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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Simon Ward is an English shooting instructor, regular 'Field' and 'Fieldsports' magazine contributor and often sited as being one of the top UK game shots.
I hope that both he and Fildsports magazine will forgive my reproduction below of part of his recent article in the January edition, which looked at killing high pheasants. His first paragraph gives his opinion on the best cartridges to use and I have included it for interest. However, I did find his remarks about the use of fibre wads in clay guns informative:
"I would suggest that 70 per cent of pheasants are shot between 20-30 yards, so 28g or 30g No. 6s are perfectly adequate for typical game shooting. A bigger load will not make you more accurate. Beyond that range, however, I would suggest 30g or 32g No. 5s. And then for the very high pheasants you will need 30g-36g No. 5s or even 4s. For an English gun, I would advise 30g No. 6s to 30g No. 4s. Shoot the best you can afford.
More and more shoots are specifying fibre wad loads only. There has been a great debate running suggesting that fibre wad loads are inferior. This is no longer the case. Until quite recently a lot of cartridges used for game shooting had plaswads and a shot cup, so the pellets don't touch the side of the barrel. Whereas fibre wads do not have a shot cup, so when the gun is over-bored (or back-bored) there is potential for loss of striking energy due to the gas seal being reduced as the shot charge travels up the barrel.
The idea of over-boring has come to us from the USA, where it was designed to reduce recoil. It has subsequently become a feature of production line guns and is used as a sales ploy. If you use fibre wad cartridges in over-bored barrels, the fibre wad load can lose significant pressure and velocity when the shot charge travels up the barrel. This can greatly reduce your chance of clean kills at over 35 - 40 yards. Many people in the game shooting field are using sporting clay guns to shoot driven game — often with over-bored barrels, thus giving the fibre wad loads a bad name, quite wrongly. However, not all new guns feature over-boring and bespoke guns have it only at the request of the customer.
My own guns are not over-bored and as a result I can and do use felt wad cartridges with total confidence and am at no disadvantage. Clearly if you use back-bored or over-bored barrels, then fibre wad loads will not match up to plaswads due to the absence of an efficient gas seal. Otherwise, fibre are mostly every bit as good.
Simon Ward Jan 2014 feldsportsmagazine.com"
Tim
Interesting- but I am curious as to why a Limey gunner with much experience would write for a major British magazine, and be on a website for same, but with the proper Germanic spelling for the word "Field" that being "Feld", as shown in the website-- FELDsportmagazine.com-- Huummm!! Perhaps dates back to the golden era when the late Queen Victoria (who could sure keep a Secret, or two) had little Kaiser Wilhelm (Willie) for a family relative-- Ja!!
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 03/07/14 08:42 AM.
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,768 Likes: 115
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 2,768 Likes: 115 |
I think that the use of plastic wads has gained in popularity by the cartridge manufacturers because they are so much easier to load by big industrial machines. Simpler and cheaper.
Run with the Fox, most Americans are more British in origin than our Royal Family. Charles is mainly German and Dutch on his Mother's side and Greek on his father's. Princess Diana brought some English blood back in so William is the first Royal that is more than 50% English that we will have in along time. Lagopus.....
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,196 Likes: 20
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,196 Likes: 20 |
One point loading fiber wads in plastic hulls, specifically the older Ljutic 'Mono wads' is that they stretch the hulls enough to make one wonder about the pressures being generated and make the hulls unusable for additional reloading. I've never noticed that happening in paper hulls, but it is a frequent occurance in plastic hulls. I never had the loads pressure tested, but they were from older published data. I stopped loading them in plastic hulls for that reason.
FWIW, I've had some minor conversations w/a gent in England who has been doing a lot of pressure testing w/dif wads & has found increases above acceptable CIP levels w/some loads when switching to fiber as opposed to plastic, other factors remaining equal. I'm sure he is not using Ljutic 'Mono wads', rather some currently available fiber wad.
I'll also state that I have experienced off-sounding or 'blooper' loads w/fiber wads loaded in both paper & plastic hulls in a Browning Citori target gun intended to take advantage of all the 'then current' bells & whistles w/lengthened forcing cones [3" chambers originally] and the bbls. 'back-bored' to .750, ports[gad!] & a recoil attenuation devise in the buttstock. Never had an issue w/plastic wads, but I'm sure some obturated better than others based on their design & the amount of the cup's lips present to seal.
In the same breath, I have a friend w/a Charles Daly Lindner 10 ga. w/12ga. Briley chamber sleeves [his second one, now] that has zero issues firing modern 12 ga. ammunition loaded w/plastic wads. I don't know the nominal bore diameter of either of those guns' bbls.
Just some stuff to think about, eh?
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