Wad Materials

[Chaffa Hosa]

Over the past weekend I was shooting with some of the club members
They had 54 cal smoothbores and were using wasp nests as over powder and over shot wadding. Seems to work real good. I need to harvest some and try in my 12 ga

[Dryball]

Good luck with your harvesting! You have more guts then me!

Ned

[Chaffa Hosa]

There is a substance called Brake/Parts cleaner that will convince them to fall to the ground dead.
I use it by the case on truck repairs

[Oldnamvet]

I'd wait until winter before going after them.  Besides, the leaves are down so you can spot them in the trees easier.  You could also get some sheet cork and punch out some overshot wads.  Easier to get in bulk than wasps nests.

[roundball]

A couple years ago I was visiting my Sister and brought back 3 of several large hornets nests that her husband had found in the woods...took a section of one to the range one weekend and experimented with them, and as advertised, they worked fine as an overpowder wad...I found that I had to tear off and stuff a couple inches of material into the muzzle because it compressed so much it took that much to end up with a 1/4"-1/2" wad  (imagine how much cotton candy you'd have to pull off and stuff into a muzzle to end up with a thick compressed wad).
Worked as advertised, stayed compacted perfectly, didn't burn at all, etc.

Note:
I once saw a post mentioning that while the material feels like paper, it is made of mud and raised the issue of potential harm to a bore...I have no idea...just mentioning it...I only experimented with it for a dozen shots and haven't used any since.