Just thought I would post some info on fiber wad loads. These are 16 gauge paper hulls, federal monarch. They will be loaded with currently available fiber wads from ballistic products. The old Alcon wads are ring waxed, according to research, this is to help with leading in the barrel as there is no shot cup to protect the shot. Seems likely to me that the lead would also deform to some point without shot cup. Hopefully at the end of this post, I will be able to show the difference in patterns with fiber wads and plastic wads. Some with new fiber wads, waxed and non waxed, and with old Alcon wads that will soon arrive.
There are several suggestions on what was used to wax the old wads. Some of the products are bees wax, tallow and I’m sure many others. I have chosen tallow. I used a home made double broiler to melt the tallow. I boiled the pan of water and then removed from stove and placed 2nd pan in boiling water and added tallow. It melted pretty fast, then transferred the melted tallow to a tray I found at Wally World. Then I simply rolled the fiber wads in the tallow. It soaked up really fast, and then I placed them on old cookie sheet with waxed paper to dry.
I have another old school paper tool that was designed to melt the wax of the paper hulls back down to the crimp area, so thought I would give it a try. Not sure how long your suppose to leave them on this thing. Not sure you can see the difference in the color of the hull, but you can see a different shade of purple on the fired hull near the crimp area. I kept the hull moving on this tool and you could actually see the wax melting back down in the hull mouth, as it changed back to the dark purple color
This is my loaded shell. Everything is weighed out. The pre- crimp on these paper shells is a nightmare at best. I tried the 6 point mec pre- crimp and a smooth crimp cup for paper shells. It’s for a 12 gauge so it didn’t look well either. I haven’t seen a smooth crimp for 16, but will do some searching. Next option was the gaep pre crimp. It can be adapted to the mec 600 with a little patience. This is what is looks like.
Shot the papers with fiber wads today on skeet field with sweet 16. Load as follows. Federal paper monarch 2 3/4. Loaded 2 different grains of red dot. 17.0 grains with .135 over powder card. 1- 1/2”waxed fiber wad. 1- 1/2” waxed fiber wad. .995oz #8 shot and 6 fold crimp. The second was loaded with 17.5 grains all other components the same. The 17.0 gr failed to cycle auto 5 on light setting. The 17.5 cycled just fine. Both had light recoil. If you shoot auto 5’s you should know about what pressure will cycle and what won’t. Neither of these loads have been tested in a lab, load at your own risk. Both loads crushed clays with no problems. All wads were loaded with 50lbs of pressure. The old hulls had federal 209( not 209A) primers. I was out of those so I sub’ed in win 209. The wad under the shot has a protective layer. It’s pictured in this post. The purpose of this protection layer, or whatever you wanna call it is designed to allow the shot to sit on top of it, but not allowing the shot to embed itself into the wad.
