I want to experiment with home made wads. The Circle Fly wads are great, but why ship wads half way around the world when I don't have to? Interested in making wads for 44/40, 45Colt, 45/70, 12Ga (need 11Ga for the Magtec Brass cases I'm told).
Fourfingers, except for the 45-70 wads I'm going to be candid with you ...Your wasting your time and it will be more expensive and time consuming in the long run making your own wads. Especially the ones needed for the brass hulls. By the time you make your 1st wad, you could be loading the pre-cut ones
1. No wads of any kind are needed and if used is an useless exercise for 44-40 and 45 Colt original powder reloads. Just seat the bullet on top of the powder column. But if you must persist, remember that a 44-40 case has a 40 degree shoulder and NO WADS are to be seated below the shoulder. As for the 44-40 and 45 Colt, just measure the ID of the case mouth and start banging them out
2. For 12ga brass hulls, where do you plan to obtain the proper materials for the hard fiber over powder cards, THICK greased spacer/cushion fiber wads and the over shot cardboard wads? Good luck finding the proper materials because I don't know of the source. And if you do find the source, plan to spend more money for the sheet material than if you just purchased the proper pre-cut wads and spacers to the tune of $24 for 2000 wads! The shipping to Bathurst can't be much more
3. But since you want to 'experiment' aka thinking this is the cheap-cheap way out, here are the dimensions:
*** Hard fiber over powder wad: 0.740 x 0.122
*** Greased fiber spacer/cushion wad: 0.749 x 0.518 (using the 1/2" ones, you can cut them to make the proper column height in the case)
*** Hard cardboard overshot card: 0.743 x 0.045
And have you cost out the punches you will need if you find the proper materials?
So that leaves the only wads you should be punching out yourself ...
*** 45-70 - just buy an Osborne #14 punch, 0.460 and punch out any material you want to use.
Good luck with your endeavor!