Importance of cushion wads in shotshells.

[Andy Griffith]

I know that most shooters here are primarily "metallic" cartridge oriented and just a few shoot blackpowder shotguns regularly, but perhaps the rest will find this interesting.

I read an article in either the first Lyman Blackpowder Handbook or one of the first editions of the Blackpowder Annual in which a feller that shot many tournaments and competitions with a blackpowder shotgun with just using a hard card between the powder and shot and nothing else, I believe he thought that adding fiber wads in there were a waste of money.

After doing some shooting with blackpowder loads in my New Englander and Pedersoli fowlers and loading shells with this same recipe I will admit that yes, the fiber wads don't really do a whole lot to make the load shoot any better.
However, the cushion wads do serve a very important purpose- making the shooter comfortable!!! I never would have thought that taking it out would make a significant increase in the sharpness of the recoil! In my brass shells, I usually use two, half inch greased fiber wads and it shoots very soft- even with smokeless loads.

The nastiest recoiling load I tried, and it was a factory one- was a Gamebore "English" sporting load in the 2" length- I thought I shot a 3 1/2" Mossberg turkey load! I cut one apart and found it had no cushion at all- four shells from that box is all I want to shoot.

Also, I've been making my own paper "shotcups" from buttermilk cartons and other boxes made from similar heavy paperboard- and they really work at keeping the shot off the barrel- no more leading and the patterns became far too tight for cowboy action (15" pattern at 20 yards)- but wonderful for squirrel, turkey or deer hunting. I just curled the paperboard into the shell and overlapped it on itself. I tried cutting slits into it so it was more like a modern shotcup, but they made no difference. I will find these pieces of paper about 4-5' from the muzzle with a perfect pattern on them where the shot imprinted itself onto it. I do not secure it to the wad under the shot- it just sits atop it.

The last note is- always use greased/lubed fiber wads. I have a bunch of unlubed wads sitting around in 16 gauge and so worked up some loads using them, and patterned them at the range. When shot, the unlubed wads turned into confetti upon exiting the barrel. I got some laughs from the other side of the range asking me if I was trying to give the targets a party. The patterns, to me at least, seems slightly off- which likely was from the wads collapsing or disintegrating from the muzzle.

I've been wrong plenty of times before, but this is working.