One of the (few) nice things about getting older is that, if one waits long enough, stuff comes back into style. (Of course, one's own stash of said stuff is long gone, by the time this happens!)
One such "retro-revival" has to do with a renewed interest in old-style "built up" shotgun wad columns. I would venture to say that there has not been such interest expressed in these kinds of wads in at least two generations.
There have been some problems in this revival, of course. One of these problems has to do with getting useful information about the merits of the various kinds of old-fashioned wads.
From what I can tell, there never seemed to be all that much of what would now be considered compelling ballistic evidence about the relative merits of such wads. While there must have been such data available to ammunition companies most of the information that we "Joe Blow" shooters and reloaders got was some pretty anecdotal and "pre-industrial" stuff. The same is pretty much true, today, "Ballistic Products'" useful information, notwithstanding.
What I would like to find out includes:
What are the true limitations of card OP wads?
What are the true relative merits of cork, fiber, and the various types of felt filler wads?
What methods of filler wad modifications (if any) might contribute to more effective performance?
What filler wad lubricants are best for which applications?
Just how much (if at all) do thin OS wads actually degrade patterns and under what kinds of conditions?
Can "cupped" cardboard OP wads (e.g. such as was used in the old Winchester Super-X shells)be made to perform as well as their plastic equivalents?
Can paper, cloth, or cardboard shot bandages, shotcups, and/or "shot concentrators" be made to work effectively?
What, if any, "home brewed" wad technologies, (e.g. oiled sawdust or cormmeal (?!)or even crumpled-up newspaper filler wads)might have some merit, if only as emergency expedients?
