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I have been mostly loading nitro cards, cushin wads and over shot cards and I have used a few older one piece plastic wads in RMC all brass straight wall cases. Does anyone know which wads work best in straight wall hulls?

Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 596 Location: 17603

jshultz,
The Gualandi or Cheddite go well in straight walled PLASTIC hulls, don't know what you can do for the much thinner wall all brass cases.
www.grafs.com has a fair selection of 16ga wads.
Cheers,
R*2

Any of them will work. You might have to wrap the bottom of your chosen plastic wad in a square of polyethylene plastic to help it fill the case nice and snug, but its easy to do. Place the square of plastic evenly over the top of the wad guide, and then seat the wad down through the guide as you would normally.

The square of plastic will be blown out of the gun with the wad and should pose no problem. This trick also allows some of the smaller diameter wads to be used in the roomiest polyformed plastic hulls as well. Simply experiment with different thickness squares of plastic to find the thickness that works best for you. Good luck.

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2350 Location: West MI

What is the ID of the brass cases you're using? Balistic Products lists the gas seal diameters of most of their wads. Also, they sell a gas seal for slug and stack card loads that may help. Good luck, Mike

Magtech Brass 16's are .701", as per Circle Fly's chart.

I'm using RMC brass hulls which are much thicker than Mag Tech and according to Dave at RMC the inside diameters are very close to plastic and paper hulls as in +- 001. Because they are straight walled cases and I have pc wads, I was wonder which plastic wads would be best to begin the quest for good patterns.

It's hard to determine a corelation between wad fit and pattern quality. Because modern plactic wad bases obturate very well, most will work reasonably well in any case once the shell is fired. Powder migration can happen before the shell is fired, which will affect efficiency, and maybe the pattern quality.

Pattern quality is more affected by how well the shotcup protects the shot, the quality and hardness of the shot, the velocity and pressures generated, and the relationship between your barrel's interior and the shot/wad column while the column travels through the barrel. That is a lot of variables to sort out.

My best guess here is try to get your chosen wad to fit well enough to stop powder migration. Start with a powder charge selected to generate mild pressures and velocities. Then load and shoot the shells in a series of patterning tests to determine pattern quality. Work up your loads from there a step at a time until you get the best patterns at a velocity that gives you enough energy to do the job intended. In short, there are no known short cuts to working up a good load. Good luck with your reloading.

Hello All
Here are the Circle Fly wad recommendations for MagTech Brass

MagTech Brass Shotshell Recommended Wad Sizing

Bore Size 16ga. (.662”)

MagTech I.D. approx. .701”

Nitro Card 14ga.

1/2” Fiber (or) 14ga.
3/8” Fiber 16ga.

Overshot 13ga.

Hope this helps

http://www.circlefly.com/html/wad_sizing_chart.html

Enjoy the day
Mike

16gaugeguy , Thank you for the information, but my problems are logistics and availability. I’m currently using Pattern Control wads and I’m confident that I could have better patterns and want to try different plastic wad designs. I can’t go to the local store and buy a selection of wads because the nearest gun shop that carries wads is an hour and a half away and of course they don’t carry 16 gauge wads and have no desire to order same unless the order is a large order. I may be able to find plastic wads in Billings MT which is 3 hours away. I was hoping that some of you who load 1 and 1 1/8 oz. in RMC brass hulls with plastic wads could point me in the right direction which would narrow down the wad candidates for my initial loads.

Skeettx, thanks for the information, but I don’t have any Mag Tech hulls. I use similar loads in Double Hammer Crown Series brass hulls, which are modified Mag Tech brass. The modifications are an inner base wad and 209 size primer pockets. The similar loads were provided by Tom Armbruster and work very well.

E-mail me your address and I will send you a few Cheddite's, I have both the 1 oz & 1 1/8. I'll send some of each. I get them from Grafs.

I just got some RMC brass and plan to use the cheddite's.

They measure .667" across the base.

leftydude@cox.net

Got your PM, Jim.

They will go out tomorrow. Wink

I'll send both types, with explanations attached.

I did not realize Pattern Control is making a 16 ga wad. Where do you get them?

My apologies, Pattern Control does not make 16 g gauge wads, but they do make 28 gauge wads and I'm also in the process of finding the right 28 gauge wad for RMC hulls. My only 16 gauge hulls are from Ballistic Products.