Short/mini 12ga slug shells
Does anyone have any good recipes for short slug shells?
I am looking to loosely replicate the aguila mini shells since they aren't readily available up here in Canada.
Also, I have a whole bunch of hulls(AA, STS, Blue Magic) with cracked mouths, but otherwise in very good condition. I hate to throw them out considering they could be cut down and roll crimped.
2" and 1-3/4" using BPI load data
I did some preliminary testing using short shells made using BPI data. Since they sell the data sheet I will not publish the load except to say that I used Fiocchi primed hulls cut to length, SSW wad, Bullseye, and #0 buck shot that I cast. The 2" load is straight from their data except that the 9 pellets weigh a small amount over 7/8 oz. The 1-3/4 load is the same except the wad was trimmed by 1/4" and only 6 pellets were inserted. I used a Russian made roll crimp tool from eBay but I suspect that any are fine. The OAL of the 2" is 1.85" and the 1-3/4 is 1.62"
The guns were a Stevens 350 and a Kel-tec KSG. Both are bottom load and bottom eject pumps. In these guns the short shells functioned without any issues. The number fired was small so the testing is very preliminary. Recoil is light in my opinion particularly when compared to a couple slug loads that I also fired. The 350 held 7+1 of the 2" shells and the KSG holds 16+1 of the 2". I forgot to check the 1-3/4 capacity but it is probably 18+1 in the KSG.
Using the pre-primed hulls the only thing required was a Lee powder scoop and a drill press with the roll crimper provided that you bought the buck shot. I set the stop on the drill press so they all come out the same length. The next thing is to get several boxes loaded up to get a more valid test. It may take me a while though.