Wasp nest material?

[roundball]

Originally posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Has anyone ever used paper wasp patching? If so, what are your experiences?

At a recent family reunion out of state, a relative who also shoots traditional had 6-7 hornest nests and gave me three of them to bring back and experiment with.

Took a section of one to the range and used it...the stuff is flimsy and packs / compresses a lot, so I'd stuff 2-3 pinches into the muzzle until I figured I had about 2" in there then seated it down firmly on the powder...compressed down to a wad about a 1/2" judging from my witness marks.

And it works as advertised...provides a good seal, didn't change the POI from that of using an Oxyoke wonderwad at least to the 50 yards I tested it...and true to its reputation it didn't burn...didn't even char...found the "wad"/patch combos on the ground just like normal.

Another gent had told me that hornests nest material, in spite of how delicate and paper thin they seemed, were actually made of mud and subsequently were abrasive...haven't had time to research that further but it nagged at me so I only shot a dozen shots using it.

I plan to shoot a deer this fall using hornets nest material as an overpowder wad just to know I did it then I'll be done with it.