Pros and Cons of using .125 cork wads with black powder loads?

   I have never been able to demonstrate to my satisfaction that ANY wads in BP loads shoot better than loads with NO wads.   Realizing that many people have a different opinion,  have any readers of this forum done any controlled experiments showing an improvement in performance when using wads over no wads?  I am talking here about target-shooting performance, not "field" performance.

CHRIS
RGChristensen

Now,  why would a cork wad become a pellet?   Not from heat, the exposure won't be long enough - after all, even paper doesn't show any burn marks.  The wad is the full dia. of the case, and elastic - you'd just get a better seal IMO  a pellet would be thicker - hard to achieve with the pressure compressing it against the bullet base.

I've tried cork when shooting bore diameter PP bullets and found that they didn't work nearly as well as LDPE, however the job of a wad with bore diameter bullet is tougher as it's got to help provide a seal until the bullet bumps up.

When shooting groove diameter lubricated bullets, to be honest I notice no difference in accuracy regardless of wad type used.  The only real information I've seen was regarding some experiments that Dan Theodore did some time ago.  He compared bullet base finning with a variety of wads and came to the conclusion that HDPE pretty much eliminated fins, LDPE reduced them considerably over card style wads.   I have recovered bore diameter bullets shot with LDPE wads and have seen a very small amount of "finning" at the bullet base.  I have no idea how that affects accuracy, but that same load has excellent vertical dispersion at 500m.

Chris.

40_Rod
Have you had problems with cork wads, or fragments thereof, remaining in the cartridge case or bore? I gave up my experiments shooting with over powder (smokeless) sheet cord wads in my 32-40 bench rest rifle, as about 1 in 3 would remain in the case or bore after firing. Sometimes the whole wad would still be in the case simply turned parallel with the bore. I seated my wads .10 to .20" off the powder as recommended in Charlie Dell's book. Another reason I gave up shooting with over powder wads - I saw no accuracy improvement vs using no over powder wad.
I punched 35 cal wads and they stayed firmly in place anywhere inside a 32-40 case.

Hi-Wall56
When breech seating bullets, I've had good luck using .030" veggie wads, snug fitting in the case mouth over a black powder charge. I use a drop tube and fill the case full, then thumb press the card wad into place. For whatever reason, I get fewer flyers with the thinner wad than when using .060" veggie wads. I have not used over powder cork wads so I have no feedback for you on that.

Hi-Wall56 wrote on Dec 14^th, 2014 at 5:19pm:

Small world. Am in the midst of building a 38-40 or 38-50 Hepburn (guess I'll decide which one when it is time chuck up the reamer) over the winter. Have 200 cases to resize. I got an expander from Steve Rhoades at Arizona Sharpshooter that he claims will make the job much easier. Casting and resizing starts soon.

Have you checked BACo? They had stock recently. I'm hoping Winchester will make their seasonal run as I want to try both.

If you don't do any good with BACo, let me know and I'll see if the fellow who offered me 100 new Rem cases still has them available.

I shoot cork wads in my BP loads: 40-70SS, 45-70 & 50-70.  All of these are PP bullet loads and shoot very well with one or two 0.090" to 0.125" cork wads under the bullet.  I am guessing that the cork seals the bore under the bullet, even if it does not bump up to full groove diameter.

I have stolen this idea from Kenny Wasserburger.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT