What do I use to make my own card wads?

[Bristow Kid]

I am working on some new loads for my .45-70 Rolling Block.  I wanted to try using card wads made from milk cartons.  How do y'all make your's?

[Steel Horse Bailey]

See replies on the Darksider's Den.

[gw]

Bristow---Do you mean plastic or waxed cardboard milk cartons? I've made plastic wads from coffee can lids to use between powder and grease cookies--they seem to work fine. I used to make my own wads from wad material sheeting I bought from Buffalo Arms---and it woked just fine. Lately I've been buying wads from Walters----they're great and it saves some time in reloading too.  Hey, if you want to try some, I still have some of the vegetable fiber wad material that you can have for the asking---I can bring it to the Convention if you like--let me know.

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[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I make wad punches for .45's out of belted magnum cases.  Drill out the primer pocket to push out the wads.  Re-size every once in a while & chamfer.

[EDK]

Buffalo Arms has a press mounted wad cutter.  The body screws into the die holder of a single stage press and the actual cutter/punch goes on the shell holder slot of the press ram.  I bought one at the Quigley shoot last summer to play with wax paper and other exotic wads.  For the fiber wads of conventional size and thickness, I'll get them from SAGEBRUSH or WALTERS or SHILOH or BUFFALO ARMS....All good folks to do business with.  Whatever you pay for the press mount, it's worth it---an arch punch and a hammer is a pain and very imprecise to boot!

[Otter]

I use an automotive gasket punch that has been modified (enlarged and sharpened) to the proper diameter. Mount it in my drill press. I use the "protection" board from packages of print paper (similar to the board on the back of legal pads), 24" x 36" and 30" x 42" in size. I can get over 5000 wads from a 30" x 42" sheet of board. The boards do vary in thicknesses, from about .024" to .070" depending on print paper manufacturer. No reason you can't do the same with milk cartons, jugs, felt, EPDM or even newspaper. There are a lot of ways you can make this BPCR game (sport) less expensive - make your own wads, make your own lube, cast your own bullets, in addition to loading your own rounds. I do all of that and can load 100 rounds of 45-70 for about $13 or $14. Have fun and good luck . . .

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy!

I replied on the other forum, but I'll add this:  the Orange Juice and Milk cartons that used to be wax coated (but are now a soft plastic) can be used.  I've heard 'bout folks who use the plastic milk jugs, too.  Any type of pressed cardboard stiffener (like Otter said) can be used for a non-coated dry wad.  You can get a pretty fair electronic (or manual) caliper from Midway, Brownells, Cabelas and other places for less than $30 that will allow you to find the thickness of material that you want or need.  .030" is very common as is .060".  The OJ cartons I use are from Tropicana and measure a pretty consistent .027".

Using Walters and/or Circle Fly wads make things MUCH less time-consuming, 'tho! 

[geo]

i use a leather punch and bee's wax i get from a crafts store. but most anything combustible can be used as a wad, even the plastic milk jugs. i prefer the bee's wax to keep the powder from the lubed bullet and i know the wad will add to the lube when fired. good luck, geo.

[Grapeshot]

When I am bored, and the weather will not permit me to go shooting and the internet can't hold my attention; I take an arch punch and a rubber mallet and make .45 and .44 wads out of toothpaste cartons, soda cartons, or soap boxes that hold my favorite bath soap.  Sure it gets to be boring after awhile, but when you HAVE to do SOMETHING, at least it's productive and keeps me out of trouble with the Haus Frau.

I particularly like the tooth paste cartons that have the foil glued to the sides to keep the lube cookies from migrating into and through the cardboard.  Soda cartons are even better as they are semi impermiable to water and the oils in the BP Lube.

[cpt dan blodgett]

Lots of folks use Harbor Freight 7/16 punches
And as stated above big discussions in Dark Siders Den

[wildman1]

Soda cartons. WM

[Short Knife Johnson]

I use vegitable fibre gasket material .030" thick for the big guns and soda case cardboard for my .44-40s and Russians (placed shiny side up).  I cut my wads with Fred Cornell press mounted wad punches.  I guess buying Walter's Wads would be nice, but I prefer to be a little more self-sufficient.    

I would stay away from any sort of plastic product such as the gallon milk jugs and other low-density polyethylene material (LDPE).  Milk carton is also popular, but I can't comment on it - I can't drink milk no more.