Bill - with black powder loads, in order for the powder to burn correctly and give consistant results, the charge must alwasy be compressed. If not by the bullet, then by whatever wad you use. Soft wads cause spread standard deviations and are normally innacurate with BP.
: As noted in my post on the reduced charge in the BP case- my bro used 8 or 10 card wads of 1/10" thickness to 'compress' the powder charge.
: Yes - the weight of the cards adds to the weight of the other ejecta, which also includes roughly 57% of the powder charge's weight as solid waste. So- if you ware shooting 100gr. of black powder, with a 500gr. bullet, loaded with 30gr. of wads, you are actually shooting - 500gr. bullet + 57gr. solid powder waste + 30 gr. wads = 587gr. of ejecta.