Mod wad

[John A.]

OK, I'm calling this little idea the mod wad from a lack of better name.

I'm wondering if any of you guys have tried to modify any of your wads to try to get them to perform a little better.

I admit that I am unsure if this is going to better anything, change anything, is a waste of time and energy, or if it will help the wad and the shot separate better in hopes of having a better pattern downrange.

Obviously I haven't tried it in this wad or a myriad of any others that I have used, so I can't comment on how it would work with any other wad types but I have been doing some testing with this wad and shot size/powder in the same gun to get a realistic base line for how it has been working with the unmodified wads.

If any of you guys have already tried this or other minor modifications to your shotshell wads, I'm interested in hearing how it worked for you and what the mod did. Keep it tighter, spread it out more, etc.

Or if you've done a different modification if you don't mind sharing I'm interested in learning something new.

Unmodified DRA-12 wad has 4 large petals



Modifed wad has 8 petals. I simply used a pair of scissors and cut down the center of the large petals to double them.



Here is how it patterned with the same shot, same gun, same powder charge with the unmodified wad. I will update the topic later when I get to shoot a few with the modified wads to see what happens.

 

[CaddmannQ]

This is going to be pretty cool.

I have modified some shot wads by crushing out the crushable zone to various degrees so that I could get extra balls into the load.

After reading about the Aquila mini loads and roll crimping, I was thinking that I might make my own shorty loads, allowing me another shell in the tube of my Mossberg.

I intended to do that the same way.

Of course the long ones I made do buck harder than Factory birdshot load my hulls came from, but I would say they were no worse than a big deer slug.

And at that I was shooting them with that plastic pistol grip John.

But I handle a lot of heavy stuff and my hands are fairly tough for a retired office worker.

My buddy who handles produce for a living couldn't deal with that gun and my buck+ball shots. 2 rounds through the barrel and that was it for him.

I haven't had the chance to try out the shotgun since I put the new wood furniture on, so that is one of the must-do's on my agenda.

 

[John A.]

I suspect having more petals, the wad is going to separate from the shot sooner, which will spread the pattern out more. This would be useful for brush hunting birds.

Where tight and long shots are preferred, I doubt that it'll do well for that, so that's the reason for the testing.

I just want to know what does what and why.

 

[John A.]

I shot a few today.

Adding petals did cause the patterns to open up some.

Regular wad



Modified wad

 

[nitesite]

I suspected the shot density would be affected and boy did you ever prove that it would.

I love experiments. Thanks for the thread.

 

[John A.]

Next experiment, using some hot glue and gluing some of the petals together to make it a 2 petal wad. I suspect that would make the pattern tighter and better for longer range hunting (think turkey hunting here).

How I wish I could find some solid wads/shotcups that I could make my own slits in. I would sit down one evening and make up a bunch of flitecontrol wads so quick it would make your head spin.

Sadly, I have no idea where to find such a thing.

Do you know of a place where one might source some federal flite control wads or solid cups?

 

[nitesite]

John,

I've never seen Flite-Control wads for sale ANYWHERE. Starting them to seat thru the hull mouth would be a totally interesting endeavor.

I seem to remember seeing solid tube wads somewhere. I'll look online here in a bit.

 

[nitesite]

Here you go John. One possible source wad to cut out something close to a FliteControl.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/5...ds-12-gauge-csd-118-1-1-8-oz-steel-bag-of-250

 

[John A.]

Thanks for the link Nitesite.

I was also looking at the gualandi (sp?) unslit wads from bpi too. I'm thinking pretty hard about buying one or both of these to try out.

Straight out of the box, the 2 petal slitted wads should make some dandy 00 and 000 wads. There is a guy on youtube that was using the mg42 wads (which is essentially a 2 petal Remington figure 8 wad) and #1 shot getting more than a dozen pellets in a 20" circle at 60 yards and with an improved modified choke. That's really good coverage.

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/MG42-12ga-wad-250_bag/productinfo/072MG42/

and this wad for the "custom" slit like the flitecontrol. I think it was designed more for heavy shot and steel and such for goose hunting, but could probably be alright for lead too. I don't see why it couldn't work for lead. Just probably a little thicker plastic and more fouling in the long run ?????

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Cushioned-LBC-12ga-wad-unslit-250_bag/productinfo/0729012/

But I understand your point about getting them loaded into a hull could be interesting with the petals being "backward" than normal wads.

Several years ago, I found contact info of a guy who was demilling federal flite control wads that sold them, but he replied saying that he couldn't get them anymore.

I suspect that Federals patent is still in place. After about a decade, I think others can "copy" them.