Smooth Question

[paco97]

I would like to order some supplies in anticipation of my smoothbore's completion, so when I receive it I won't be scurrying around trying to the supplies that I need.  I mostly will you is to shoot shot.  

Its my understanding that I need the following to shoot shot:

-Overpowder Cards
-Fiber Wads
-Over shot cards

Is this correct.

[Gambia]

Paco

For shooting shot from a smoothbore what you need is as follows .First is a 1/8 th overpowder wad this is seated lightly over the powder,if you need a feltwad which is not necessary with every shot this is placed on top of the overpowder card wad,these feltwads are mostly 3/8 or 1/2 inch,this is followed by a 1/8 card wad on top of the feltwad,always use a card on top of the felt if not with the discharge the shot will embed in the felt and will blow your patten you will also create a projectile ,I personnely only use a feltwad every 20 shots or when the barrel becomes too coked  you can use a couple of cards instead over the powder and if the barrel is coked and there is difficult in ramming the card wad  a bit of spittle on the second wad will help.Next is the shot and this is followed by a 1/16  overshot card wad.
Everybody has there own favourite load  I always use a volume load for 10  to 28 gages, I do alter the load when using the big 4,6,8,9 gages
Feltwad

A Flint Lock will not secure a chicken house door

[Kermit]

You don't need all those wads to shoot shot in your smoothbore. Save some $$$ and buy ONLY the overSHOT cards. I've shot shot loads for a couple of decades with only the overshot cards. This way:

Powder first. Yep.
TWO of the overshot cards.
Shot--the same VOLUME as the powder. Use the same measure.
ONE overshot card.

Simple. Try this method before you buy all those other wads. You'll just have to keep 'em all organized and separated by type/thickness. You can get more complicated later if you want, but "borrow" some of those other wads at the range sometime and I'll bet you won't see a worthwhile difference in your patterns.

[Captchee]

im with Kermit on this .
 but feltwad is also correct .
  the load standard is:
1) powder
2) over the powder card
3) cussion
4) shot
5) over the shot card

 personaly i have never tried the way feltwad hs listed but i will .
 your load for shot will have to be worked up just like your patched ball load will be . each barrel likes diffrent things .

 now this is  why  i agree with Kermit.
see i find  my smooth bores dont lik cussions  unless im shooting RB's .
as such all i by is  over the powder cards . first one dry , secound one wet with spit . i then spit one with my thumbnail  and use 1/4 of it for over the shot .

 so what i would say is get a bag of cussions , a bag of over the powder and a bag of over the shot  then you have just about everything you need to start working on a basic  load

[Gambia]

Yes as I said  a felt wad is not necessary a  couple of 1/8 card on top of the powder followed by the shot then a 1/16 overshot wad will be quite adequate.
Feltwad
A Flint Lock will not secure a chicken house door

[16gauge]

this is followed by a 1/8 card wad on top of the feltwad,always use a card on top of the felt if not with the discharge the shot will embed in the felt and will blow your patten you will also create a projectile

  I have never heard this before, but it makes sense (logically)....I will have to try it next time I'm out.
  As far as keeping different card thickness seperated, I currently use the smaller Altoid tins (from gum?); they come in different colors and I can carry quite a few in each tin, and know what size I'm grabbing by the tin color.