doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any benefits to modern plastic wads?

Daryl,
Thanks for posting this. I recall some data posted long ago on this, either from you or another LeFever owner.

It appears to me that these barrels were honed out by some partially hand operated method where the hone dwell and depth was controlled by operator input/movement. This would explain the somewhat irregular rate of taper. It also appears that there was a target diameter at approx 2" from the muzzle, then the choke.

Cleaning is usually much easier with plastic wads, that being said some forcing cones and chokes do accumulate plastic...depends on the wad too.

Chuck, I really don't know the tools available and used in those periods, but if they could make beautiful guns like those, they must have had some "ideas" on honing, too. Some years ago I passed on a sideplate Optimus that had bores .020" oversized at or near the breech. I fear I was "too smart" for my own good. Actually on the first barrel bore report, especially, I am kind of amazed how close they were. May have been closer than my figures, but I only have a Skeet's gauge and -------well, I won't start that.

I've seen two Parkers who's internal tapering began 6-7 inches from the muzzle. Many orders for shotguns, in the early years of the 20th century, specified certain pattern percentages, with certain size shot and sometimes with specific loading data.
Could very well be that in order to achieve such specifications, a certain amount of hand honing black magic was employed to get there. That could mean that what appear to be tapered chokes are really honed out bores.

Why wouldn't such tapers be attributed to some after market work done to cleanup bores which had been pitted by firing blackpowder and/or corrosive priming? It still appears the choking was accomplished in the last couple inches at the muzzle.

Jerry, Lefever commonly advertised Tapered Bores. Given we don't see them that often, but the gun's conditions don't seem to reflect the need to take out .020 " [that's a lot] in the bore diameter. I think the Crossbolt Lefevers were in a period beyond black powder and corrosive priming. Even if the guns had been aftermarket altered, I would assume they would not have been altered in a tapered way as I measured.

#1 advantage of plastic wads (with shotcups, of course) is, in my opinion, that they eliminate lead fouling in the barrel.

#2 advantage is tightening the patterns and cutting down on the number of flyers. Of course, tightening the patterns may, or may not, be considered an advantage, depending on your intended use.

I've only ever seen bad plastic fouling when I started reloading and, being extra cautious, loaded waaaay light and got a significant number of bloopers or burners that left stalactites in the bores. With properly loaded shells there will be some level of plastic fouling, but that's a lot easier to clean than lead.

All Lefever guns LACA or crossbolts were built prior to non-corosive priming. The bad affect of corrosive primers didn't really show up until the use of smokeless powders became common. Water was a common cleaner for black powder & it also took care of the primer residue. This was particularly noticable on early smokeless .22 RFs as the priming charge was high in proportion to the powder charge.
The American Rifleman ran an extensive report on this some years back & if I am remembering correctly non-sorrosive priming didn't really take place until up in the 1930's. Remington was a major contributor to the NC priming with their "Kleen-Bore" primers. The Army did not switch even then as the NC primers were not as long lifed as the older ones in storage. I believe that Julian Hatcher discusses this also in his "Notebook".
The general conclusion seemed to be from these accounts that more bores became pitted & ruined with the combination of corrosive primers with smokeless powder than were ever damaged by the use of black powder.

I have fired a lot of shotgun shells, all since the 1960's with plastic wads, and have never had a problem with plastic fouling, either with factory shells or reloads in fixed choke guns. I have seen plastic fouling in barrels with screw in chokes, though.
As for tapered bores, could this have been done in an attempt to increase velocity? I know that target rifle makers lapped their bores to a taper, and there was some experimentation with taper bores in the military around the time of WWI.