Tow Wads

Tow is a fibrous material left over from processing flax, hemp, or jute. It was used as wadding and for bore cleaning during the muzzleloading era. For wadding, a shooter can make small balls of it for over-powder and over-shot or over-ball wads. For cleaning it is wrapped around a worm and then used to scrub the bore like a modern bore brush.

Since I've never used it for shooting, over on the Muzzleloading Forum I started a thread asking for others' experiences and got a lot of good feedback.

One concern I have is that the tow may ignite and smolder when used as wads. This could start fires. Several replies indicated that this can be a problem. Others noted that if you lube the tow with something like Track of the Wolf's mink oil tallow, it not only helps keep fouling soft, it also prevents the wad from igniting.

So wanting to try tow wads, I made up a small batch of tow wads and lubed them with Track's mink oil tallow.

The tow I'm using was bought a couple years ago from Turkey Foot Trading Company and is made from hemp. Previously I used it along with a flint and steel and some charcloth for fire starting.

I have an order on the way from Track which includes a primitive worm so I can try using it for bore cleaning as well.

Another natural material used for wadding is wasp's or hornet's nest. If I can find a nest and not get stung it's something else I want to try.

More to come...