Felt and card wads a "bore obstruction" risk in revolvers?

Non issue. Air pressure alone will blow them out before the ball (or conical) would get near them. I've used felt wads over round balls in cap and ball revolvers in .44 cal., and felt wads and card wads over shot loads in single shot pistols in 45 and .50 cal. never had any problems.

I have a hard time imagining how a wad would get stuck. If conditions exist that cause a squib---ball stuck in barrel-----yeah, but then your problem is there's a ball obstructing your barrel and firing another round could be a very very nasty experience.
I think the previous poster is correct, it's a non issue.
Are you loading for a re enaction, "blank" loads? Again the wad would be blown out easily.


Sort of an aside....Years ago target shooting with a BP revolver, when retrieving a target, I found the wonder wad I used stuck perfect ly in the bullet hole in the target. Only happened once, and that was the only time I ever found a fired wad (not that I was in a habit of looking for them).

I'm having a hard time wondering why you would think that it's even a slightly possible outcome. Assuming that the felt and card are between the bullet and the powder and that the bullet exits the muzzle at some fair clip then there's more than enough pressure to ensure the card and felt are close behind the bullet and fly free and clear of the barrel.

Oh sure, felt might be permeable. And given a long enough period of slight pressure difference between one side and the other it's possible that even the lube it is soaked in might be able to let the gas pressure leak through. But you're looking at a gentle puff worth of pressure over a number of minutes. Not a more or less explosive rise of pressure that is able to push the bullet out at some hundreds of feet per second. At that sort of pressure the felt wad is very much a gas block and will be pushed down and out in fine style.

I use my felt wads between powder and ball. I have never put one on top of the ball.

I still use them occasionally, but I get better accuracy with a dab of lube over the balls

Like tommygunn said, depending on the distance you shoot, you can often see marks or holes on a target from the wad.

99whip said:

Like tommygunn said, depending on the distance you shoot, you can often see marks or holes on a target from the wad.

Click to expand...

Most of my shooting is on shoot and see targets at 12 yards. Wad strikes do occur but infrequently. Even at 30 grains of powder the wad has just to little mass to travel far. On one occasion out of thousands of rounds shot a wad split around the forcing cone and jammed the cylinder for the next shot. My guess that wad had be inserted sideways instead of flat.

As to becoming an obstruction, as mentioned compression from the charge alone would blow a lodged wad out. Not something I'd care to try though.

[/Quote] Sort of an aside....Years ago target shooting with a BP revolver, when retrieving a target, I found the wonder wad I used stuck perfect ly in the bullet hole in the target. Only happened once, and that was the only time I ever found a fired wad (not that I was in a habit of looking for them).[/QUOTE]

I have looked for them and depending on the terrain they can be hard to find. A fellow I know shooting patched round ball in single shots retrieves and reuses the patches. Now that's a frugal shooter.

No way, dude.

Even at BP pressure levels, you've several PSI blowing that wad and bullet, both in front of the powder, out. I have NEVER EVER heard of a wad causing a bore obstruction.

I've found a few wads stuck to rifle patches, but it's pretty infrequent. I have no idea how many felt wads I've sent downrange with my Old Army, but I've never found one hiding in the barrel.

If the bullet goes out the barrel, so should the wad. Never heard of a wad staying in the barrel of a properly loaded firearm. The residual pressure is more than enough to blow the wad out.

I've had lots of wads left behind. Some in the barrel and a few at the mouth of the cylinder.I still shoot using wads and have no idea why that happens from time to time.

I tried using felt lubed wads between powder (Pyrodex P) and ball with my 1851 Colt and 1858 Rem replicas and ended up with bullet and wad holes in the target at 25 yards. I think the wads were adhering to the ball most of the flight. Made scoring complicated.

I tried using felt lubed wad between powder and bullet in .45 AutoRim cartridges in my cut .455 Webley Mark IV for BP cartridge matches. The wads (occassionally flaming) followed the bullet to the target. After I got over the embarrassment I had to agree it was hilarious.

The lube would contaminate the powder if c'n'b cylinders or bp cartridges were left loaded over time, so I tried cardboard and/or plastic wads over powder/under the felt lubed wads. Then I gave up on felt lubed wads and went back to topping off the c'n'b chambers with a blend of beeswax and crisco.

When I used wads, cardboard, plastic, or felt, the wads always left the barrel.