I have a 500 Jeffery in a 1935 Chilean Mauser action. Loading for that round I was advised to use filler to take up air space. I bought some from the fabric shop and it came as a mangled flat mess of batting. Is all dacron the same? How do you prepare it? Are you cutting it in small pieces and weighing the amount to put in the case? What is the procedure? I will be getting into double rifle load development soon. Will the principals be the same?

lb 404, my 'big bore' experience is limited to 375 H&H and a little 416 Rem Mag, but I have used this stuff in other calibers as well, it works. I have never used 'material' dacron like you're talking about. Try this Puff-lon I thnk it'll work well for your application.

Good Luck--Don

I used cotton in some 38 Special loads years ago. It was interesting, I would shoot and there were puffs of cotton flying around.

I think cotton would work just as well as Dacron but is there really a need for it? Many loads have air space in the cartridge and I doubt it has any measurable effect on accuracy.

I have always been a little afraid some of the synthetic stuff would melt and cause problems in the barrel.

Ib404,

Get some Pufflon for your filler.

I have used it quite a bit....one plastic bottle will last you a good long time.

www.pufflon.com

You load your powder, gently pour in the Pufflon to the case neck, then seat your bullet.

Garrett

The stuff I use is pillow Dacron. It's kind of like cotton candy, just pinch a bit off & tamp it loosely on top of the powder.

Years and years ago, the NRA used to post a good bit of ***WARNING*** information about using "Fillers". This was back when Kapok was popular for such stuff, when Lead Bullets were in wider use and there were only a few burn-rates of Powder available. Lots of research going on back then about unexplainable Detonations in Reduced Loads.

It became ingrained in my Reloading Procedures to simply use Loads that did not require Fillers.

I'm not saying these other guys are wrong or doing anything un-safe, just mentioning that years ago Fillers were avoided. And I've never felt at a loss for not using them.

Best of luck to all you folks.

quote:

I have always been a little afraid some of the synthetic stuff would melt and cause problems in the barrel.

You are right to be concerned... A few years back there was an article in Precision Shooting about dacron blowing up a firearm... It couldn't be proved beyond a doubt, but conjecture was that the dacron formed a melted "glob" on the base of the bullet, and effectively sealed it in the mouth of the case... The fast burning powder peaked before the bullet started to move again, and the firearm came apart.

I have used cotton filler with no ill effect, and kapok has been used since the 40s, also with no ill effects that I am aware of. I would use either of the two, or use tissue paper. Anything that will burn cleanly. Kapok shows up regularly on ebay, and it is dirt cheap...

And if you are shooting a straight walled case, a wafer of florist foam over the powder works extremely well, too. (If it is a bottleneck case, the foam won't work, for obvious reasons...)

Most the stories I heard personally were using a hard card wad overtop the powder in such rounds as the 45-70 leaving an airspace between the wad and bullet base. The results were ringed chambers or in lesser degree of damage a rippled cartridge case. I've been using Dacron and Kapok for over 30 years, never had an incident. I sure don't buy that incident mentioned where they think the Dacron melted into a ball. I've only seen Dacron do two things in using it for a filler. One is getting blown out the barrel still pretty much intact and found on the ground or either blown out in powder shower of little pieces of Dacron sorta like blowing on a dandelion pre blossom.

Like I said before, placing a wad of anything overtop the powder and leaving an airspace between it and the bullet is asking for trouble.

The schuetzen shooters in our group used kapok and dacron in their ammo ,I used dacron in my 45-70 with SR 4759 with no problems.

I use Dacron in my 45-70 revolver and have never seen any burned or melted. I pick up tufts of it and it is just dirty. I buy what is called "garneted fiber fill" and it does not have the course strands in it. Just pinch off a little and stuff it in the case with a pencil, eraser end.