Plastic vs Fibre Wads - Which Is Best?

June's Shooting Cenus Dinner debate, held in London by GunsOnPegs and Strutt & Parker, was one of the most vigorous yet.

The topic that got shoots most lively was plastic vs fibre wads - which is best?

The 2014 Shooting Census results told us that 83% of guns prefer to use fibre wadding. It seems that the remaining 17% are very vocal on the use of plastic wads, especially for high pheasants.

Some shoots would prefer guns to only shoot with plastic wads as they believe they provide a cleaner kill on the highest birds. Others, especially those based in National Parks where the use of plastic wads is illegal, believed there was no difference and couldn't understand why you'd want to litter the countryside with plastic. The 'pro-plastic' shoots responded by explaining that they send teams out after the season picking up the plastic wads so that isn't an issue.

The debate here is solely about pattern as there is no difference between the residual velocity or pellet energy in fibre and plastic wad cartridges.

Recent advances have certainly been made but have you noticed them? Hull Cartridge use a hardened shot in their fibre wad High Pheasant cartridge which reduces pellet deformation in order to provide a dense pattern at longer range. Robert Everitt of Hull Cartridge explains: "The plastic vs Fibre debate always centres around High Bird shooting. There is no sporting bird that is within appropriate range that can't be shot with our High Pheasant Extreme Cartridges with fibre wads. We have extensively tested them and at the ranges that people are 'pro plastic', the differences are marginal... It's the placebo effect or maybe in this case the plastico effect!!"

What are your thoughts on this hot topic? Have the performance differences between fibre and plastic been ironed out? What do you use and why? And just to throw something else into the mix, is there a difference between fibre, felt or wool?!

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