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I don't use carded wool, but do use kapok. After a while you get an eye for what 3 grains looks like and you can get real close. Take me less time to pull and weigh 20 wads of 3 grains of kapok than to measure and weigh 20 85 grain units of Fg.

I don't know about Sniders but I can tell you there is a difference between 3 grains of kapok and 8 grains of kapok in a 85 grain FG load in the Martini.

The so called shock wave effect was clearly demonstrated by Charlie Dell. Powder Loads that if left unsupported fall below the flash hole and result in misfires from flash over. When a wad is used to hold the powder up in front of the flash hole an air space is left between the wad and bullet base and ringing occured when the kenetic energy of the moving gas column came to an abrupt halt and is transformed into a ring of static pressure at the base of the base of the bullet.

Dell found that old steels demonstrated this ringing quite clearly, but modern steel also ringed, just slower. Dell found that by moving the wad .200 off the powder charge allowing the charge to slump slightly the coherent nature of the gas column was disrupted and the static stagiation pressure was reduce or eliminated.

Dell based his studies on the works of Paul Vieillen an engineer who developed a smokeless powder.

Gert's reduced loads still cover from flash hole to bullet base and the gas column can't realy form. If reduce far enough the columncould form and ringing can occur. I believe it is Greener who warns about not reducing loads below 70 percent of case capacity just for this reason.

Full fillers of course fill all the air space and don't allow the gas column to form. By the way the two most common fillers are lead and powder.

While the filler is in the barrel it is part of the mass of the projectile and serves to give some added resistance to the burning gas. The more the mass the more the resistance. Just like there is a difference in variable thickness of card wads. I also think it works in the same way powder compression works in straight wall cases. The compressed filler compresses the powder a smlal degree. More filler more compression. Eley dis a lot of work with fillers in the Nitro for plack transition period of the early 1900's.

Please understand the wad is a something used to position the powder or other components and leaves an airspce. A filler eliminates all airspace.

One thing you need for good accurate loads is consistancy. If you are looking for accuracy any thing used to construct the cartridge must be consistant. That is why I weigh fillers.

Alpaca wool, sure why not.