By Jim
With the cooler months of the year coming up, this means muzzle loader season will be on us soon. One of the things I want to discuss is using hornets nest or paper wasp nest material as a wadding in your muzzle loading rifle.
First off — how can you tell the difference between hornets or paper wasps by looking at the nest ? Usually a hornet builds a really huge basketball sized nest out in the woods pretty high up in the trees. Paper wasps will build a smaller nest under the eaves of a roof on a house or barn. When gathering a hornets nest, it’s best to wait for winter cold. The queen will burrow into the ground to survive the winter, and the nest will be abandoned except for the fertilized queen eggs for next year. A paper wasp nest is easier to get. The paper wasps don’t come out at night. They always go into the nest and rest at night, so it’s easier to scrape the nest down and salvage it.
So — why use a stinging insect’s nest as wadding for a muzzle loader ? There’s several reasons actually. The “paper” covering of the nest is made from the saliva of the insect and chewed wood pulp. Somehow the paper nest material is naturally fire retardant, and slightly waterproof to protect the offspring of these little winged sting demons. I use a wad of the nest between my powder charge and the patched ball to prevent the cloth patch from burning. The powder charge can cause the patch to smolder after firing and set dried grasses and leaves on fire if it’s been a dry season. Also by preventing the patch from having holes burned in it, you get a better gas seal between the patch material and the bore of the gun. And you don’t have blowby gasses getting around the ball during firing. Another positive aspect is that you don’t contaminate your powder charge. If you carry your loaded rifle in the field all day, the grease from the patch can wet the powder charge slightly and you will have some of the powder that doesn’t burn completely.
The paper nest material is very delicate, and it will disintegrate if you carry it around in your pocket. So what I often do is cut the paper nesting material into squares with a pair of scissors and place the strips into a plastic soap dish from the dollar store. The plastic box fits in my possibles bag and is easy enough to grab it to load between shots. I’ll make the squares large enough to roll into a tight ball and just shove the balled up material into the bore over the powder charge before I stuff a patched ball on top and ram it all down. Powder, nest ball, ram, then patched ball, and another ram.
I’ve never had a problem with accidentally setting the leaves on fire during a Fall season of hunting. There’s nothing more disconcerting than having to quickly stomp out a brush fire when you blast a deer for the supper table. I’m often hunting in an area that you can’t easily access with a fire truck, so this preventatives measure adds a bit of peace of mind to my days in the field.
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