cardboard shotcup?

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I'm looking for a way to improve my patterns from my trade musket, and one of the things that I thought about doing is to use index cards and curl them so that they can be loaded easily in the barrel, yet will open up when seated on the wadding. the shot (in this case, bismuth) can be poured on top, and the index card will help protect the shot from coming in contact wit the barrel, reducing deformation and (hopefully) improving patterns.
Any see any flaws in my reasoning? Do you think it will work?

[skeet]

How are you going to be certain they ate seated on the card wads? A neat idea. but I wouldn't use it. even the index card may end up being a slight bore obstruction. Cut the cushion off a regualr plastic wad and be done with it. Not traditional but much safer

[Catfish]

Why not just use the plastic wads???????? That`s what I used to do, and they help alot with the pattern.

[multibeard]

I bought solid plastic shot cups, over powder wads (.125"), and over shot wads .040") in a kit from Cabelas a few years back. The kit actually came from ballistic products.com. I have never seen the shot cups in there catalog

I wanted to use my Navy Arms percussion 12 ga double to kill a turkey but couldn't get a pattern out of the open bored barrel that was acceptable to me to try.

I cut the cushion off some regular 12 GA reloading wads but that still wasn't good enough. I tried to using scotch tape on the cups to keep the slits closed and ended up with an oblong pattern Tight enough but the pattern would be one way one time and 90* the other the next.

The shot cups in the kit came solid but were supposed to be split before use but I shot them without slitting and got a pretty good pattern out to 25 yards shooting #6 lead shot. I did kill a nice tom that spring with the gun.

I noticed on the paperwork with the kit that the shot cups are BP12-Tuff shot cups. 7/8 steel or 1 1/4 oz lead. I just loaded an equal measure of powder and shot using the cup as a measure. Here are the numbers from the scanniing sque off the sheel that came with the kit form cabelas---8 09579 65381 4 ----

I do not know if the numbers are still good as it has been a few years since I bought the kit. I do now that the customer service guy that found the kit for me went over and above the call of duty to find them for me. It took him 15/20 minutes of looking to come up with them.

[roundball]

Yes, paper shot cups work very well as far as producing good patterns at longer ranges...I tested them on several range trips in a .62cal/.20ga Flint smoothbore. However, there was one major issue I had which caused me to finally give up on them and get my smooth bore turkey barrel Jug Choked 'Full' instead.

The dimensions of the shot cup seemed to be very critical to it opening properly...I could shoot 7-8-9 shots at the patterning board delivering excellent patterns, but about one in 10 shots, the entire paper cup and shot charge would fail to open and go to and through the target like a slug.

I tinkered with the bore diameter dimensions of the shot cups, then the height of the paper of the shot cups to ensure it wasn't folding ove the shot when the OS card was seated, etc...and every time I thought a had it figured out I'd go to the range again but still get the occasional slug through the target.

Since my goal was to fill my turkey tags with a Flintlock smoothbore I felt that as hard as it was to get a Tom in the sights and in range at the same time I didn't want to chance getting the slug effect at that particular moment...so I spent $75 and had my smoothbore barrel Jug Choked 'Full' by a gunsmith in Iowa...dropped my first turkey in it's tracks at 40yds, the second in his tracks at 30yds...and its outstanding on trap targets as well.
(wasted more money at the patterning board with powder, wads, shot, and gasoline than the cost of the Jug Choke)

Liked it so much I got a second GM barrel and had it Jug Choked Imp. Cyl + (half way between IC and Mod)...throws an outstanding dove & crow pattern at 30 yards, and is terrific on skeet targets at 21yds.