Another choice would be plastic bean bag beads. They can be had at a sewing/fabric store. Through the years of reloading, my very best loads are the ones that do not contain any spacers or over shot cards. My best 10ga loads are 1 1/2oz with a 1/8th inch felt in bottom of the shot cup and a tyvek patch on top of the shot column.

Chris

 

Some people like cork, some like felt. For the felt spacers the best IMHO are the Ballistic Products white ballistic felt spacers, they are very stiff and tightly woven so they don't compress much and the shot doesn't tend to stick to them vs other felt spacers.
I think most spacers are to expensive to buy, at the price they charge for them it brings your cost per shell up quite a bit. A lot of us get punch sets and cut our own felt/ cork spacers out and you can use the plastic bean bag filler beads on top for filler also they are very inexpensive. You buy the felts and they come to like 4 cents a piece with shipping figured in, you can get a 1 foot square of felt from Wal Mart for around 48 cents and cut out 200 spacers from it.

 

I think Ned can be credited with the idea of using styrofoam from meat packaging. I love this stuff. I use a small hole saw in my drill press to cut a bunch at a time. Have your wife save the styrofoam packages and your good to go. In my area the yellow chicken packages are 1/4" and the black beef packages are 1/8". They work like a charm and the best part cost nothing!

 

Cheerios, styro peanuts, cork board, plastic beads.......

 

Cheerios, styro peanuts, cork board, plastic beads.......

Dried beans.

 

I think Ned can be credited with the idea of using styrofoam from meat packaging. I love this stuff. I use a small hole saw in my drill press to cut a bunch at a time. Have your wife save the styrofoam packages and your good to go. In my area the yellow chicken packages are 1/4" and the black beef packages are 1/8". They work like a charm and the best part cost nothing!

The Chicken Trays were mine although Ned does deserves some of the credit as he told me many years ago he used packing peanuts for filler just elaborated on it with round foam spacers. The filler beads were mine also, actually Remington used them for filler in their factory Hevi loads years ago. I was showing the plastic beads to my Brother in Law trying to figure out what they were and my Sister in Law starts laughing hysterically, she sews and tells us those are bean bag filler beads from a fabric store, sometimes you just get lucky.

 

One thing to take into consideration is that cushion under the shot can reduce pressures, and velocity. You never know who much it does it until you measure it. In some of my loads needing lots of filler, I often use nitro cards for a more neutral effect.

I use lots of stuff over the shot - bean bag beads, felt, buffer, packing styro, newspaper, tyvek, etc.

 

I appreciate all the input. I've tried looking for the bean bag beads locally but the only thing I've found are the softer styro type beads.

BT- the beads you shows in the pic with the Rio hull are what I'd like to try. Since I'd probably have to order those online are they a certain brand or is there a certain place I should look to get them from?

 

I appreciate all the input. I've tried looking for the bean bag beads locally but the only thing I've found are the softer styro type beads.

BT- the beads you shows in the pic with the Rio hull are what I'd like to try. Since I'd probably have to order those online are they a certain brand or is there a certain place I should look to get them from?

Any fabric store or sometimes craft places have them, I've found them at Jo Anne fabrics which is a nationwide chain.
Just ask for bean bag filler beads, around $5-$8 will get you enough to last a lifetime.
http://www.joann.com/darice-bean-bag-fi ... ce&start=1

 

Thanks BT!

 

Hobby lobby,miachels has those plastc filler beads as well my wife long ago was making dolls with those plastic filler beads. I confiscated some for taking up space in steel shot loads. Been using them in any load that needs some.space taken up for tight crimp. Then latter on i noticed remington was using them for filler in there loads as well. I use pop cartons for over shot cards as well.

I get cork from craft stores in long rolled sheets cheap filler as well i put then tyvek over cork or pop carton punched spacers to keep shot from getting stuck in cork.

Goose

 

Flax seed is used by HeviShot as a filler. Kind of a sneaky way to shoot over bait lol...
I bought a bag of it the other day to use... it's actually got a bit of weight which I'd have to subtract from my load, so I think the bean bag thing is better.

 

I just ordered some of the bean bag fill beads on Amazon.com. They were at my door two days later.

 

I'll also add malt to the list. Light weight, easy to handle, and it tastes great!

 

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it is just taking up space, Styrofoam is great. The circle fly wads are also good. If changing the cushion wads could make a significant difference, particularly if pressure is getting close to the upper limit, you may want to do some testing. Most of the time they are just trying to sell you expensive wads & a cheap fiber/ home made wad will do the same thing.

