Ejectum Canis
http://www.portnell.net/blog-spm/index.php?/archives/237-Ejectum-Canis.html
The things that change in this hobby. I grew up thinking chemically-treated tissue paper wadding was the way to protect recovery systems from the hot products of the ejection charge. It's still in all the model instructions and starter sets and all.
But it seems that very few clubs like tissue wadding. In fact, large clubs ban tissue wadding and mandate the use of cellulose insulation as wadding. This is a building material made mostly from shredded newspaper, with chemical fire retardants added. It's apparently easier and more reliable to handle, and it biodegrades much more quickly than tissue. Also, when it falls from the sky into turf, it disappears! (From sight, anyway.) It has the colloquial name "dog barf" in the rocketry community, but it doesn't really resemble anything I've ever seen a dog throw up. Which is just as well.
I bought a bale (yes, bale) of it yesterday. Apparently this is enough to last a medium-sized lifetime of rocketry. All for $12 plus tax. And the clubs that mandate its use sell it to the barf-deprived at several dollars for a gallon bag. There's a nice racket (and still far cheaper to the consumer than tissue).
I've put most of the bale into a big green storage tub. The rest is in a cat litter bucket for taking to the range. Seems like that's how I'm organizing most of my field supplies these days: cat litter buckets. But, what the hey. Buy seven bucks of cat litter, get a free four-gallon bucket with lid. Too bad the Mantis pad won't fit into such a thing. I'll have to dig up a disused sports bag for that one.
Meanwhile, most of my paper wadding (and I have a lot) will get donated to the 4-H afterschool program. Along with an LED bulb and a couple of easy-to-build rocket model kits.
Now we just hope tonight’s thundershowers don’t render the range an icky-sticky mess for the morning.