20 ga fowler wads

[Dennis Glazener]

I have gotten close to being finished with a 20 bore oct to round circa 1760 fowler (or smooth rifle, haven't decided for sure which it will be!) and wanted to take it out tomorrow and shoot it a few times to see if I want to remove the cheekrest or leave it on. I will let my son-in-law use it for deer (round ball) and I will use it on spring gobblers (at least I hope too!).

I have some 20 ga dry wads and wondered what you use to lube them? The wads I have for my .54 smooth bore are lubed with a beeswax mix but I am not sure I want to use that on the 20. I was wondering if I could use olive oil or maybe even liquid Murphy's Oil Soap. I doubt I shoot it very much tomorrow, just want to get the feel of the cheekrest so I can either remove it or leave it on.
Dennis

[roundball]

Olive oil would work...as would Natural Lube 1000, etc

[James Rogers]

Dennis, I use an olive oil/beeswax mix.

I have also used Crisco to test a few rounds 

[Dennis Glazener]

Thanks guys. Olive oil it is, have it on hand.
Dennis

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Olive oil is better if you are going to lick your fingers... It works well on the wads in my  .62    ....... I like to use bear grease....makes me feel PC!!

[D. Bowman]

Neets foot oil works well also.

[ERH]

I like wonder lube   put the wad on a sharp leather needle and dip in the hot lube

[40Haines]

Dennis,  I melt up some Crisco and roll them around in it for a bit.

First time I tried it I was worried that they would be a greasy mess in my shooting bag.

Not to worry, they come out almost dry.

[northmn]

Wads can be lubed with about anything depending on use.  When I shot ML trap I would go get a glass and fill it with water and let the fiber wads float in water.  Dry card wad wet fiber wad.  But i would shoot very quickly after loading.  some of the wet patch lubes like LHV or Hoppes 9 would also work well.  For hunting loads I use either no lube and just two card wads or else a card wad and a thin fiber wad with any type of good patch grease.  I prefer this mostly to protect the bore if I do not shoot that day and want to save the load.

DP

[Dennis Glazener]

Well I have not tested any of the suggestions. Packed up the truck with all the stuff Wed and by the time I could leave it started raining. Couldn't go Thur morning but had planned to go Thur afternoon and guess what it rained again. This morning was very cold and windy (up to 45MPH) so I passed and this afternoon I had a Dr's apt.

Will try again tomorrow but they are calling for snow/rain/wind! Well at least I am retired and can go Monday.
Dennis

[omark]

i use a mix of vaseline and beeswax, just another option.     mark

[amohkali]

I use bear grease (not oil), lard, or a combo of lard and beeswax (with a touch of either bear or olive oil in it to keep it soft enough to work in winter), depending on the situation (temperature, event, etc).

If you use lard, make sure it is unsalted lard.  Latino grocery stores are more likely to carry better quality lard these days.

[FALout]

Good luck on trying that shotgun out.  Nothing like try 'em out for the first time.

[northmn]

One time I ran out of wads at a rondy trap shoot and got involverd in a sudden death shootoff.  I went to the concession stand they had and grabbed a couple of napkins.  Used them for 4 shots and actually won that event.  Lots of fun seeing the confetti fly out the bore.  Couple of guys I knew laughed about the time they set a stubble field on fire using toilet paper for wadding hunting sharptails.  another very popular wad was the use of old wasps nests.  While they did not carry well in the pouch they packed in a made a very good wadding.  We ahve been spoiled today by the need to use commercial type wadding.  Some of that older stuff may ahve worked better than we think as the new card wads can hit the back of the shot column and cause the donut effect for cylinder bores.
Paper cartridges are also fun to play with and can be an interesting way to carry reloads, wspecially in a cartridge box.  A 20 bore is 5/8 inch so getting a dowl to wrap the paper around is no big deal.

DP