NEED HELP!

[english setter]

U guys are so informative!!
Got a 50 cal kentucky. Want to shoot birdshot and buckshot for fun. No gunshops carry cardboard wads locally and stores like Cabellas probably dont have correct size for 50 cal and not worth ship costs and ordering 1000 wads I'd have to cut up, for just a few shots to play.

Can I use 20 ga plastic wads?
What weight shot and charge of pyrodex 3f?
can I cut cardboard, cloth, leather,felt or hard poly foam rubber?
If so, what thickness and what size for proper compression for ignition but not too much to blow my head off??
I saw a post where a guy punched felt but what size-- can I cut squares if no punch?
THANKS!

[cayugad]

First off.. give up the idea of shooting bird shot out of that rifle. With the rifling, you will not get consistant patterns, also the amount of shot per load will be so small you might be able to hunt squirels at close range, or maybe a rabbit but it really would not make for much of a shotgun. T/C has a .56 caliber smoothbore which is a small bore shotgun for doves, and small game.

As a shotgun, your Kentucky will not be of much use, and will only lead up the barrel on you. Use the rifle for what it was made for, shooting roundball. If you want a black powder shotgun, then buy a musket or smoothbore. A .62 caliber which is a 20 gauge is as small as I would go if I intended to shoot anything like turkey. A modern Knight TK2000 would be a 12 gauge you might also want to look at. You have a good rifle there, and I repeat a good rifle...

[Semisane]

If you just want to play around a little, here's what you do.

1. Drop about 60 grains of powder down the barrel.

2. Ball up two sheets of toilet paper and ram it home on top of the powder. Pack it good and tight.

3. Drop about a 1/2 ounce loadof birdshot on top of the wad(number 8 or 7 & 1/2 works best).

4. Ball up 1/2 sheet of toilet paper and ram that down on top of the shot.Gently pack it tight.

5. Light her off!

I guarantee you this will kill a mouse at 15 feet.

Try patterning this load on a large sheet of cardboard at 10 yards, and let us know yourresults. The pattern out of my 50 Cal. New Englander is about 2 feet, with lots of holes.

One more thing. DO NOT shoot this load in a fire hazard area. Those toilet paper wads will smolder.