Originally Posted By: Researcher
Quote:
If one were to substitute card and fiber for 1-piece plastic wads with the same powder charge and shot weight what would you expect the differences to be for any given load?
Pressure:
Velocity:
Pattern:
Safety note: I have no intention of doing the above without lab verification, but I would like opinions before spending the money for lab tests.
My reasons for making a wad change is to be able to shoot 3/4 oz. target loads in the very tightly choked bores of a 1920 Parker without having to open up the chokes.


Lower, lower, tighter. Much easier to get tight patterns at lower velocity. The trick is to get your tight long range pattern at high velocity so the pellets have suffiecient energy to do the job.

Back in my early days of reloading the "standard" 1200 fps load most every trap shooter in my circle used was a Federal paper case, Federal primer, 23 grains of Red Dot, a nitro card wad, two Feltan-Bluestreaks, and 1 1/8 ounce of # 7 1/2 or #8. Then along came the little PGS (plastic gas seal) wad to replace the nitro card, and for the same 1200 fps you could drop the powder charge to 18 grains of Red Dot.


I remember those old loads vividly. They shot well if "hard" shot was used...not so well with the "chilled" shot that was about all we had available, at that time. I also remember that these loads were not especially gentle "on the back end".

I also remember what happened when shooters went to plastic OP wads. (The first were Remington H-Wads, I believe.) A lot of guys either did not or would not reduce their powder charges, which often led to fair amount of unnecessary wear and tear on both shooters and guns. (I remember one little guy [Why does it always seem to be the short ones?] who proclaimed to one and all, "I'll be damned if I'm going to spend FIVE DOLLARS for a new charge bar". So, he ended up with a raging flinch and a cracked receiver in his brand-new Winchester Model 1200 trap gun.)