Outwardly, the VP60 is very different than the Mg42. The overall length of the VP60 is slightly smaller, 50 thousandths of an inch. The Vagner wad has 4 pre-slit petals with no ridges, compared to the MG42’s two petals with multiple ridges. The VP60 petal slits are beveled. Between the shot cup and the powder cup the VP60 has straight legs, compared to the oval cushion of the MG42. The powder cup is taller on the VP60. Both wads have the same external diameter.

 

Inwardly, both shot cups have an air vent to assist in petal opening (4 in the MG42 and 1 in the VP60), and hold one ounce of steel shot. However, the VP60 has a shot cup 50 thousandths of an inch deeper. The MG42 has four plastic vertical ridges that protrude into the inside of the shot cup at the base, forming a kind of hinge for the petals, where the VP60 is smooth down to the base of the shot cup. Both wads are non-tapered.

Reloading at Sportsman’s Park – Update: VP60

 

There is a new name at Sportsman’s Park that many of you can expect to hear a lot about very soon. His name is Vagner, from the Vagner Plast Company of Denmark. Vagner Plast is an injection molding company since 1986 that injects molten polymer into a mold under pressure to produce shot shell wads. They use polyethylene, “which is environmentally neutral” according to the company website. For the past several months, Joe K. has been communicating with Ivan Vagner, the Managing Director and Administrator of Vagner Plast, about providing an alternative to the MG42 steel wad that NSC reloaders have been using for several years. Communications have been primarily through E-mail, with some rough translation in the middle. Ivan Vagner is not coming to shoot at Sportsman’s Park, but 120,000 of his wads are.

 

After examining Vagner’s product line, Joe K. and Art J. expended considerable amounts of time, effort, money, and brainpower to come up with some recipes to reload steel shot with American powders and Vagner wads. Reloading recipes will not be included in this article, but can be obtained by talking to Joe or Art. Many thanks are due to Art and Joe for their efforts, so please don’t forget to thank them when discussing the new recipes, or when you pick up your components. The Vagner wads have been reloaded by Joe, Art, and I with very positive reviews.  Below I will summarize my reloading notes to compare the Vagner VP60 wad with the MG42 wad.

While these differences may seem very minor, they have a big impact on how the wads function on a MEC 9000G reloader. While the VP60 and the MG have the same external diameter, the VP60 causes less rippling of the completed shot shell. The MG42 would cause at least three ripples (see above, left), while the VP causes only one and seems less pronounced (above, right).

 

 This may be why the VP60 feels easier to insert on the down-stroke. The oval cushion between the shot cup and the powder cup on the MG42 is very easily compressed, leading to a high incidence of the powder cup going into the hull slightly crooked. The more rigid, straight, and short legs of the VP60 are far more resistant to compression, and I did not observe a single crooked powder cup in the first batch of 120 shot shells. 

 

The slightly shorter overall length and the slightly deeper shot cup means that the VP60 will have greater clearance between the rammer tube and the wad guide on a MEC 9000G. The 50 thousandths of an inch shorter length, added to the 50 thousandths of an inch deeper shot cup, combines to give the VP60 one tenth of an inch greater clearance over the wad guide, resulting in easier placement on the MEC. If your wad guide fingers are going into the hull more than 1/8 of an inch, greater force can be needed to insert the wad and accelerated crimp wear can result. Here is your chance to raise the wad guide due to the extra clearance. How far into the hull are your wad guide fingers going? Well, it’s not easy to see when the handle has been pulled down. However, you can see how far below the crimp petals the outside bottom of the wad guide is. The wad guide fingers are 1/8 of an inch higher than the outside bottom of the wad guide, so the outside bottom of the wad guide should be ¼ of an inch below the top of the crimp petals.

 

 If you are using a 12 gauge rammer tube instead of a 16 gauge rammer tube, you are going to notice a lot more clearance between the rammer tube and the wad guide with the VP60. This is because the MG42 has those four ridges inside the shot cup that prevent a 12 gauge steel shot rammer tube from going completely into the shot cup by about 0.2 inches. Since the VP60 does not have them, you will see 0.3 inches of increased clearance (0.1 inches due to the dimensions of the VP60, plus 0.2 due to the lack of the ridges). Use that extra clearance to raise your wad guide, since I am certain that you had to lower it too much to accommodate the MG42 wad when you set up your MEC9000G for the MG42’s. The difference can be seen below:

Perhaps due to all the above, the VP60 wads seem to crimp better. I have noticed less doming of the crimp, and it is easier to get a deeper crimp. Combined with the easier insertion into the hull, and less outward rippling, it is easy to see why many reloaders would want to switch to the VP60. If that weren’t enough to make you consider switching, the cost will be lower than the MG42’s as well. At the time of this writing, the VP60’s are expected to cost under $ 28 per thousand wads, compared to about $38  per thousand on our last order of MG42’s.

But how do they shoot? So far, I haven’t noticed any difference in performance between the two wads. I have not yet patterned the VP60. Perhaps if we can get the VP60’s into the hands of some of our league-leading shooters like Bob A. or Scott C., we could get an honest appraisal. But until then, I will continue to use up the last of my MG42 wads and anticipate the arrival of the Vagners.  And don’t forget to thank Art and Joe for all their efforts!

 

 Tom K