Questions about pre-lubed fiber wad column for 12 ga brass hulls

DG45 · June 5, 2010, 01:25 AM

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.

snuffy · June 5, 2010, 09:51 AM

DG, you DON'T want anything other than a thin over-shot wad on top of the shot. The procedure you described is exactly how you do it, you have to figure out how much, or how long the wad column has to be to arrive at the right height to have the over shot wad at the top of the shell.

Since you are gluing the over shot wad into the top of the shell, you could end up short of the end of the case, then glue it where ever it sits.

The only time you have to be worried about wad column length is to consider their weight. If the wad column is dense, hard wads, you have to consider that part of the over all payload. Normal cushion filler wads don't weigh much, but they do have to be considered as part of the total weight.

What you see in this pic is the wad column I needed to load 1-1/8 ounce of shot in the mag tech cases.

Two card wads, a fiber wad and a felt wad brought the top of the shot charge to the top of the shell so the over shot wad was just below flush with the top. That load didn't work well at all. The 11 gauge card wads didn't seal well, the charge of Unique powder didn't burn clean and the velocity was anemic.

I ended up using AA nitro 100, which is about the same burning rate as 700-x or red dot, and a 12 ga flex wad sold by ballistic products. It sealed well and the loads were plenty fast.

DG45 · June 6, 2010, 10:47 AM

Thanks for sharing your wisdom Snuffy. The photos were very helpful too because I noticed that all your overshot card weren't seated at exactly the same depth in your hulls, and weren't exactly level.

I was just making something difficult out of something easy by trying to load my wad columns too perfectly with just exactly the same exact distance everytime, and making them perfectly level, so that that after placing my overshot card on top there was just a tiny edge of brass visable above it. Ridiculous. There was no practical benefit, which your reply made clear.

When I gave up trying to make them all look all pretty and perfectly uniform, it became much easier. I've reloaded all 10 again, and this time just guesstimated the wadding needed for each and it went much faster. They actually look pretty decent too.

I'd never tried hand-loading brass shotshell hulls before. I had handloaded a few paper hulls though, and could use a little more or a little less roll crimp depending on where the overshot card was, but there was no roll crimping these brass hulls.

June 5, 2010, 01:25 AM	#1
DG45 Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2009 Posts: 904	Questions about pre-lubed fiber wad column for 12 ga brass hulls 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.

June 5, 2010, 09:51 AM	#2
snuffy Senior Member Join Date: May 20, 2001 Location: Oshkosh wi. Posts: 3,055	DG, you DON'T want anything other than a thin over-shot wad on top of the shot. The procedure you described is exactly how you do it, you have to figure out how much, or how long the wad column has to be to arrive at the right height to have the over shot wad at the top of the shell. Since you are gluing the over shot wad into the top of the shell, you could end up short of the end of the case, then glue it where ever it sits. The only time you have to be worried about wad column length is to consider their weight. If the wad column is dense, hard wads, you have to consider that part of the over all payload. Normal cushion filler wads don't weigh much, but they do have to be considered as part of the total weight. What you see in this pic is the wad column I needed to load 1-1/8 ounce of shot in the mag tech cases. Two card wads, a fiber wad and a felt wad brought the top of the shot charge to the top of the shell so the over shot wad was just below flush with the top. That load didn't work well at all. The 11 gauge card wads didn't seal well, the charge of Unique powder didn't burn clean and the velocity was anemic. I ended up using AA nitro 100, which is about the same burning rate as 700-x or red dot, and a 12 ga flex wad sold by ballistic products. It sealed well and the loads were plenty fast. __________________ The more people I meet, the more I love my dog They're going to get their butts kicked over there this election. How come people can't spell and use words correctly?

June 6, 2010, 10:47 AM	#3
DG45 Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2009 Posts: 904	Thanks for sharing your wisdom Snuffy. The photos were very helpful too because I noticed that all your overshot card weren't seated at exactly the same depth in your hulls, and weren't exactly level. I was just making something difficult out of something easy by trying to load my wad columns too perfectly with just exactly the same exact distance everytime, and making them perfectly level, so that that after placing my overshot card on top there was just a tiny edge of brass visable above it. Ridiculous. There was no practical benefit, which your reply made clear. When I gave up trying to make them all look all pretty and perfectly uniform, it became much easier. I've reloaded all 10 again, and this time just guesstimated the wadding needed for each and it went much faster. They actually look pretty decent too. I'd never tried hand-loading brass shotshell hulls before. I had handloaded a few paper hulls though, and could use a little more or a little less roll crimp depending on where the overshot card was, but there was no roll crimping these brass hulls.