 

I would bet that puffed wheat would work well. I have used un-popped popcorn before and it worked well.

 

I cut squares of felt slightly over-size for filler. And cut squares of card from beverage packaging slightly under-size for over-shot. Scissors cut squares quick.

Anyone ever try dacron batting? I was reading about this as filler in rifle/revolver cartridges.

 

Whatever works. For an overshot spacer for Hevi Shot, I like something that will fragment like the Circle Fly wads. The reason it is there is hard tungsten shot tends to bounce & the wad keeps it in the shot cup but you don't want it in the way after the shot leaves the barrel. Flax seed does the same thing. I prefer real wads to vegetable matter & breakfast cereal. Real wads make for a more uniform & professional load & if there is any moisture in the vegetable matter, it could cause corrosion. Flower was used as buffer in the early days of buffered loads. They had problems with it absorbing moisture & causing high pressure.

 

If your going to use the shells right away I think the vegetable/cereals matter wouldn't make to much of a difference.
I just won't use anything that will absorb moisture in my loads. just doesn't make much sense to go thorough the trouble of making them and then using a filler material that could ruin them by moisture absorption.

 

Whatever works. For an overshot spacer for Hevi Shot, I like something that will fragment like the Circle Fly wads. The reason it is there is hard tungsten shot tends to bounce & the wad keeps it in the shot cup but you don't want it in the way after the shot leaves the barrel. Flax seed does the same thing. I prefer real wads to vegetable matter & breakfast cereal. Real wads make for a more uniform & professional load & if there is any moisture in the vegetable matter, it could cause corrosion. Flower was used as buffer in the early days of buffered loads. They had problems with it absorbing moisture & causing high pressure.

Shot, from the instant of powder ignition, is under a constant positive acceleration causing compression of the shot column ~ where and when does the "bouncing" occur and what causes it ??
Lost

 

Lost,
I don't know all the answers but I will try to share what I do know. It has been several years since I talked to the ballistic technicians with Alliant & Hodgdons so I am not sure I remember everything exactly right but I do recall the bottom line. Hard tungsten shot can set up a vibration that can destroy patterns. It can also cause the shot to bounce out of the shot cup. Buffer also helps in this regard.
I haven't seen all the H.S. reloading data out there but all I have seen calls for an O.S. wad except for Mr. Roster's, which does call for buffer. Tungsten based shot, due to it's density, generally blows O.S. wads out of the way & they generally have little down range effect.

 

Hevishot is only 1g/cc denser than lead, so if an overshot felt wad had a different effect on one or the other, I doubt density of the shot is the reason.

I have never noticed overshot cards effecting patterns one way or the other with 18g/cc tungsten. But buffer can make a difference - both for better and for worse. I haven't yet figured out why usually it helps but sometimes it hurts...

I don't think felt overshot will effect lead any more than it will effect hevishot, as far as patterns are concerned. There just isn't enough difference in density to make much difference.

But felt undershot seems to have a much more significant impact to a hard shot load than felt overshot, in my experience.

 

Here's an example of what filler under shot will do.

Take two loads of hard shot. Both 2 ounces. Both using the same hull and primer. Both using the same wad. But one (A) is 2 oz of hard tungsten shot with a gas seal, 1/4" cork and 1/4" felt under shot, while the other (B) is 2 oz of hard tungsten shot with no gas seal and 1/8" less felt cushion under the shot.

With 42.4 gr of X powder, (B) will give 1234 fps and 12800 psi.
With 44 gr of X powder, (A) will give 1231 fps and 11300 psi.

I've seen ballistics experts who worked for years back in the day with a big powder or shell mfr argue that filler/cushion under the shot doesn't do anything. But it does, if you're working with hard shot.

 

Lost,
I don't know all the answers but I will try to share what I do know. It has been several years since I talked to the ballistic technicians with Alliant & Hodgdons so I am not sure I remember everything exactly right but I do recall the bottom line. Hard tungsten shot can set up a vibration that can destroy patterns. It can also cause the shot to bounce out of the shot cup. Buffer also helps in this regard.
I haven't seen all the H.S. reloading data out there but all I have seen calls for an O.S. wad except for Mr. Roster's, which does call for buffer. Tungsten based shot, due to it's density, generally blows O.S. wads out of the way & they generally have little down range effect.

Where are you getting all these misguided and ill informed "Gems" ??
Is that you Ned?

Lost

 

Lost,
No, I am not Ned & I am not misguided. Where did I get the information? It came from the technicians at Hodgdons & Alliant. If they are misinformed, then I guess I am as well. Why don't you call them?