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Joined: 27 Jul 2012 Posts: 16 Location: ky

here are some pictures and measurements of the Herter wads.
Herter Vandalee;
Over All; 1.65 Shot-cup inside depth 1.06, base cup length .25, cushion .34, Center ring dia. .636. od. dia. of shot-cup .642

I have westeren upland hulls as well as remington sp fiber base wad hull. Lastly just a few alcan hulls
And some remington 57 primes.

The three powders on hand are. Blue Dot, Herco, And Unique
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Looks like you have the Herter's Patented Vandalee wad.

1 1/8 ounce of shot,
and from 20 grains of Herco up to about 23 grains

Mike

Joined: 27 Jul 2012 Posts: 16 Location: ky

Thank you for all those who had interest and took the time to use there resources to help to put these components to use. With any luck they will prove to be as good as what is available to us today. There just seems to be a gap in component compatibility with what is on today's market.
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[quote="outolunch101"] "here are some pictures and measurements of the Herter wads.
Herter Vandalee;
Over All; 1.65 Shot-cup inside depth 1.06, base cup length .25, cushion .34, Center ring dia. .636. od. dia. of shot-cup .642..."

Yup. Those are the same ones I've been using in my 1-1/4 ounce Blue Dot loads. These old wads have shot cups which are the roomiest I've ever found. They will hold a tad more #4 pellets than either the SP16 or the Winchester WW16AA wads and are a slip fit into the blue Fiocchi hulls I have on hand.

I remain impressed by the junk us old guys pile up

those who say it is of little use are of less use

I miss the old Herter's catalogs. I used to pore over them when I was a kid. Some of the the stuff we ordered almost lived up to George Leonard Herter's hype. I have some Herter's plastic ammo boxes that are still in service after 40 years. I have managed to collect a few Herter's products over the years, but collecting all the products that Herters sold over the years would be a pretty daunting task.

I agree with what Jagdhund posted, I also spent much time browsing through Herters catalog along with my two boys . Knives, fishing lure parts and cartridge reloading stuff was the bulk of my purchases in the 1960's. Most of the reloading items I purchased then are still in use including a U-3 Super reloading press which has loaded unknown 1000's of cartridges. One of my favorites is a cut awaybullet seating die ,where a slit allows you to see the bullet crimp groove match the case mouth perfectly.
My only regret is that I never got into shotshell reloading untill Herters was gone.

Art

If you wanted to take the sting out of 16ga trap , you needed a 30'' m12 with a herters extended broadway style 5/8 rib , and one of their rollover cheekpiece stocks. Weighed a ton .... their version of rapalas were the bomb , IF , you could get them to wiggle ! 3out of 5 was GOOD !

I also should have mentioned that Herter's dies were good and a bargain. Unfortunately, I believe the were made by the Ruhr company. I have a couple sets that I still use occasionally and wouldn't hesitate to buy more if they were in a caliber I needed.

Their brass was first rate and at least some calibers were made in Finland and Sweden (I'm thinking Lapua and Norma}, back when the our dollar had a lot of value.

In 1971, while I was with the Ft. Rucker Marksmanship Detachment, one of our members was going home on leave to Minnesota, very close to Waseca. It turned out, he was going to Herters, so I asked him to pick me up five pounds of #6 shot and a few hundred primers, 40 .222 Rem cases and 100 .224 bullets. As a married Spec. 5, I was on a slim budget then, but the whole works probably didn't cost $10. The shot was pretty poor, soft with odd sizes and shapes. I still have some of the brass. The SR primers were made by the Teikoku Kahokin Company in Kawagoe, Japan. The shotshell primers were also Japanese, made by some fats and oils company as I remember. I have lost the sleeve for those.

Member Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 1975

My brother and I made many trips to Herters. Lived in Bloomington then. Still have a few of the decoys I bought from them.
When I was still working I did a remodel job at a big duck camp in northern Minnesota. In their decoy shed they must have had 100 of Herters Decoys.
That was when I tried my first reloading. Back then really didn't know what we were doing, but we tried. We even designed and made a reloading machine out an old drill press. Still have it out in one of my sheds. Even had some old Dupont powder I bought from them. Gave it away a few years ago.

pictures on p2

Member Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Posts: 2169 Location: Florida

Thanks

Joined: 25 Aug 2014 Posts: 286 Location: Finger Lakes

16Davis gave me a bunch of these wads recently. Been looking for a load for them. Any new info? Me and Bill ha e discussed a few loads just looking for any info possible. I was going to use them for a non toxic load.

Here's some info from the Herter's manual, 4th Ed. dated 1976.

Herter's Patented Vandalia Wad - "These wads give 20 yards more range than any other wad system. The Herter Vandalia wad has only two slots in the shot up and carries the shot about 20 feet out from the muzzle of the gun before releasing the shot, thus giving the sot added velocity and completely eliminating shot string out. In 16 ga. they are available in 1/2 inch 1 oz. shot cup and 5/8" 1 1/8 shot cup." Herters was anything but modest. The illustration looks like your samples.

Unfortunately, the data on page 117 does not mention the Vandalia wad by name. The data is for "Using Herter's One Piece Wad, Miracle Shot Cup and Chalice One Piece Wad". I assume the One piece wad is the Vandalia, because it is the only one piece wad listed as a 16 ga. Even though the Chalice is listed above, under the wad descriptions the Chalice is not listed in 16 ga. At any rate, the data is generic for the wads listed.

To wit: "16 gauge 2 3/4" Standard Loads"
3 1/4 - 1 1/8 oz. with 24.0 grs. 7625 / Win. paper, Western, New Peters, Remington, Fed., AA, & J. C. Higgins cases w/unspecified 209 primer / 10 lbs. wad pressure for 1265 fps @ 10,200 pressure (LUP?)

2 1/2 - 1 oz. with 16.0 grs. Red Dot / same cases and generic primer/10 lbs. wad pressure for 1110 fps. @ 10,600 pressure

2 1/2 - 1 oz with 22.0 grs. PB / same cases and primer/ 10 lbs. wad pressure for 1270 fps @ 9,900 pressure.

There were a few other loads using Herter's powders plus 540MS, 473AA and AL-7 if you have some of those laying around.

Hope this helps.

Woodie ... just loaded a couple 25/8 feds with 18.5 Unique , herters and 440 grns of iTX13 6's . Had plenty of room in the wad , would have been tight in the case with more shot . Am gonna load some (1) with an SP wad which will hold the load OK with no barrel contact .This one for the ole 740E ... If this will hold a tight pattern in the 870 , this might be the load RENO is looking for .