Lyman 525 in a fully rifled ithaca deerslayer II 20ga

[Goose18557]

Still pretty new to the forum and casting. I have been doing some research on old threads. I found plenty of info on the 525 and am confident I can cast a good bullet with some trial and error using the aforementioned threads.

I've heard that shooting non-saboted slugs will ruin the rifling in a barrel. Is a standard shotgun wad enough to protect the barrel from the slug. The only reason I ask is looking at commercial sabots (hornady/winchester/lightfield) the slugs appear to be smaller diameter than the 525 with a thicker sabot to make up the appropriate total diameter.

Has anyone loaded/shot 525 sabots out of a fully rifled barrel? if so what were the results?

[Goose18557]

Correction to the above. 525 is 12ga. Looking for info on the Lyman 345 for 20ga.

[CHeatermk3]

Welcome Goose!
I don't have experience with the Lyman 345gn slug, but I have lots of experience with the 12 ga. in fully rifled barrels, a H&R ultra slug hunter and my Mossberg 835 also rifled.

The 525 looks like a giant pellet, and is designed to be loaded like shot, in a standard shot wad under a star type crimp. I've shot many dozens of these loads with no significant leading.

Lots of info on slugs the "casting for shotguns" forum; here's and example:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?298811-New-Batch-of-Lyman-525-s

[Blammer]

I shoot non saboted full bore slugs in my rifled barrel. Not ruined yet. :) actually I doubt it will.

to your 20ga question.

you won't ruin your barrel, but you will/should get better accuracy when you put the 20ga pelletgun slug in a wad.

[Goose18557]

Thanks gents, exactly what I was looking for. Going to order the 20 pellet mold from Lyman and give it a shot. Will post results and hopefully contribute some info to the site vice learning for free as I have been.

[wmitty]

I'm shooting the Ly. 525 in a Savage 212 and have observed no damage.

[Drew P]

Unless the wad is failing down the barrel then you wouldn't even have lead touching the barrel at all correct? And if the rifling shreds the wad then I'm guessing accuracy would suffer greatly.

I cast a lot of the 525 slugs and they are a pleasure and shoot well in my smooth bores.

[Goose18557]

Drew - all good points that I agree with and are probably the correct assumptions. Haven't gotten the mold yet and was just doing some upfront research.

As for wads in general, 50/50 as to whether they are torn up or not when used with shot in my experience. I can say that I have never seen significant damage to the thicker wads used with factory sabots. What wad do you load your 525s with.

[dondiego]

I load for both the 12 and the 20 but haven't worked up a load for the 20 slug yet. I am looking at the loaded rounds on the shelf but don't have a 20 with a rifled barrel. I do know that if the wad petals break off during flight, before they release the slug, accuracy suffers. You will find the spent wads 20 to 30 yards down range. Check them.

[Goose18557]

Dondiego- you hit my question on the head but I'm looking for is info regarding post firing condition of wads that were sent downrange with a 525 through a rifled barrel.

The only personal reference I have are the 20ga factory sabot slug wads that have never shown damage out of my gun. They are significantly "beefier" than a "standard wad" that the 525 or 350 is designed to be used in.

[Drew P]

I use a WA12 clone wad with mine and about 20gr international clays. They are soft shooters but cycle picky autos fine.

[HangFireW8]

About ruining a rifled shotgun barrel- don't worry about it. I once had a rifled M500 cantilever barrel that wouldn't group factory sabot ammo well. I tried just about every kind of slug out there (at the time), about 200 rounds worth. The worst thing that happened was one type of unsaboted slug left long ribbons of lead down the barrel. They weren't that hard to get out.

If you do happen to have that problem today, get Chore Boy brand copper wool (check with a magnet), wrap it around a 12 ga wire brush and have at it.

Oh, and if anyone is curious, I found the problem with the barrel by looking at the crown one day and noticing that while nicely cut, it was cut eccentric. I fixed the problem by returning it to Mossberg, who sent me a new one no questions asked, even though several years had gone by since I had bought it. The new barrel groups just about everything well, but particularly likes 3" Super-X BRI Winchester sabot slugs.

[dondiego]

I was using WAA12R which is a short red wad no longer made by Winchester. The ones that shot best were found on the ground in one piece with all petals intact. They were slightly blackened from the 43 grains of Blue Dot. My father gave me some that had been in the Texas sun and were brittle. The petals broke off during firing and shot poorly.

[Goose18557]

Thanks for all the great input guys. I put together a group buy discussion if any one is interested in 20ga sabots
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?301340-Mihec-20ga-Sabot-double-cavity