The use of corn meal as wadding in smooth bore guns

[2 shots]

  target says 80 gr. 2f geox  = cornmeal = 7 1/2 shot.

[Daryl]

How much shot? 2 ounces?
Using corn meal as the overpower wad, would certainly make it easier to load a full choked gun than with a 1/2" fiber wad.

[Leatherbark]

It was a square load all the way around.  80 powder, equivalent corn meal, equivalent 7-1/2 shot.  The load is on the target, but it is hard to see unless it is enlarged.  It also says the aiming point is at the bottom of the bull and the distance was 30 yards.  This shotgun shoots high because of not enough drop in the stock because I cannot cheek down without having to look over my glasses.  For someone that can see okay it cheeks just fine, you can aim down the barrel. But it shooting high for my hold Helps for those long-range clay birds. When I aim and yank the trigger at the right time (seldom), my buddy said it obliterates a clay pigeon way out there. I need to solder a tall fowler sight on it.

Bob

[JBJ]

Even without knowing the pattern percentage, that's a turkey "getter" for sure! Is the barrel choked? You mentioned that you made the shotgun using the tube from an old Savage single barrel shotgun. A lot of those old single barrels were choked full unless you cut it back a bit. I definitely have to try this method out.

J.B.

[Pukka Bundook]

Or range, Leatherbark.

If a dense central concentration, with a smooth bore there is no guarantee it will always be in the same position to the overall spread.
That is why the evenest distribution of pellets over the entire target  is the best possible answer.

[Daryl]

Even without knowing the pattern percentage, that's a turkey "getter" for sure! Is the barrel choked? You mentioned that you made the shotgun using the tube from an old Savage single barrel shotgun. A lot of those old single barrels were choked full unless you cut it back a bit. I definitely have to try this method out.

J.B.

Pictured is a full choke shotgun I made from an old Savage 12-gauge Poke stalk.

[Joe R]

There’s so much packed in this post from the video to all the replies I don’t know where to begin.

[Joe R]

Could solve wad loading problems in tightly choked barrels, too.

Absolutely! Big light bulb over my head with this thought. I have a turkey choke Colerain barrel laying around for years and one of my hesitations about using it was the tight constriction of the bore and how loading it is not going to be a lot of fun.

[Joe R]

The corn meal also acts as a shot buffer to protect the shot from deforming upon discharge. This helps the shot pattern in flight.

I wonder if loading as in the video and it sitting as a wad under the shot is going to get you much mixing, in a typical shot buffer manner, into the shot as it is fired? Danny Caywood on his website had a recipe that included pushing your over powder wad down the bore a bit and adding corn meal, while tapping the barrel, to fill in the voids of the shot like buffer in a modern shot gun shell. I tested it a good bit years ago and I say it definitely worked but it probably only added a couple of yards to the pattern. I was doing this for turkey hunting and may have only loaded the gun once in a season (other than patterning) and it definitely is not some you would want to do if you had to do a lot of reloading. I pretty much got away from doing it altogether and usually load in a V. M. Starr like manner and go with it file turkeys. (It is a jugged choked 20 ga. though.)

[Joe R]

Interesting. I know it burns well, when in a tree. Sam F. stated wasp nest was "like asbestos" when he used it as a barrier to protect his .010" or .012" patches from burning up.

Well you suckered me in and got me off cornmeal for a second. 😃 Many years ago when I started out I experienced a stuck ball and came to the conclusion I needed thinner patches if I was going to play this game. The result wasthin patches that were getting burnt up pretty bad. Back in those days ol Sam F. was required reading and I picked up on the hornets nest idea. A couple layers across the muzzle and a ramrod run down and you had a hornets nest vision was. Lo and behold this worked. Patches were getting recovered intact and accuracy improved.

