Playin with yer wad.....

[Bruce W Sims]

Hi, Folks:

Been out on YOU TUBE again and am intrigued by the guy who used a 2:1 mix of bees wax and lamb's tallow
to soak 1/8 in. wool felt and cut out his own wads. Why was it interesting? Because I had just watched
a video of another guy loading a Navy Colt without the wads and I noticed two interesting things.
One was that the fella had to wrestle with the gun to get the ball to load. The other was that after
load he smeared Crisco over the chambers to keep away those naughty cross-fire blues. Maybe its just me, but this fella
really seemed clumsy at what he was doing. OTOH the fella with the waxing wads put the wad in and then pressed the ball home with little or no problem.   So...... here's my question.....

I know that these felt wads can be bought so I thought I would play around with making my own just for the fun of it.
Thing is, though, it seems like using bees wax AND tallow is a bit of over kill. I'm also wondering if the felt really needs to be that think. Now, on another thread there was the idea of making something similar by soaking paper towels in bees wax, which is still
very much on my mind. All the same I thought I would put this out there to find out if anyone else has played around in this area.
Thoughts?

Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Gus Walker]

   I think i have tried every combination out there Finally settled on two ways of shootin six guns. Number one and the easiest is to mix uo some beeswax and olive oil Thick enough to just punch lube pills out of. The other is almost the same i just add a little more olive oil and while its in liquid form i poor it over felt that i get at Jo Annes fabrics.Both work excellent, the nice thing about the lube pills ya can put em under or over the ball.

[Bruce W Sims]

How long will those puppies hold-up? Are these something you would use only if you knew you were going to shoot right away?
Could you carry your pistol for the day without a misfire?  You got me curious.....

[Noz]

Wads under the ball or grease over the ball makes no difference. Sam'l Colt didn't recommend either but he never envisioned his guns being shot as much as we do.

I use the wads under the ball because it helps fill the chamber and gives me a little protection agains "chain fires" and I don't like the mess of the gerase over..

[Lefty Dude]

One thing about C&B revolver shootin, you can grease your Balls anyway ya want.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I punch wads from pulp egg carton with regular hollow punches. I soak them in melted lube and let cool on a plastic sheet. It doesn't seem to matter much what mixture I use but lamb tallow, beeswax and olive oil in about equal volumes seems to work well without running in to the powder.

Yes, there is a product sold under the name WONDER WADS.  But, at about 8 cents each and rising, I'll do a bit of work.

[Pettifogger]

Prevention of chain fires is more a function of properly fitting balls and tight caps.  The lube is just for that -- lube to keep the fouling on BP soft.  If you are shooting APP or 777 you don't need a wad or grease.

[Coffinmaker]

Pettifogger beat me to it.  APP ...... What's a Wad??

Coffinmaker

[Bruce W Sims]

Just a follow-up....

I picked-up about 2# of bees wax on the INTERNET for about $7USD and 10# of beef fat from the local Jewel Foods Store
for free. I also went to Joann Fabrics and got some wool felt after almost buying felt at Micheals Crafts that was made of
fiber spun from cast-off plastic bottles (true story). No tellin what THAT would have done to my gun.

Anyhoo..... I boiled the beef fat and cleaned it of meat and debris; ran the fat through a meat grinder and boilded it up in the
original water. Making sure I kept the tallow separate from the other organic materials was a real pain but the result was snowy white tallow.

Out of the 10# of beef fat I got about 2# of tallow which was about perfect as I then added a pount of bees wax and melted it all together in in the oven.

I put a 12 inch square of felt on a cookie sheet and put a few dippers of mix over it and let it cool until evening. I started punching out wafers but I need to keep them in the fridge or freezer as they get a bit sloppy at room temperature.

I wonder if dusting them with chalk or talc would help out handling them.... or shouldn't I sweat the small stuff?  Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Bruce; Lamb tallow can be made the same way, and doesn't go rancid.

[Bruce W Sims]

Bruce; Lamb tallow can be made the same way, and doesn't go rancid.

Thanks, Sir Charles:

I was wondering what the shelf-life for this product would be. I think the lamb's tallow will be my next project.

BTW:
a.) Would changing the ratio from 2:1 to 1:1 wax-to-tallow make the result more stable at room temperature, or is this just the way these things are?
b.) I would like to take these items to the range for use when reloading my Dragoon. Any thoughts on the best way to pack
and transport these items. I was thinking about using one of those little cap tins, since I carry my caps in a snail capper. Worse case scenerio is having the oils leak from the container and get all over everything.  Thoughts?

Best Wishes,
Bruce

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I use one of those detestable plastic chewing tobacco containers  (Copehagen) I use them for all kinds of little bits

[Stu Kettle]

I must really be out of touch.  Last Copenhagen can I saw was still cardboard with a tin lid.

[Bruce W Sims]

Hmmm.... I was thinking about using one of my cast-off heroin syringes with the needle removed. I'm
guessing it oughta be right up there with yer chew......

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

How about using a Lypsil tube to apply lube to your cylinder mouth?

[Bruce W Sims]

How about using a Lypsil tube to apply lube to your cylinder mouth?

Thanks, Sir Charles:

Actually I am working to move away from slathering the front of my cylinder with stuff. This is one of the
reasons I have put so much time and trouble into the idea of making these wads. Down the road I
see me carrying my pistol in a kind of harnessed belt holster and with a cartridge case on the other side to
hold two extra cylinders. If I use some sort of compound to seal-over the cylinder I have visions of having
that stuff all over the place. Now I had heard that some folks put the wads over the outside of the cylinder
after the cylinder has been charged. I think I would need to give this a try before I could speak on it intelligently.
Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[Lefty Dude]

An alternate method is the lubed wad over the ball. I have used this method here in the Hot Arizona Desert for 30 Years.
Lube gets in the barrel either way.
I always keep Bore-Butter lightly coated in the barrel, after a patch of Ballistol.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Yeah! The Lypsil tube was a phase I went through, now I punch out pulp egg carton to make wads and soak them in lamb tallow/church candle/olive oil mix. Wad goes under the ball.

[Bruce W Sims]

BTW: I was talking with a shooter at a local waterhole who advised me against
putting the wads OVER the ball reporting that I could easily run into the same
problems any other gun would have with plain old dirt in the bore. I'm not sure
the fella was speaking the same language as I could imagine this more with
something like a modern smokeless powder round but not so much with BP.

Does this make any sense?  Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[Gus Walker]

   In my opinion the wad should go tween powder and ball, if put on top and one slid forward it would act like a barrel obstruction.