Wads still a necessity with shotshell reloading?

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rtracer13

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Are wads still a necessity with shotshell reloading? If so, is it to improve accuracy or actual a part of function? I ask because it looks like the lyman 525 lead slugs I've got can seal the powder into the shell without a wad.
 
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wads are used to hold the powder against the primer. If using shot, the wad works as a gas check to keep the expanding gas from simply blowing through the shot and causing the shot to come out the barrel in a hilarious cartoon like fashion.
 
Lead Loader said:
The wad protects the lead from the hot burning powder/ seals the explosion from blowing past at the walls, you always need one
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Thanks, is this due to the seal of the slug not being as good as a bullet in a rifled barrel? Curious because I've shot lead bullets without the need of a gas check or such and retrieved the lead and it did not appear to have been affected (atleast to the naked eye) by the heat from the burning powder.
 
In a short direct answer to your question "YES" for all "your" shot shell reloading "you" will require some sort of wad column between the powder and lead shot and slug. Some ammo manufacturers may have a slug which is designed in such a manner that it also acts as a gas seal or more commonly has a gas seal attached to it.
Simply put the wad acts as a barrier between the shot and powder to stop the powder from mixing with the shot and to provide a gas seal between the sides of the barrel and the powder.

Follow the recipes in your reloading manual of choice usually put out by the manufacturer of the powder your using. My sage advice, stick to the recipes "exactly" until you learn what variances are tolerable and when, and that only comes through many years of knowledge by reloading shot shells and knowing the various components and how they affect pressure.
 
rtracer13 said:
Thanks, is this due to the seal of the slug not being as good as a bullet in a rifled barrel? Curious because I've shot lead bullets without the need of a gas check or such and retrieved the lead and it did not appear to have been affected (atleast to the naked eye) by the heat from the burning powder.
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And did said lead bullets have a lube grove full of lube? Lube on a cast bullet actually flows backwards and forms a seal around the bullet to stop gas cutting. Its one of the functions of the lube. Hypothetically if you could find a slug with a lube grove a load may be able to be developed.

As for wads... take a look in you reloading manual and find some loads that are identical, except for the wad. Notice that the pressures are different????? That's because the wad matters.
 
When I reload slugs I cut the petals off the wad, then put the remaining wad in the shell over the powder. Slug ontop of that petal-less wad and I've never had an issue. Your mileage may vary because I cast my own lee 1oz slugs and have no experience with the lyman ones.
 
floriosean1 said:
When I reload slugs I cut the petals off the wad, then put the remaining wad in the shell over the powder. Slug ontop of that petal-less wad and I've never had an issue. Your mileage may vary because I cast my own lee 1oz slugs and have no experience with the lyman ones.
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I also do this. I use the same slugs. I think this works because the Pedals are not the part of the wad that stops gasses. Cutting the pedals seems to make em fit a little better.
 
If you didn't use wads, what would you fill the rest of the hull with?
Wads take up unused space and apply consistent compression to the powder. I'm just imagining loading slugs without a wad and there would be about 1/2" of air space inside the hull.

Lyman slugs with their hollow base may expand to seal the bore. At shotshell pressure they would need to be made from pure or near pure lead to be soft enough for it to work though. Lee slugs have the "drive band" in the base that prevents them from expanding. I've never tried Lyman slugs before but I know the pure lead Winchester Super-X 1oz slugs left loads of lead in the barrel of my 870 while no other brand, nor my handloads, do that.

Since slugs have far less bearing surface relative to their diameter I wonder about how well they would self centre in the bore without a platform under them applying relatively consistent pressure over the entire surface. If made from soft lead an angled initial acceleration could slam them into one side or the other harder and deform the slug. If made from harder alloy the base may not expand and they wont seal the bore. I suppose if they where oversized to start with and swaged in the forcing cone it could work but I'd worry about pressure spikes.

Personally I have tested a lot of different slug loads in both smooth bores and rifled barrels with Lee 1oz cast slugs and found the best accuracy was with some recommendations from the Cast Boolits forums. Put one or two 20ga .125" thick wads under the slug inside the wad with pedals attached. It is modifying load data from the manual since you are adding the extra 20ga wad in a 12ga shell but dozens of people reported increased accuracy with no other issues encountered and I had the same. It allows the wad to separate from the slug evenly as it leaves the barrel and doesn't throw the slug off randomly to one side. With plastic wads and Lee slugs the plastic can often be pushed into the base of the slug, locking onto the drive band, and not release cleanly when it leaves the barrel.

Load data for the Lyman slugs often already have 20ga or 16ga card wads under the slugs so you don't need to add them. It's just that load data for Lee slugs isn't nearly as common place and usually just involves a slug in a plastic wad, nothing else.
 
Thanks for all the info guys :)
I had thought about the spacing issue without wad, but although I hadn't tried it, I had heard of people just using nitro card as a wad so unless they were stacking it thick and not mentioning it I figured it could probably be done if the slug was designed to seal in the shell.
 
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