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New degradable wad for steel


David BASC
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On 08/05/2019 at 11:39, Scully said:

Spent last weekend in Carrick Bay, Dumfries and Galloway. Beachcombing turned up quite a few plastic wads and cases with their bases long gone. 

You will find that anywhere along the Scottish Solway. The amount of shots taken each morning on some merses is amazing. The sooner we can get away from plastic wads in wildfowling loads the better. Manufacturers may be able to load and ensure the shell is watertight but most of us load our own and can’t. That is one major obstacle wildfowlers face.

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On 12/06/2021 at 09:19, old'un said:

I am sure that plastic wads do make contact with the barrel wall long before it reaches the choke, if not how does the wad make a gas seal? I presume by “even using felt/fibre wads” you mean felt cups?

Plastic wads have compressible fins which seal against the barrel wall. The cups generally have a couple of slits where the shot charge is held until expelled from the choke and the plastic wads then flair out leaving the wad behind. This is also true of slugs and large shot loads (SG SSG etc.) Felt/fibre wads really do not gas seal against the barrels particularly if you have a back-bored barrelled gun!

If your gun has chrome barrels then there is no real problem anyway as your shot is never going to be as hard as the chrome plating. If not, you need to have your gun checked by a gunsmith before using "steel shot".

On 07/06/2021 at 16:05, Old farrier said:

It’s a 2 year old thread 

things are (allegedly) moving on 

Still a live discussion and (allegedly) of interest!

 

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On 07/06/2021 at 15:57, Scully said:

Are you sure about that last sentence? Any plastic residue I have to remove from my barrels is usually just forward of the breech. 

Yes you are right - what should have been said is that the shot in the plastic cup/wad does not come in contact (substantially) with the barrel walls. I suspect that this is where the concern is; in the wear on un-chromed barrels with felt/fibre wadded steel shot cartridges.

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21 hours ago, Pheasant Plucker said:

Yes you are right - what should have been said is that the shot in the plastic cup/wad does not come in contact (substantially) with the barrel walls. I suspect that this is where the concern is; in the wear on un-chromed barrels with felt/fibre wadded steel shot cartridges.

Are there any steel loads with felt/fibre wads? 

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13 hours ago, Stimo22 said:

I use Gamebore silver steel fibre wadded cartridges for ducks, they are 3” go steel

What type of fibre wad? Like a traditional felt wad used with lead shot? Or are they like plastic shot wads/cups?

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43 minutes ago, old'un said:

What type of fibre wad? Like a traditional felt wad used with lead shot? Or are they like plastic shot wads/cups?

They are a cardboard type cup that all the shot sit in. It just leaves a cardboard deposit. Our land owner does not want plastic wads and even the so called eco wads look like plastic until they break down

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8 minutes ago, Stimo22 said:

They are a cardboard type cup that all the shot sit in. It just leaves a cardboard deposit. Our land owner does not want plastic wads and even the so called eco wads look like plastic until they break down

Sounds the way to go, can’t understand if it’s just cardboard why we haven’t been using them for years! 🤷‍♂️

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34 minutes ago, Stimo22 said:

They are a cardboard type cup that all the shot sit in. It just leaves a cardboard deposit. Our land owner does not want plastic wads and even the so called eco wads look like plastic until they break down

I thought they might be card/felt cups, that's why I could not understand why Pheasant Plucker was saying steel will wear/damage the barrels if they are not chromed, if the steel shot is in a cup, be it plastic or card/felt then the steel shot cannot come into contact with the barrels.

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55 minutes ago, old'un said:

I thought they might be card/felt cups, that's why I could not understand why Pheasant Plucker was saying steel will wear/damage the barrels if they are not chromed, if the steel shot is in a cup, be it plastic or card/felt then the steel shot cannot come into contact with the barrels.

This. The entire point of a cup is to prevent the steel contacting the barrel at ANY point, otherwise damage can occur chrome lined or not. 

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20 hours ago, Scully said:

Sounds the way to go, can’t understand if it’s just cardboard why we haven’t been using them for years! 🤷‍♂️

I believe they are very difficult to load at the factory in great volume. When the shot is dropped in the wad the cup can be easily damaged by the machine. Don't think they can load them at a high enough speed/ volume for the number of shells that will be needed going forward.

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On 18/06/2021 at 22:22, Pheasant Plucker said:

Plastic wads have compressible fins which seal against the barrel wall. The cups generally have a couple of slits where the shot charge is held until expelled from the choke and the plastic wads then flair out leaving the wad behind. This

This can be achieved by using an inverted shot cup as a seal over the powder per the old Winchester XXX. I will be trialling this in the coming season in 10 bore using the card shot cups from Claygame. These will be slit to open out when they leave the barrel. I already use the system in 8 bore with impact tungsten matrix.

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