsh clean up this year, the amount of bottles found was ridiculous. I think that could do with addressing before we worry too much about plastic wads.

4 hours ago, rimfire4969 said:

Every little bit of plastic that does not end up in the sea is well worth the effort in my opinion. I get involved with the beach clean down this way and there is always a bag full of plastic wads at the end of it. 

It is always worthwhile doing your bit. However there are far worse things than plastic wads ending up in the sea daily. That is a fact.

[E.w.]

2 hours ago, Pigeon Shredder. said:

Ah, the good old Ostrich mentality lives on.

On all of my permissions they grow food crops so l have to use fibre, more expensive for me but no plastic into the system and l still get to shoot.

Same at the Clay grounds that l frequent in the area, fibre only as the fields are cut for Hay.

Having seen what plastic is doing to the Oceans and their habitat l would not want the insignificant amount of plastic as you call it to be on my conscience.

With the amount on coastline that we have l'm sure there is a very significant amount of wads being discharged daily making the problem worse.

Just my opinion mind, l'm sure someone will be along too correct me.

Quite odd that you quote plastic on the foreshore but you are quite happy to shot toxic lead shot in  the countryside, if you excuse me you don’t half take the biscuit.

Edited December 7, 2017 by E.w.

[figgy]

For those of you saying your eco friendly on your perms as it’s food crops etc are you shooting non toxic through fiber shot cups?

if not it’s nothing more than hypocrisy 

So are you eco warriors doing your best for the environment or not. Gamebore Silver Steel are the only carts that are fiber wad cup and steel so will rust away and not effect livestock or human food chain. 

Hiw many a year are you all using or do you load your own ?

Edited December 8, 2017 by figgy