i've always used dacron batting for wads in my 30-06, small 1/2" or so squares work ok as long as you dont shake or drop the shells. the most i ever found was small burnt fibers in a few of cases.

I've seen patches and CLEANING RODS left in the bore shot out with out any damage (M14's).

Military quality, not intelligence.

Starmetal, scareing some one off from using Fiber fillers is not all that bad of a idea! Lyman and all of the bullet and powder manufactuers do not reccomend the practice anymore. I know I called them all to get info on the practice. You may get by doing it but my guns are too valuable to me to take a chance on ringing the chambers or barrels on them for a practice that is not considered safe anymore. Kinda reminds me of driving for 20 years and then having a major accident does not matter how long you did it before it only takes once. Jim

Starmetal, This guy is reporting a condition, possibly dangerous, in all good faith. I am glad that he did this because I have considered cotton as a filler also, and I have used all the other ones. So your response is to jump all over the guy as an idiot, therebye elevating your own esteem of yourself I suppose. Do you ever go back and read your own posts, because you should. I would really like to hear your own dissertation on the subject of fillers with cast boolit reloads. Not criticism of other people's posts, but your own ORIGINAL ideas on the use of fillers. I have found them to be very usefull in some cases, not in others. Your whole career here seems to be to put down other contributers. What exactly do you have to offer on these boards?

If it won't go, chrome it. Famous quote from a famous hot-rodder of the 50's who desires anonymity.

Nevada duke, over and out.

Wallace cotton is recommended by Charlie Dell-- one of the most knowledgeable Schuetzen guys anywhere. His book is highly regarded and dealt with many topics, including chamber ringing. His tests concluded cotton was the filler of choice-- albeit now I conclude for straight wall cases.

From my experience this must not apply to bottleneck cases.

Mr Wallace

I hold you far above a keyboard shooter. I can tell you investigate all possible information and data on new reloading techniques.

That brings up for those of you that don't investigate further. I'm not one to just jump into something I've heard someone mention on some new reloading trick. For example, if you heard about using cotton for a filler,and you didn't go any further then that and loaded some cotton in your cast loads you are in for a bad experience like what happen to aladin. You didn't investigate further, get all the details, the pro's and con's. If you would have done that you would have found out that cotton is not a suitable filler. It's coming to light about the other type of fillers too like cream of wheat. How it turns into a harden mass after setting in the reloaded case awhile. One needs to find out all these things before he attempts them hiself, and the information is out there. That's why I am not in any kind of agreement for someone to post about the bad experience he had with cotton. Had the homework been done before hand, cotton would not have been chosen. It's stuff like that, that makes novice shooters say "Oh, I'll never try a filler, they are bad for your reloading and can damage your gun". Alot of the myths about fillers were started because it wasn't understood what really happen. Mr Wallace brings up a very good case in point about his friends rifle with a ringed chamber, and Mr. Wallace found that the filler was wadded and tamped down over the powder charge, leaving an airspace in front of it. It's no doubt that reload ringed the chamber. It wasn't because of the filler, it was because of the improper use of it. Also as Mr. Wallace stated about his 30-06 loads it's best try find a suitable burning rate powder to fill the case so no filler is needed. Some will say that they use cast loads with fast burning powders because it's cheap shooting. Well that is true, but it's not the only goal of cast shooting. Alot of people out there like making their own bullets and loads and don't look at the cost of assembling it. I like Mr. Wallace shoot alot of 30-06 and have also used a slower burning powder that fills the case and needs no filler, and I know it costs me more then a smaller charge of faster burning powder, but if it shoots to my satisfaction I don't look at the costs. With jacketed bullets you don't have too much of a choice between fast powders and slow powders to achieve the best performance. One is surely not going to use a powder like 2400 with a 150 gr jacketed bullet in a 30-06 for deer hunting when there are much better suitable powders.

Joe