Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 6:42 pm
WOW! Mark IS talking to us common folks, I feel so special!! 
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Poly wads...which side up?
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Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 7:04 pm
Sorry about stealing your thread, didn't mean to, Mark do the test man, flip those wads.
Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Mon May 06, 2019 6:33 am
Now that the peanut gallery has roasted me a bit, lets steer this thread back to it's original content.
A number of years ago this same question came up on this forum. Many a key board expert stated their factual opinion. We all know about opinions, 50% half truths, 45% B.S. 5% unknown. I do not remember the finial out come of the debate. But it boils down to the same answer with these black powder rifles what does the rifle like. Ole Coltsmoke, does more testing than most shooters here. Some of the data that he has will surprise you. We have had many a conversation about most topics. At the end of the day I am lazy when it comes to poly wads, just put the bevel side down. The heat from the fired powder charge will soften it a touch and the wad will conform. So you all have a great day!
With Blessings,
MAH
A number of years ago this same question came up on this forum. Many a key board expert stated their factual opinion. We all know about opinions, 50% half truths, 45% B.S. 5% unknown. I do not remember the finial out come of the debate. But it boils down to the same answer with these black powder rifles what does the rifle like. Ole Coltsmoke, does more testing than most shooters here. Some of the data that he has will surprise you. We have had many a conversation about most topics. At the end of the day I am lazy when it comes to poly wads, just put the bevel side down. The heat from the fired powder charge will soften it a touch and the wad will conform. So you all have a great day!
With Blessings,
MAH
Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Tue May 07, 2019 10:40 am
Afraid I'm going to have to call BS on this wad thing. But, I still know guys who index their primers, so who knows?
Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 3:25 pm
I wonder which way up they put them in the late 1800's 
Re: Poly wads...which side up?
Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 3:07 pm
I did some limited testing, firing 7 shot groups each of three powder weights in load development of my 40-65. That was 21 shots with the 0.060” poly wad radiused side up and 21 with the radiused side down. Wind was 2mph from 6 so I didn’t make any sight adjustment for groups at 300 yards. The radiused side up gave a ¼ minute better groups on average and the radius down gave 1 fps better velocity on average. SD was 5 and 7 respectively. So it’s a draw. Not enough testing to cause me to go either way.
One thing I did find, two wads measuring 0.415-0.417. They were stuck together. I caught this on the radius up insertion as they wouldn’t fit. If I had been putting them in radius side down they would have gone in with slightly more force. That maybe a point to use the radius up. These normally run 0.410 for this brand. I could have mixed the two brands when returning unused wads to storage. I know from previous testing that oversize wads do not give as consistent performance as ones near bore diameter, mixed with 0.410, SD and accuracy would probably be even worse.
labop
One thing I did find, two wads measuring 0.415-0.417. They were stuck together. I caught this on the radius up insertion as they wouldn’t fit. If I had been putting them in radius side down they would have gone in with slightly more force. That maybe a point to use the radius up. These normally run 0.410 for this brand. I could have mixed the two brands when returning unused wads to storage. I know from previous testing that oversize wads do not give as consistent performance as ones near bore diameter, mixed with 0.410, SD and accuracy would probably be even worse.
labop