Ballistic pattern driver wads

The cylindrical members 32 has an annular shoulder portion 72 which abuts the lower end of the ram member 26 when the upper portion 34 is inserted therein. A typical cylindrical shotgun shell wad is shown in FIGS. Typically, such shotgun shell wads 60 are made of resilient molded plastic. Each wad 60 has a generally cylindrical peripherial cup wall 62 which is open at its top end 64 and sealably closed at its bottom end 66 by a lower base portion A chamber 70 is formed within the peripheral wall 62 for acceptance of the shot or "buckshot" of the shotgun shell when reloaded.

In addition, the chamber 70 can hold shock absorption means, such as cardboard inserts not shown , to form air pockets in the chamber 70 and reduce the pressure upon the shot when the recharged shotgun shell is fired. In using the wad slitter apparatus 30 of the present invention to perform the method for slitting shotgun shell wads, the upper portion 34 of the cylindrical member 32 is first secured to the ram member 26 of a shotgun shell reloader.

The upper portion 34 is inserted into the hollow ram member 26 to the position shown in FIG. A wad cutting cycle is is begun by placing a wad 60 in position on the fixed plate 14 of the shell reloader 10 so that the open top end 64 of the wad 60 is facing upwardly and immediately below the cylindrical member The ram member 26 is then moved toward the fixed plate 14 so that the lower portion 36 of the cylindrical member 32 enters the wad Once the lower portion 36 has entered the wad 60, the ram member 26 is continually moved downwardly until the bottom edge 42 thereof engages the lower base portion 68 of the wad During said movement, the cutting members 38 cut a plurality of longitudinal cuts 80 from the top end 64 of the wad 60 to an area spaced from the base portion 68 of the wad 60 by said predetermined distance.

To complete a cutting cycle, the ram member 26 is raised to eject the severed wad 60 from the cylindrical member This ejection is accomplished by use of the wad guide 29 which is disposed in the path of the wad 60 as the ram member 26 is raised. The severed wad 60 is carried with the ram member 26 and cylindrical member 32 as they are raised upwardly until the now-severed top end 64 of the wad 60 engages the bottom of the wad guide 29, which causes the wad 60 to peel off of the cylindrical member 32 as it is continually raised relative to the wad guide The severed wad 60 shown in FIG.

The wad 60 shown in FIG. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for cutting a plurality of uniformly spaced slits in a cylindrical shotgun shell wad. The use of the present invention in conjunction with a typical low volume shotgun shell reloader device results in severed wads of much better quality than those achieved using prior art low volume wad cutting methods.

The present invention is simple, easy to use, safe and provides an inexpensive yet valuable addition to a typical low volume shotgun shell reloader. Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is: 1. In combination with a shotgun shell reloading device which has a fixed plate and a ram member movable with respect to the fixed plate, and where a portion of the ram member is a hollow tube having an open end adjacent the fixed plate, an apparatus for causing a series of uniformly spaced longitudinal cuts of the same length through a cylindrical peripheral cup wall of a plastic shotgun shell wad, said apparatus comprising: a cylindrical member having an upper end portion and a lower portion, the diameter of the upper end portion being less than that of the lower end portion with a shoulder therebetween;.

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the lower portion of the cylindrical member has a plurality of uniformly spaced longitudinal slits therein extending from the bottom edge thereof an equal distance toward the top end thereof, and the cutting blades are secured within said slits.

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein there are four cutting blades each spaced ninety degrees from the adjacent cutting blades. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the downwardly facing cutting edges are spaced from the bottom edge of the cylindrical member by the desired predetermined distance between the bottom of the slits and the lower base portion of the wad, the portion of the cylindrical member beneath the cutting edges constituting the means for limiting downward movement of the cylindrical member.

A method of creating a plurality of longitudinally parallel slits of equal length through the cylindrical cup wall of a cylindrical plastic shotgun shell wad used in reloading shotgun shells which comprises the steps of: securing a generally cylindrical cutting member to a movable tubular ram member of a shotgun shell reloader, said cutting member having a plurality of cutting blades uniformly spaced about a lower portion thereof and projecting radially outwardly therefrom with the cutting edges of the blades disposed downwardly and all uniformly spaced from the bottom of the cutting member;.

The method of claim 8 wherein the shotgun shell reloader is provided with an apertured member disposed in the path of the wad as the ram member is raised so as to engage the top of the severed wad to force it off of the cylindrical member.

The method of claim 5 in which the cutting edges of the blades are spaced from the bottom of the cylindrical member by a distance equal to the desired distance between the bottom of the slits and the lower wall of the wad and in which the movement of the cutting edges is stopped by engaging the bottom of the cylindrical member with the lower wall of the wad.

USA en. WOB1 en. SEB en. USA1 en. Trimming and sizing device to produce or prepare empty cartridge cases and a method to produce or prepare empty cartridge cases. EPA1 en. USB2 en. Apparatus for severing slide frames or slide frame halves and for threading them on handling and centering rods. DEA1 en. Very reliable but would not get a decent pattern. Tried a few things but those cylinder bores didn't want to co-operate. Seems like I tried again a couple of times but still no joy. Looked good hanging on the wall, though.

Looked like just the ticket! Went to Ballistics Products website and tried to find their product. Evidently it's been dropped. Is there another outfit that makes this product or something similar that might just work? I'm a rifle guy so I need all the help I can get with a scattergun. Thanks for any advice. A pleasure to load. Beautiful crush section with the waffle design. Nice gas seat and firm, pedals on shotcup nice and firm, pre-slit However the true beauty is when taking to the range.

Excellent nice tight pattern with Buckshot through my smooth bore. Almost as if using a choke, when its just a smoothbore which you want with buckshot. Pattern held approximately inch groupings at about 8 to 10 yards, whereas most commercial buckshot loads which use virtually no wad except a basic felt have a spread of about inches at the same 8 to 10 yards from my experience, meaning lots of fly-aways.

I really couldnt believe how tight the pattern kept due to these HCD wads. Although the other components are to be complemented for this load recipe too, being this review is for the HCD, the wads also proven to hold a very fast response for a quick payload out put. Mid to long range, although I have been using for short to mid myself for now small indoor range where been using and testing right now Will be stocking up on these!