Lance,do you think you could have AL 5 or 7 mixed up with HS6.(HS6 is Hodgdon powder,actually Winchester 540) I'm shooting AL 7 for some game loads now. It's still good after all these years. I bought out an estate and ended up with four 55 gallon barrels of this old wading. The Black powder shooters use all the old wading and I've been giving most of it to them.

With AL 7,Alcan Air wedge wad,5/8 filler,Kwick Sert,1-1/4 of 6's. It does make for a great game load, and like I said it drives the other guys crazy when the filler wad comes apart.

Ajax

OldRemFan,

Neat stuff. I barely remember some of that stuff laying around my dads loading room. I remember the boxes of over shot discs although I'm not sure I remember dad actually using them. Thanks for sharing.

.......................................

Ajax,

Thanks for the info on the Arro-Wads. I know my dad pretty much loaded nothing but Winchester AA's so that makes sense those wads are for AA's. ...........................................

Maybe I need to fire up the MEC Super Speeder and give some of the old AA's and wads I have a shot. I've got a whole pile of the old fixed shot/powder bars and even some old loading charts. Wonder how the newer Red Dot compares to the old? LOL. I'll pass.......

Hey, Thanks for the memories. Grntitan and remfan I starteds reloading in 1964 at the age of 15. First was 30-06 and then 38 spcl. That fall I tried my hand at shotshells. I used a single stage Pacific press I bought mail order fom Herters. It had the inserts so you could use standard 7/8 14 thread dies or pull the inserts and use shotshell dies. Mine were from Hollywood Engineering. The load was Win Super Target paper cases, 22 grs Unique, .30 nitro card over powder wad, one 1/2 inch or 2- 1/4 inch Alcan Bluestreak felt wads, Then the Winchester Mark 5 plastic shot sleeve and 1-1/8 oz of whatever shot you had. I used a lot of shot 5 on a lot of jumped puddle ducks in the creeks around my Grandmothers home in Mendocino County Calif. By gone days. I also used that same case and wads with Alcan HS6 powder. I killed my first Honker with that load and a single shot Savage model 37 break open that I still have, My Grandmother bought it for me at a pawn shop with my prune picking money. Things were different and perhaps better in some ways then even though it took me a long time to load a box of shells with that set up. Alcan and Herters were as common in household dinner table conversations when I was a kid as Ford and Chevy. Lance Howard

Funny, I'm shooting all those old wads right now. You should hear the game shooter complain when the filler wads come apart and look like confetti.LOL

Arrow wads were made by Hodgdon Powder Co. White for AA style cases and Green for Remington cases.

Ajax

Grntitan:

If you want to look back a little further I have attached some pictures. Before plastic and folded crimps came into being. The Nitro card wad came in various heights and went directly over the powder, and some powders required as much as 90 pounds of pressure or more to get an efficent burn rate, then the felt wads were added to get the correct height of wad column, then the shot was added, and finally the "B" card or overshot wad wad put in place and the shell wad roll crimped. Then came the PGS, H wads, and assorted types of plastic over powder cups along with the combo wads and the Kwik-Serts, various shot cups, adjustable wads, etc., until the present day one piece wads came into being. I have attached pictures of some of this stuff for those who may not be familiar with what some of the things mentioned actually look like. This is not meant to cover everything that was available, just some of the stuff I have left over from a time gone by.

S

They look like they were supposed to be a replacement for the AA or other CF hulls. Ross Puls

So can anybody tell me what the "Arro-Wads" were designed for??

Thanks Ed!! That helps a bunch.

I just wanted a little re-education on this stuff. What you said does spark my memory a little but much of this was before my time or at least at the very beginning of my time. I imagine some of the other items you named are floating around somewhere in his old stuff at my Moms house. Yes we used Alcan products and I still have some once fired Alcan papers and some unused Alcan Mx-Fire primers. Dads choice of powder was Herco and of course everyone's favorite Red Dot. My Dad passed in 1999 or I'd just ask him.

Thanks again fellas

No plastic shot cup in the day.

At the end of this era before the one piece double A wad appeared there was a strip of plastic called a "Quick Sert" that you pushed down into the shell before droping the shot. They were a pain in the butt and I never used them.

Nothing was put over the top of the shot during your dads day.

I am talking 1950s era.

Hope this helps.

ed

Knowing where you live, an Alcan "air wedge" plastic over powder wad with two 3/8 fiber wads over the powder of choice was the load combination for Federal papers of the day.

Sac dome also made a plastic over powder wad.

As I remember the Winchester paper hull only took one 3/8s wad .

Really stretching my memory here.

ed.

Dawg,

What order were the components loaded with those fiber wads? Was there still a plastic shot cup too?

An H wad with 2-3/8" fiber wads and 23 grs. Red Dot was the standard 3 dram load in Federal papers back in the 60's!!

I came across these old wads going through some of my Dads old stuff. I sort of collect old reloading components and just wanted some information on these. Any help would be appreciated.

I have a full bag of these but this piece of paper is the only markings.

I have a full box of these. I know they are some sort of fiber wad but that is about all I know about them. I'm curious as to how they were loaded. I can barely remember as a kid sitting in my Dads loading room watching him using these wads with his MEC Super Speeder(which I still have). I just don't recall how exactly they were loaded. I was thinking this fiber wad went over the powder and then the shot on top of this with a carboard card topping it off?? That's what my memory comes up with.

These were also with them. These I am much more familar with. Just thought I'd show this full bag too.

Thanks for any info you can provide...