Wads cut from a coffee can lid?.....

Status
Not open for further replies.

jmars

Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
113
Location
Indiana
Another post mentioned cutting wads from a coffee can lid.

I have never heard of such a thing. What are they used for, and how are they an advantage over wads cut
from more conventional materials?
 
Coffee can lid? What type of material? Not being smart....just that there are many brands and they all use different materials. I have never heard of this. Ive made revolver wads from a few materials; felt, paper towels, and rinsed and dried cotton fiber baby wipes (only one specific brand and type from this particular brand uses a thin cotton felt like material, i dry the sheets and cut into squares to use as cleaning and oiling gun patches. Works amazing and is innexpensive). I use the paper towel method to make hard thin wax lub disks and you can stack them to make a custom thickness of wad. Also as cards ive used all kinds of cardboard and cardstock but have now mainly used waxed paper plates...they dont allow the powder to be contaminated by lube if making paper cartridges or keeping a load in the cylinder for a long period of time. I also use them to top my paper cartridges that have no bullet..one side is waxed and the other is not so the side that is waxed i putput towards the lube disk and the side thats not gets the glue that seals the overlap of the paper cartridge
 
The coffee can lids that I'm familiar with are made of plastic. I seems to me that the plastic might melt when the gun is fired, and then you would have a mess on your hands. Either felt or cardboard (depending on the application) would be better materials to use.
 
I use cereal box for over powder cards as well....or atleast under the bullet/ball. I separate my powder from a lube disk using wax paper...i dont let/like my lube disk to touch my powder due to contamination but also cuz a layer of powder sticks to the waxy lube disk (will also stick to felt wads) and that powder gets wasted. I tried a card (from cereal box)between powder and wax disk/felt wad but it kept the lube from doing its job....the heat from the powder explosion helps the waxy lube melt and coat the barrel to soften fouling. Thats when i started using a wax paper disk which kept the powder safe from waste and contamination and from sticking to the wad/disk...and the wax paper is thin enough not to be a heat barrier and assures that the wad melts and does its job coating the inside of the barrel. Although i make paper cartridges...with and without bullet...when i manually load my gun without a paper cartridge i have put powder and the cereal card...and then a really soft lube the consistency of bore butter..then a bullet/ball on top and that combination worked great keeping the fouling very soft and barrel clean. Oh and ive also used waxed paper milk carton
 
Oh and ive also heard of people using poker playing cards...but i havent tried it since they are plastic coated and I wont put anything plastic down my barrel. I doubt the thin coating would cause any issues but im still hesitant to try them and find out for sure.
 
Plastic and BP do not mix well. Plastic melts and mixes with BP fouling, making an awful mess. Despite this fact, several people will now post that they have used every form of plastic known to man, loaded tens of thousands of various black powder loads with "literally" tons of plastic and have never even had to clean the firearm.....
 
Mr.docrock, i would imagine that you are correct about plastic and black powder not playing well with one another. I will admit i have never tried it and cant speak from experience but i feel it wouldnt add anything good to my shooting experience. Also i tend to only want to shoot biodegradable items out of my gun. The thought of leaving scraps of plastic lying around bothers me. So i have stuck with paper materials and thin cork board. Although LDPE material may work fine, i mean there are plastic type sabots used in inlines...so i guess there are some plastics that work just fine
 
Last edited:
I’m lazy. I carry some waxed paper stolen from the kitchen in my possibles bag. Tear off a piece about 1 1/2” diameter, fold it to make a 4- layer wad that covers the bore and seat it between powder and patched ball. Crude but effective. Saves all that precision cutting time and effort.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top