I have been reading some good game gun books lately, and there was some mention of using the cheap promotional ammo with fiber wads to gain wider patterns in side by sides. However, these books were written 10 years or longer ago, and it was said that the cheaper Winchester ammo still used fiber wads, so out of curiosity I cut one open and it had a plastic wad, as a matter of fact everything I checked had a plastic wad. It was also said that in Europe, shotgun ammo still has fiber wads in some offerings. So I cut into a light load sold by Wolf Ammo, again Plastic wad.

Do all shell offerings contain plastic wads these days? If not what brands do? I know some buckshot loads still do, but that is about all I am aware of.

Poly-wad makes what they call "Bio-wad" buffered shells. I have some 36 "gram-cracker" shells. They are heavily buffered 6's. They shoot well, and use a compressed fiber ( it is made from very short fibrous material that "poofs" when it leaves the barrel) over powder wad and a heavy paper shot cup. They leave only the cup as recoverable residue on the field and as its paper it won't last long. It will certainly be long gone before any bio-degradable clay target fragments are gone. GJ

To my knowledge, Winchester was the last to load fiber wad shells in their "promo" quality ammo. I think all the new stuff has plastic wads.

I shoot a lot of Challenger "Spreader" loads in my fixed choke Super X and Superposed. They honestly work. You can buy them from Graff's at about 50 bucks a flat (10 boxes) in 8 1/2 size shot.

There are a lot of "spreader" wads on the market if you want to roll your own. Check with Graff's.

If you really wanted to, you can still buy fiber wads from Graff's and load your own. The black powder vintagers do this all the time. I've tried it, and it's tedious.

I think the biggest reason for the increase in pattern spread comes not necessarily from the fiber wads themselves (though the certainly don provide the cushion that the most plastic wads do), but from the lack of a protective shot cup. Back in the old days (I'm dating myself, to be sure), Remington's "Power Piston" was a great advancement in shot shell technology. From the early 1960s onward, the advances to shotshells have minimized pellet damage and tightened patterns. Back then, a constriction of .040 was considered full choke, today that's extra full.

The lack of a shot cup exposed pellets to damage from bore scrubbing, which flattened the sides, created more flyers and opened patterns. If you reload, try cutting off the petals of your wads and use chilled (not magnum) shot. Using a faster powder will also tend to open the pattern some.

Or, you could just get some spreader loads!

Frank

A while back, A C Jones from England tested the fiber against the plaswads, and at normal ranges, did not notice much difference.

I did NOT say "no difference".