I'm doing a black powder flintlock rifle demo to school kids and need to shoot a "blank" by putting "wadding" over the powder charge. I've never shot a BP blank and have no idea what "wadding" is.

Q? What is safe wadding to use?

Where are you shooting it.

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black powder charge in Ruger Old Army's with good results.

I shot my .69 cal Charleville a couple years back inb Independance Day with a blank load of powder with a hunk of paper towel rammed down. It did burn the paper towel some but it was raining pretty good so it wasn't an issue. If shot on a dry day, just go stomp it out and maybe pour some water on it and I'd say you're good.

https://youtu.be/tPQYllIQ_7M

https://youtu.be/tPQYllIQ_7M

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I fire model rockets with my kids, soaking paper towels in max concentration dissolved baking soda and water solution, dried out on clothes line, makes good fire resistant wadding.

Max means add baking soda to water and dissolve it until no more will dissolve and you see excess bicarb on bottom of dish.

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NT

powder wad. Years ago I built a 1" bore 24" barrel naval carriage black powder cannon. The first test firing was inside our welding shop with the barrel in a shallow wooden box backed up against the cinder block wall. The charge was 1.75 oz Goex FFFg. I packed a plane brown dry paper towel down tight against the powder with a piece of wooden broomstick, the far wall was 20 feet away. When the smoke, dust, and ceiling tiles cleared we found a perfectly round 1" diameter by 3/16" deep depression in the far wall. I got the Cream of Wheat load from an old acquaintance who is big into Civil War (he has his own bronze full size cannon) and WWII reenactment.

It turns out that Track of the Wolf has both dry and lubed felt wads in correct caliber. $9/100 will last me many years of demo's.

Re: safety of solid wad. Shooting into the air in outdoor setting. Main issue fire control, and lubed wad will do fine. You Thanks for thoughts and suggestions (including PM with ToW suggestion).