swaging slugs into copper pipe?

[John in WI]

I found this Youtube video on a guy who's casting lead into copper pipe and swaging it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqOQ8k1_eUY

He's not responding to my inquiry, but I'm wondering what you guys thought about something like that? He's using 5/8" copper pipe that he anneals, puts into a mold, and fills with lead. Then he swages it (to make sure they don't separate?).

5/8" (.625) seems pretty undersized, so I'm guessing the design calls for using a standard shot cup? I think he mentioned they were .960" long.

had anyone tried anything like this? I don't know a lot about it--but it seems that having a cylinder shaped slug would help it fly better than a round ball?

[eye shot]

Hi john in wi
I did mine a little different after watching that vid. 5/8 makes an awfull heavy slug so I used 1/2" pipe. I used a flaring tool and flared both ends to .730 after annealing the pipe. I can't remember the length I ended up with but think it was less than an inch. The weight you want will determine that. Just to start I used a flat steel plate to cast on- you could drill a sp or round nose in the plate. I fluxed the inside of pipe to get a copper to lead bond and slug of about 530gr so as to use Lyman 525 data. With just two bands, front & rear you get a full bore slug with very little friction and no leading in barrel. At 50yds. they punched nice round wad cutter holes. Oh use a nitro card under slug then any wad with pedals cut of that will make correct length in hull for crimping This slug was used in a rifled barrel.

[John in WI]

Thanks Eyeshot,
So you didn't use the slug inside of a shot cup or in a sabot? Isn't .5" seriously undersized for a 12 gauge?

I'd be interested to learn more about this techinque--it sounds interesting!!

[John in WI]

Or you mean that the slug engaged the rifling at the flared ends (.730) but no in the middle .5" section?

[eye shot]

No sabot of any kind, this is a full bore slug that rides on the copper flares. You could say it has a waist like the 525 Lyman that the front and back band that presses the sabot to the rifling. Yes on engaging the rifling. That's as far as I got before starting a new slug gun- .410 with fully rifled barrel.

[John in WI]

One more quick question. I used my pipe cutter and cut a few sections of 1/2" pipe into 3/4" lengths. I hit the inside with sand paper and "sweated" it with flux and plumbing solder to get a good coat of solder in there. Then I set it on the flat anvil-shaped thing on the back of my vice and filled it by melting casting sprues into it with a MAPP torch. I would brush it over the copper as it filled up so the whole thing whetted out.

I think the lead is very well bonded to the interior of the pipe.

The pipe is too big to fit into my BP Eurowad, but it seems to fit perfectly for length in a Winchester. But in the winchester it's maybe 1/16" too skinny.

I read a lot on here where people would use paper wrappings to take up the slop when making round ball loads--I don't see any reason it wouldn't work here, do you?

It seems to me that the paper should fill up the gap between the wad petals and the copper, but when you engage the rifling it should compress the whole assembly enough to set the slug spinning.

Then when it breaks free of the muzzle, the paper would tear loose as soon as the shot cup walks away. I'll set it on nitro disk or two to prevent the gas seal from getting shredded...

I can weigh it tomorrow and see what it came in at. But I'd love to come in with a light weight slug for "plinking" and I'll probably save the commercial stuff for deer. But I'm guessing one of these could do some damage to some milk jugs.

[Al in Mi]

I stumbled across these awhile back, never ordered any, but might give someone an idea.

http://bullmooseproducts.com/index.p...aedeece120560f

[John in WI]

I got six of them made. 1/2" pipe cut with a pipe cutter to 3/4" length. I tinned the inside with solder and then filled them with casting sprues and hit it with the MAPP torch. It was kind of a bugger getting them FULL without a mold, but I finially managed.

Tonight I hollowed out the back end using a 5/16 drill--checking often until they came in at 7/8 ounce.

Since they fit in my Winchester AA whites with a little bit of a paper wrapper on the slug, I'm thinking about just putting the slug on top of a nitro card and loading it to 7/8oz lead shot recipe.

What do you think?

[squirrelnuttz]

I read about one guy succesfully using 1/2 copper pipe caps filled with lead as slugs,wrapped with electrical tape to bring up to size.Can't remember exacy load data, other than it was edumacated guesswork, off of commercially available data.Tested in a coach gun of some kind.Seems easier, cheaper, better to just buy a proper Lee or Lyman mold and pump out a pile of 'em.

[John in WI]

Hmm, electrical tape? I was wondering about some Teflon tape for the same reason (since it's so common to use teflon wraps on buckshot loads).

I wonder how that holds up against scrubbing against the bore?