I later learned that this was not necessary and you could do quite all right with thicker patching material 😉

[Daryl]

Joe, another way of loading it and getting Full choke or perhaps better performance would be using just the overshot card wads between powder and shot
and over the shot. They will load easily though the choke and fill the bore. Would be easier loading than carrying and dispensing the corn meal.
It is well worth trying.  Even though BP is fast burning compared to the modern "grey" powder, it seems to have less deformation characteristics to a shot
charge & seems to invariably produce tighter patterns in any given choke. I found this when trying BP loads in modern guns. TIGHTER patterns.
This is worth a try. It's all about experimenting.

[Joe R]

Exactly Daryl. The Caywood recipe called for 3 or so thin (overshot) cards over the powder. I guess the idea is to prevent blowing through the loaf. It works fine but I don’t get an appreciable difference in pattern doing it this way versus just using the 1/8 inch-ish thick wad over powder in my jug choked Type C trade gun. An I’ve done a lot of load up with shot, loading down with powder, changing powder now going to try this manner trying to see if anything works better.

[Joe R]

… ok Daryl,  went back and re-read what you were talking about and I think you are talking about getting the thin wads down the Colerain turkey choke. Yes I’m sure that would work if I get on the ball and ever get that built.

[Keith Zimmerman]

Powder.  Wasp nest.  Shot.  Wasp nest.  Works well for me.

[Joe R]

Keith, when you say wasp nest I am assuming you mean the “honeycombed” nest made by wasps as opposed to hornet. What I’m was using was the paper hornets nest which are the big nests with the  “honeycomb” (and to be clear I know there’s no honey for either of these bees involved) inside the nest. This material is in layers and kind of crumbly. I don’t think it would keep your shot down unless you used a whole lot of it. I can see where actual wasp nest would be kind of spongy, springy and would expand in the bore and hold shotgun loading components in place.

[Hungry Horse]

 I’ve found 7 1/2 shot to be almost worthless in a muzzleloader. When you put enough powder in it to penetrate it blows the pattern.

Hungry Horse

[Joe R]

That is fascinating observation to me HH. My experience on paper is that I can get very good patterns out of my 20 ga. Type C trade gun and I have honestly killed a bunch of turkeys with that gun and they are not known for being in the easiest of game to kill with shot. I’m shooting (or trying to) shoot them in the head but being a muzzleloader all the shot does not necessarily go where I want and I have cleaned birds that have had pellets completely penetrate the breast. Mind you I have hedged my bet on this and mostly been using copper plated 7 1/2’s.

[Joe R]

… the big thing that I should add in regards to this discussion is what range are you wanting to limit yourself to? When I first built the gun it was cylinder bore and I trusted the pattern out to 23 yards. So I felt I had a cushion to misjudge a bit and effectively kill out to about 25. I’ve since had it jug choked and I feel it’s probably a 30 yard gun now. I don’t know that I’ve shot that many birds at that range to discuss whether the pellet size is limiting but I’ve shot a lot of them at 25 and in and I can’t think of many shrugging it off.

[Daryl]

Years ago, for ducks over decoys, I switched to trap loads. Head and necks, hardly ever any pellets in the breasts.

[Kurt]

Turkey hunt with a cornmeal load.

[Leatherbark]

Even without knowing the pattern percentage, that's a turkey "getter" for sure! Is the barrel choked? You mentioned that you made the shotgun using the tube from an old Savage single barrel shotgun. A lot of those old single barrels were choked full unless you cut it back a bit. I definitely have to try this method out.

J.B.

Yes, it still has the full choke which is why I use the Corn meal or 12 wool wads.  The 12-gauge chamber of a modern gun is ideal for a 7/8 x 14 breech plug made from a grade-8 bolt.  Also, the forcing cone of the savage barrel makes a good seal for the plug which i made it about 1-1/2 inches long with a firing chamber and tapered to fit the forcing cone.  An 1803 Harpers Ferry rib fit the barrel contour and was soldered to the barrel prior to browning.

[Keith Zimmerman]

I use the big gray nests hanging in the trees.  Its like flash paper.  Works like it.  No holes in your pattern.

[Daryl]

According to my chart, an 80gr. powder measure holds 1 1/8oz shot. That would be a fine, 7 1/2 shot that I used  in testing.