Question about wad and lube for cap and ball revolver

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sandy4570

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I want to experiment using wad over powder loading for my Uberti Dragoon. Wads will cut from sterofoam package that super market use to pack meat. I will put my homemade mixed (beeswax and Crisco ) over each chamber. In theory, the wad will keep powder compress and even which are good for safety and accuracy. The wad will scrap unburn powder. The grease will lublicate the bore. Is this a good and safe procedure? Or I better off using wonder wads.
 
I am thinking melted styrofoam the length of the barrel and every where it can be squirted from the barrel cylinder gap.

I could be wrong though.

-kBob
 
I use a mix of crisco & beewwax.......pour into a pan to sufficient thickness, cut plugs with a cutter made from an old .45 auto case. Load the ball over powder less any wad, top the cylinder with the C&B plug.

Works well, no chain fires, no lubrication problems.

Meant to mention that I dust the discs lightly with baby powder & store 'em in a plastic pill bottle. Keeps 'em from sticking to each other.
 
I believe I'm in the " It'll melt all over the gun " camp.
I have used Egg carton for wads afore, the compressed cardboard type, put em in a Ziploc bag with a smidge of olive oil ,toss em around let em soak up the oil and good to go.
I used 2 per chamber cos their thin. YMMV..:evil:
 
I heard someone say that plastic felt didn't melt on their gun when they used it for wads, but i wouldn't try it.
Wonderwads are expensive unless they're on sale, even then. you should buy your own felt and punch out wads
they sell wads here http://possibleshop.com/s-s-wads.html
 
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melt, and not to mention the stench of burning styrofoam choking out the other shooters at the range.

The original instructions supplied with the Hartford Colts said no wad. That is good enough for me.
 
Styrofoam is likely a no.
Florist foam will work as will felt. A $1 hat from Crosslines or Christian Service Center and a cheap Harbor Freight 11mm punch will make enough felt wads for 6 months of hard shooting. Soak them in the hot beeswax crisco mix and you are good to go without the over ball lube mess.
 
zimmerstutzen said:
melt, and not to mention the stench of burning styrofoam choking out the other shooters at the range.

The original instructions supplied with the Hartford Colts said no wad. That is good enough for me.
Click to expand...
You really should try felt wads. You'll be converted. :)
 
While styrofoam is obviously bad, you say - wad will scrape unburnt powder, while grease will lubricate.

However, when you press the trigger, the first thing to go in the barrel is the grease. The the bullet comes, which must scrape most of the grease out if it is a good fit (if it is not a good fit to the barrel, forget accuracy anyway). Then comes the wad which scrapes the rest of the grease if it's not lubricated, and then comes the actual powder residue. Basically, every shot except first comes out of a fouled barrel. This is more or less necessarily true. At least, though, if the grease stays in front of every bullet in the chamber, it will ease the passage of the bullet, but grease in front of the ball sometimes gets blown away or melted by previous shots.

A lubricated felt wad or hard grease between the wad and the ball could at least make this powder residue softer, meaning less of an impediment to the next bullet. This is at least my logic.
 
after firing thousands of shots through my Ruger OA, and early on trying felt wads, grease cookies etc, it became clear that no wad and grease on top the ball let me shoot for at least 100 shots without cleaning.

Some claim wads work. I found it affected accuracy and shooting time. The ball is insufficient to wipe the grease from the bore. It leaves a thin coating between the fouling and the bore, which the next shot helps clear out from build up.
 
I don't have a ton of experience, but I'm currently using a retail lubed wonder wad over the powder, then a squirt of bore butter straight from the tube, then the ball. I must have read every article on the web I could find about wads over balls, wads under balls, crisco to stop chain fires etc, and this method is a combination of "least messy" and "makes sense". To me a wad smearing grease down the bore would leave more intact than a tightly fitting lead ball basically pushing it all out of the way. Time will tell if it holds up as a "works best for me" method.

I'm not getting enough range time at the moment to justify making my own lubed wads just yet.
 
Maybe I'm the only one but I haven't been using anything aside from ball and powder. It's a new pistol and I get really good lead rings upon loading tho. Haven't had any issue's so far but I am kinda new to BP... And I do mean a good solid ring lol
 
I don't use wads and grease that much to be honest myself Josh. Haven't been using them long, I will see if they really make a difference.
 
I used wonderwads, then tried making my own soaked wads and failed (too much grease), and just now am trying egg carton. I am pretty happy with egg carton, just don't add too much grease or it will soak through when the ball compresses the powder.
 
I use .450 conicals that have been coated in home made bore butter with a cork wad or two between bullet and powder. The wads are simply to take up space as I shoot a light target load (18gr)

So far so good
 
I use .450 conicals that have been coated in home made bore butter with a cork wad or two between bullet and powder. The wads are simply to take up space as I shoot a light target load (18gr)
Click to expand...
i use conicals for knock down power, what is the advantage as a target load they use more lead than a ball?
 
Thank every one for the inputs. I got the Styrofoam wad idea from watching Mr. Hovey Smith 's YouTube video . He was shooting snub nose Navy51 and Pietta Pepper box using the Styrofoam wad .
I have been using Crisco before and it was messy then I tried bore butter and it was still messy. The Wonder wad work the best and it kept my Dragoon lubricate and clean for a lot longer than Crisco and Bore butter. The Wonder Wad getting expensive so I am searching for material that I can find around the house. I will try my home made lube .it is pretty hard so I suppose it can do double duty as wad and lubricant. I really like the egg carton idea I have of them and love to recycle them instead of just toss them in the trash
 
I've been shooting C & B pistols for a while. I've shot no lube, grease cookie, dry wad, lubed wad and grease over the ball.

If I were shooting the pistol as a defensive load or a hunting load I would go with the dry ball, no wad load with a heavy powder charge.

Shooting steel. I use the wad to take up space in the chamber and prevent chain fires.
 
I use lube over the ball...Beeswax/Crisco mix.

I don't worry about fouling in the barrel or preventing chain fires. I just want to keep the barrel-cylinder gap juicy to prevent binding. Lube over the ball does a nice job of that for me. The lube splashes out as the ball enters the barrel with every shot. At a cowboy action match, my cylinders are rotating just as smoothly on the last stage as on the first, with no cleaning or wiping down between stages.

I tried using wads between powder and ball once, but the wind kept blowing them off the table so I said to hell with them.
 
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