doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Blackpowder hunting loads

Bladesmith one thing I've learned in life is no one knows everything....If you're talking about me...my post was not intended to be "impolite".

Jim calling people pet names is "impolite"....I also hope his day improves.

Jim may be a curmudgeon but he is also one of the most experienced blackpowder cartridge shooters you are ever going to meet.

I have spent a couple of seasons shooting blackpowder cartridges at pheasant in South Dakota and at ducks in Utah (w/ bismuth).

Briefly I was using lubed wads but it was just a PITA for no perceived gain. I have shot a bunch of blackpowder skeet (but nowhere near as much as Jim) over a field that had grass as dry as parchment. After as many as 100 rounds with every wad landing in this dry tinder there was never so much as a wisp of smoke or fire.

I have taken a small spray bottle of water with me in the field a couple of times in South Dakota when the birds were really flying. Did it make much of difference to squirt some water down the barrels while stopped for taking pictures,etc.? Probably not, but it didn't hurt anything. The bottle is easy to carry in your vest.

Homeless, I wasn't picking on you . I was just suggesting that everyone try to keep their comments polite. Sometimes things sound different than what was intended because you're not talking face to face. I used to get on here quite a bit , but have been busy for a while. Now I come back and it seems like there's a lot of people bad mouthing each other. Maybe some need to forget past problems and go on. I always sit back and read any reply I intend to make to see if it would offend anyone. Many times I rewrite it. I just think it's more enjoyable when everyone gets along. JMHO Paul

Why is it a PITA? I do not find that to be so.

I do it mostly because it's easy and seems to reduce the likelyhood of fire. At least one fire was started last year by a muzzleloader in Oregon and I have seen smoldering wads on the range where only the shortness and greenness of the mowed grass prevented a fire from starting.

I can stop for time to time at the truck to unload birds, water dogs and human, and even water guns. I usually run a patch then so I don't have water running back into the locks.

Thanks,
Brent

Better load some smokeless powder.

My BP cartridge hunting loads are usually made with nitro cards and old Felton Blue Streak wads with waxed edges. These are a very hard felt. I usually do not shoot enough rounds to worry about fouling.

I shoot a lot BP skeet with nitro cards and plain Celotex wads and do not remember any smoking wads laying on the field. I supposed it could happen. If I am shooting a lot of BP skeet I will spray water down the barrels to soften the fouling and cool the barrels.

For muzzle loading skeet I use soft felt wads soaked it moose milk because I will be shooting a lot an I will be shooting rather quickly after loading.

For ML hunting I use peanut oil on Celotex wdas or as mentioned, I will not use any cushion wad which tends to tighten the pattern.

Good Luck.

Using cattails to clean the barrels is a great idea that had never occured to me! Thanks! David

I don't lube the wads as I have found that the fouling is not that big of a deal. Water in a bottle on the range and usually shooting in the field isn't high enough volume to make a difference.

With two small children and traveling for work, loading time is tight. To use lubed wads I use up most of that time melting lube, dipping the wads and putting them in an appropriate container. I could load up a bunch of ammo in that time. I also tend to load more than I plan on shooting at the time and the lube will soak through paper cases and get into the powder (in theory anyway) and I may have it on the shelf for months before I use it.

I did recently buy a bunch of Blue Streak wads from Jim Legg so my loads may change but not to lubed wads.

Until recently I cut all my own wads except the overpowder wads. A nice guy on this site made me some slick wad cutters that work in a drill press and I have ready access to big sheets of felt.

Mike, I can lube wads easily and quickly but it is one more thing to do. Cutting wads would probably take longer - at least for me,

These Blue Streak wads get a couple of votes and sound like a real good posibility and I forgot about the felt ox yoke style wads. Those would be pricey if I bought them precut. But they would solve the hunting/fire issue or at least assist in minimizing the problem.

Good ideas, thanks.

Brent

I simply use 3/32" card, 1/4" lubed felt (50:50 beeswax and olive oil) and another card between powder and shot. I punch them all myself (really wonderful therapy sitting at the chopping block in the woodshed, mallet and punch in hand...!). The wads are too short a time in the barrel to ignite, and my theory is that the grease is squeezed onto the barrel walls while going up the bore; it also seals the powder charge from moisture in storage with the card as a buffer against powder contamination. I've never had any fire issues, but desist from using them on the 37C+ (about 110F, I think), hot northerly wind, fire-ban days too.
RG