Written by The Bevel Brothers
Bevel Up: Back about 20 years ago we wrote an article about hunting loads for smoothbore muzzleloaders. The question had to do with the best loads for small game using shot and deer using patched round ball. One of our “recommended” loads for shot included the use of field expedients such as grass or corn shucks as over powder and overshot wads.
Bevel Down: That brought in some hate mail from a few naysayers who contended that the use of anything other than a commercial card and fiber wads in a shotgun was dangerous. The alleged danger was supposed to come from the wadded up grass or leaves or corn shucks some-how turning into a barrel obstruction and causing the whole thing to blow up in our collective faces.
Eventually, we were able to rally enough experts on the subject to say that there was and is no such danger. But even though we were eventually vindicated, there is still a persistent belief that only properly sized and perfectly cut card and fiber wads (or patched round ball) should be used in smoothbore muzzleloaders. Back when we were interested in doing things in a “period correct” way so as to know what it was like to hunt the way the old-timers did, we used leaves and corn shucks in our shotguns out in the woods all the time. We still do it sometimes if we forget to bring the right cut wads when we leave the house. It’s not the best wad material, but if the choice is shooting with less than perfect wads versus not shooting, we always pick the alternative that keeps us in the woods and shooting.
Bevel Up: I have to admit that I do most of the smoothbore/shotgun shooting in this family. I’m finding that as my eyes age up over the 70-year mark, the sights on my Tennessee squirrel rifle are getting harder and harder to see. My favorite muzzleloaders for squirrels and rabbits these days are a 20 gauge flintlock trade gun, an old original Bannerman conversion 1863 Springfield musket cut down and bored out to a 17 gauge smoothbore, and an old Damascus-barreled percussion English double that has one barrel bored 15 gauge and the other 13 gauge. I like that double because I can put a little bit heavier load in the bigger barrel for a little bit more range if I need it.
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All of those guns take a different sized wad and I’ve got commercially made wads for all of them. You can get good commercial wads in just about any size you need from Circle Fly (online at Circlefly.com) or from Mike Eder (at his booth on Commercial Row at Friendship or at his shop at 6929 Beech Tree Rd., Nineveh, IN 46287).
But there are times when I just grab the wrong bag on the way out the door, or forget to re-stock my wad sup-ply in the right bag, or I sometimes get to fooling around shooting at dirt clods or wasp nests and just plain run out.
That’s when I look around for something else I can use for wads. Usually, that’s grass or weeds like foxtail grow-ing up in a ditch or next to the fence, or some leaves if they’re not too dried up and crumbly.
