Using a 20 ga Slug gun

[BigNate]

Any of you folks have much experience loading 20 ga shotshell cases with any sort of lead bullet in a Winchester AA 20 ga shotshell wad (using that wad as a SABOT)? I'd love to find out more about this...I just acquired a TC Encore Pro Hunter 20 rifled fluted barrel. I'd like to have some loads for not only deer, but also to use in on other smaller game (Groundhogs, etc.).
Also, anyone want to weigh in on the 20 ga vs 12 ga for deer thinking?

[Themoose]

BigNate,

Born a Hoosier, I hunted for many years in Indiana with shotgun slugs... I have been casting and reloading 12ga Lyman 525 sabot slugs for over 10 years and have killed many deer with them in IN,OH and here in PA... I did have a 20 ga slug gun(got it in a trade) and I purchased the Lyman 20 ga sabot mold and tried my hand at it... I gave up pretty quickly as I could not get the loads I made to group nearly as well as the 12 ga... so I traded the gun off on another 12 ga slug gun. (I do still have the 20 ga mold and some slugs if you are interested).. just send me a PM... The current rage seems to be for 20 ga slug guns but as I understand it, most people are shooting the expensive factory sabots... I stopped buying factory deer slugs when the best got to be more than $2 a shot... 20 ga slugs should be ample for deer... you may want to do a search for the slug shooters forums on other sites... some are really into it... The stopping power of a soft lead slug going about 1500+ fps is tremendous...

Hope you have fun with your new rig...

Themoose

[tomme boy]

I could not get the 20ga. Lymans to work either. 50yds was about it for them. After that they went where they wanted. I never could get any speed out of them either. If I remember right, 1200fps was the fastest I could get them to go. This was with a Mossberg 500 fully rifled.

I did kill a few deer with them. But the shots were about 20yds. Straight through the chest on 3, and the top of the head on one.

It seems that the 20 is the hardest to get to work. Not much data out there for it.

[turbo1889]

The Lyman 20ga. 350-grain Wad-Slug (what I call a slug that isn't a true sabot but goes inside of a shot wad) design is fatally flawed right off of the drawing board. It is not properly balanced, has an incorrect length to diameter ratio, and has too thin of a skirt that fails under acceleration loading in all but the hardest type-metal based alloys with loads using slow burning powders.

The Lyman 12ga. 525-grain version of the same type of diabolo shaped wad-slug does not have the same problems, it is properly balanced, has a correct length to diameter ratio, and has a skirt with sufficient thickness to hold up under acceleration loading if power burn rate is matched to alloy hardness.

So far the best "off the shelf" molds that I have found to use as wad-slugs in 20ga. guns is the Lyman #575494 mold and the Lee #575-470-M mold. The Lyman works in both smooth bore and rifled barrel 20ga. guns where as the Lee needs a rifled barrel and can actually print tighter then the Lyman out of a rifled barrel gun.

I have not found Winchester AA type wads or hulls to work well for loading wad slugs in the 20ga. Federal 20S1 wads have given me the best results and they need to be loaded in a straight wall type hull and can work in Remington compression formed hulls as well under certain conditions. 28ga. nitro cards are used inside the wad under the slug to adjust the slugs nose height to match the depth of the shot-cup.

Over all though I have had better luck with full bore solid slugs out of rifled barrel 20ga. guns then I have had with wad-slugs although I can certainly understand the appeal that wad-slugs have for the reloader.

[Maven]

Big Nate, I'm going to cross post this in the Shotgun subforum.