Is there such a thing as too much tightly packed fiber wadding in a brass shotgun shell when shooting Triple 7 loads, or is any amount of fiber wadding ok? And is it ok to load your shot low enough in the hull so that you can put a prelubed fiber wad over the shot, trim it to fit, and then put your overshot card on top of that? Or will putting a half inch or so prelubed fiber wad in front of your shot blow up the gun?
I ask because I'm new at this and I was suprised how much fiber wadding it took to fill up my 2 5/8 inch 12 gauge RMC brass shotshells and how difficult it was to figure out exactly how much wadding it was going to take. I started loading by using an old antique measuring cup set at 1 oz. I loaded the cup only about 7/8 full of powder, because I'm using Triple 7 which is 15% more powerful than black powder, then I inserted the powder into the brass hull. I put a .25 nitro card on top of the powder and seated it firmly. Then I had figure out how much wadding to add so that when I added 7/8 of a cupfull of 7 1/2 chilled lead shot on top of it, it would bring the shot right up to the top of the hull with just enough room left over to fit an overshot card on top, so I could glue it in with Duco cement.
These prelubed fiber wads were so tight inside the brass hulls that there was no getting them out without ruining them if I used too many, and I didn't want to use too few of them and have a big hollow in the end of my loaded shell, so I finally used a tape measue and a calculator to figure how many wads it would take to come out just right, (2 and 3/5!) so I had to cut off 2/5 of one of the wads in each of the 2 shells I loaded. It took me about half an hour just to figure out how to do it. There has got to be a simpler way.
I'm wondering if it would work just as well to put in the powder and the nitro card, then add two wads, then load the shot, then add another lubed fiber wad on top of the shot, and then just trim off however much of that last wad sticks out of the hull, so that it will be flush with the top of the hull and I can lay an overshot card on top? (Did I mention that these are prelubed wads? VERY prelubed!) Thanks for any help.
I ask because I'm new at this and I was suprised how much fiber wadding it took to fill up my 2 5/8 inch 12 gauge RMC brass shotshells and how difficult it was to figure out exactly how much wadding it was going to take. I started loading by using an old antique measuring cup set at 1 oz. I loaded the cup only about 7/8 full of powder, because I'm using Triple 7 which is 15% more powerful than black powder, then I inserted the powder into the brass hull. I put a .25 nitro card on top of the powder and seated it firmly. Then I had figure out how much wadding to add so that when I added 7/8 of a cupfull of 7 1/2 chilled lead shot on top of it, it would bring the shot right up to the top of the hull with just enough room left over to fit an overshot card on top, so I could glue it in with Duco cement.
These prelubed fiber wads were so tight inside the brass hulls that there was no getting them out without ruining them if I used too many, and I didn't want to use too few of them and have a big hollow in the end of my loaded shell, so I finally used a tape measue and a calculator to figure how many wads it would take to come out just right, (2 and 3/5!) so I had to cut off 2/5 of one of the wads in each of the 2 shells I loaded. It took me about half an hour just to figure out how to do it. There has got to be a simpler way.
I'm wondering if it would work just as well to put in the powder and the nitro card, then add two wads, then load the shot, then add another lubed fiber wad on top of the shot, and then just trim off however much of that last wad sticks out of the hull, so that it will be flush with the top of the hull and I can lay an overshot card on top? (Did I mention that these are prelubed wads? VERY prelubed!) Thanks for any help.