Packing handloads with cream of wheat?

[Cheeseybacon]

I forget where I first saw it, but not too long ago I heard about someone mixing cream of wheat in with their powder to completely fill up the cartridge. I think they were doing loads for Cowboy action shooting, whatever that is.

Why would someone do this? Is there a reason for using cream of wheat as a filler? Less recoil? Whats the deal?

[Agent Ronin]

I forget where I first saw it, but not too long ago I heard about someone mixing cream of wheat in with their powder to completely fill up the cartridge. I think they were doing loads for Cowboy action shooting, whatever that is.

Why would someone do this? Is there a reason for using cream of wheat as a filler? Less recoil? Whats the deal?

Cowboy shooters use blackpowder which can be unstable if it rolls around too much in the cartridge. So by using cream of wheat they can make it a compressed charge without blowing themselves up. (I hear that the compressed charge makes the blackpowder work better)

[Atomic Dog]

Does it work with CoCo wheat?

[bubba23]

Does it work with CoCo wheat?

I think so!

Our little town couldn't afford firework on the 4th, so we just made some reloads using Fruit Loops. That worked out real good.

[nijwnfi]

Cap and Ball Percussion pistol shooters often use fillers too. I never tried it, but have heard of it being done in competition if the shooter uses lighter powder load.

[jsb889]

Sounds like a good idea. Doesn't smokeless powder get a little extra potent if its handled too much too? I read about people tumbling live rounds for a few hours (I forget why) and caused problems when fired because the powder supposedly ground itself up.

[LastManOut]

Cap and Ball Percussion pistol shooters often use fillers too. I never tried it, but have heard of it being done in competition if the shooter uses lighter powder load.

I've used corn meal as a filler for years in my Ruger Old Army .44. There's no problem doing this. I actually have a yellow musterd resturant type bottle with corn meal and a red ketchup style bottle for the BP. Add a cap and fire away.

[T Durdin]

I heard it was to make a visible puff of smoke as a cartridge is fired, as modern powder {smokeless powder} doesn't give the same effect.

Just what I heard, I'm not in to cowboy shootin'

[soberbyker]

..... Cowboy action shooting, whatever that is. ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_action_shooting

[crazyyankee]

Civil War re-enactors use it in their cap & ball revolvers in place of a wad. This is done for safety reasons. The wad can still fly out and hit someone, where the cream of wheat just disinigrates (sp). When we do safety checks and inspections on the weapons, if they are using wonder wads we won't allow the pistols on line.

It doesn't stop all the "chain fires", but most of them and since we are loaded with only black powder and no projectiles it works..