Am I fick er wot?

[slowcoach]

That's too true, I seem to shoot the 8 to 10 rings with the odd 7 now and again. But then I am BLEDDY good @10 FEET

[stuartgc]

The purpose of filler , whether wad or semolina, is at least two-fold. To help prevent chain-fire and to achieve consistent depth of the ball without air gaps. Using say 24 grains in a Ruger Old Army leaves plenty of room for a largeish air gap between powder and ball as the ram rod only ever pushes the ball to the same depth. Filler takes up the space which would otherwise be air and lets the ram rod seat the ball on to the filler surface with a consistent light pressure. As far as chain-fire is concerned I have not yet seen it. Most people I see shooting use an inert filler/wad which acts as a barrier between sparks and the powder. Most seem not to bother with grease as a final application over the ball.