Fibre wads – it’s time to ditch the plastic

Plastic pollution is a major cause for concern these days and as shooters we have to do our bit to protect the environment and show that we are behaving responsibly.

So does that mean we should turn our back on plastic wads and make a wholesale switch to fibre wads?

I spoke to Dylan Williams at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School (RBSS) for his view on plastic wads. “It’s time to stop, think and listen or we will be in a huge mess,” he warned. “The RBSS has never bought plastic-wadded cartridges for use on the school and we have been 100 per cent fibre since 2019, which includes what clients bring.”

If only Guns were as responsible and switched to fibre wads. There are still some round who think plastic wads are fine on game days, hoping that they may be able to hit slightly higher, faster birds.

The shooting community has always prided itself on its conservation credentials

Like dumping a plastic bag

Let’s look at this comparison. 
A plastic wad weighs 2.5g and 
a supermarket plastic bag weighs 
5g. So anybody who double-
taps a long partridge 
with plastic has just effectively dumped a plastic bag in the ditch.

If you saw a vehicle driver tearing down the lanes, throwing hundreds of plastic bags into the verge, you’d doubtless be very angry.

Toxic as those wads may be, there are some who protest that they do produce a better performance. In a bid to find out whether that view holds any weight, I did a little unscientific polling. Robert Everitt, of Hull Cartridge and keen grouse Shot, says: “Plastic wads 
don’t make up for poor accuracy; 
a well-placed shot with fibre wad 
will always outperform a sloppy 
shot with plastic.”

Fibre wads a no-brainer

Game shooting instructor 
and top game Shot Simon Ward takes a similar line: “I have been using fibre wad ammunition for all of my game shooting for the past 20 years.” Simon has been involved in developing fibre-wadded cartridges with Gamebore over the past decade and now believes the choice is a no-brainer, saying: “Why would I want to leave the countryside littered with plastic?”

A South African friend, Marcus Janssen, previously editor of Fieldsports Magazine and now 
brand director at Schöffel, 
is a conservationist through 
and through. My mention 
of plastic rather offended him. “That anyone would consider 
using plastic wad 
cartridges for game 
shooting shows 
a flagrant disregard for the countryside, and for the rest of the shooting community. It is irresponsible and, quite frankly, reprehensible,” he said.

A well-placed shot with fibre wad will always outperform a sloppy shot with plastic

Banned

John Queen, headkeeper at Linhope estate, said: “Linhope has a 100 per cent plastic wad ban. We pride ourselves on maintaining our beautiful estate and many more should follow suit. Conservation is at Lord James’s [Percy, owner of Linhope] heart. It is unacceptable 
to be shooting plastic wads for any form of game shooting.”

This article was originally published in 2019 and has been updated.