Bird shot and wax slugs

[fcvan]

Ok, I have read and watched videos on folks making wax slugs filled with bird shot. Most of these involve cutting the crimp off a factory shell and pouring hot wax and bird shot back into the hull. These slugs seem to work ok but I wanted to try something different. I wanted to make a slug that fit into the wad and crimped in place. That way the slug separated from the wad in flight.

I had an old aluminum cigar tube which I cut down using a tubing cutter. The tube was about the same diameter as a shotgun hull and so the slug would be too big to fit into the wad. I decided to cut a strip of paper measured to the depth of the wad petals. I put a cap on the tube and poured in 400 grains of bird shot. The tubes were placed into a metal pan with the wax. My wax is a mix of toilet ring wax and olive oil which makes it softer than straight paraffin. Incidentally, this is a great mix for wax boolits.

After the wax heats up it fills the mold somewhat so I cut pieces from the side of the pan and put on the top of the mold. Once sufficient wax is within the mold I let cool. If the depth of the wax is the correct depth the slug is pretty much done. The wax cake pops out of the pan and the molds are easily pushed from the cake. The cap is removed, the slug is pushed out, and the paper is peeled from the slug. If the wax did not fill the mold I leave the paper on until the next melt. when I have hot wax to work with I simply fill the top by either dipping into the wax or spreading wax like frosting into the top.

After the slug is complete I peel the paper off and load into the wad. Crimp as usual and you have a good looking shell with no exposed wax. The wax mix I'm using will melt on a hot day. I will make up some more using straight paraffin at some point but for now I'm using up the wax boolit alloy. There is no way I'm using up my stash of primers for wax and hot glue boolits.

Anyway, here's a couple of photos showing the process, albeit crudely. I measure out 400 grains of bird shot and with the wax makes for about a 1 ounce slug. I'm hoping to shoot these next week and update this post with some range photos.

[429421Cowboy]

Very interesting! I have shot the regular wax slugs, they are impressive and fun, accuracy still as room for improvement. My understanding was that the wad remained attached to act sort of like a shuttlecock and help with accuracy, along the lines of a Foster slug. Interested to see what the results of your tests are!

[Andrew Mason]

please excuse my ignorance.... but what is the advantage?

[longbow]

My question exactly!

It is possible that the wax will hold the shot together over short range then the whole works fragment when it impacts, much like a Glaser Safety slug, but it will certainly not turn birdshot into a slug.

Could be useful for self defense loads or fun times blowing up milk jugs full of water.

I am curious as to what you plan to do with them.

Longbow

[mike_kaleigh]

i have made tons of wax slugs before i got reloader, but a few observations first,

-95% of the time the wad separates from the shot
-don't use a choke (it will brake the slug up as soon as it leaves the barrel)
-use the smallest shot you can, it again holds together better
-you can use parrafin, but crayons work better, and you can make green zombie ammo!!!!!

i usually got a 12 in groups at 50 yards, witch is not bad considering what you are shooting. the biggest problem i had ever had is when the wax slug breaks up in flight so i really think that making the slug push open a crimp would be a problem for them to stay in one piece.

please let us know how they work, but i have to tell you how much fun these things are for blowing up jugs, they work better than normal slugs. i could not imagine what they could do to a deer. i have always compared them to v-max of shot guns for expansion (but without accuracy).

[mongoosesnipe]

i have played with waxed slugs quite a bit if you pry the crimp open on a shell you can fill it with shot and wax and re crimp it assuming you have reloading set up or you can just use a piece of shell to set the wad in and fill a wad i would recommend using a wad with a base on it as it will help with stability like a bernekke or lightfields slug the only thing bad about them is if you shoot them out of a rifled barrel the centripetal force tears them apart though if you used unslit wad the would probably hod together for rifled use but they are great for smooth bore practice and i keep my home defence shotgun loaded with crimped waxed slugs so the act like 12 gauge glasers

[TRG3]

Only two comments... (1) A good shooter could take home a bunch of hams, etc. at a turkey shoot with that load and (2) your wax/olive oil mixture sounds similar to my homemade muzzleloading if you'd just add about 30% tallow. I also use my mixture to condition and waterproof the leather portion of my L.L. Bean pac boots.

[Bill*]

@Mongoosesnipe please use punctuation, that's was a tough read

[fcvan]

Ok, shot them. Wax was too soft and they basically were shotshells again. I guess I'll use the wax for what it was made for wax boolits. I have since made up some wax/shot slugs using straight paraffin. Much harder, should work as well as ive seen in the YouTube videos. I will shoot them up this week and see how they do. More to follow . . .

[mike_kaleigh]

what kinda choke do you have

[Der Alte Krieger]

Ok, shot them. Wax was too soft and they basically were shotshells again. I guess I'll use the wax for what it was made for wax boolits. I have since made up some wax/shot slugs using straight paraffin. Much harder, should work as well as ive seen in the YouTube videos. I will shoot them up this week and see how they do. More to follow . . .

Try substituting Bondo for the wax. Work quickly.

[Optimist]

Ok, shot them. Wax was too soft and they basically were shotshells again. I guess I'll use the wax for what it was made for wax boolits. I have since made up some wax/shot slugs using straight paraffin. Much harder, should work as well as ive seen in the YouTube videos. I will shoot them up this week and see how they do. More to follow . . .

There's a recipe for machinable wax used for making metal casting molds. It takes paraffin and plastic bags, and is significantly harder and tougher than straight paraffin.

http://www.machinistblog.com/make-yo...achinable-wax/

My setup for making these involves a cut-off section of shotgun barrel into which a wad is inserted. Then the wad is filled with the melted wax/metal mixture. I've used bird shot for this, also air rifle shot, and small finishing nails held together by the wax and shot cup. Most destructive in gelatin was the finishing nail load. The harder machinable wax gives better accuracy at range than does paraffin.

[fcvan]

A rather old post, but still relevant. I was using an 870 with IC choke. Hard or soft, the loads still separated. I was just trying something a reservist buddy did when door breaching in the sand box. They do work well for blowing hinges and locks, I suppose buck shot would do the same. I'm not required to breach doors anymore so I lost interest. I know longer need to take doors down, just need to keep wolves from breaking my doors down.

[stubshaft]

I've had better luck and accuracy making hot melt slugs by seating the wad in the charged case and alternating hotmelt cement and lead shot. The wad does not release and stays with the slug until impact like a Brenneke.

[centershot]

Well, I've just spit my coffee out all over the keyboard!! Hot melt glue and birdshot! I never considered that combination, hae you shot any of these? If so, how did they group?

[Dapaki]

I am truly surprised that this is 'new news', this is a great breaching round with clear, low temp hot glue and #9 shot. The M1030 we had available to us is just iron powder bound in some kind of medium and when striking a door hinge, turns to powder.

That powder gets into everything, weapons, eyes, mouths, even shakes down into your boots giving contact dermatitis.

The soft, clear hot glue and #9 shot was exceptionally better at breaching and keeping together until the job was done. There was more flow back (ricocheting) but positioning of the squad would keep that to a minimum and I never saw a pellet pierce skin.

I dont think most door kickers cared a lot but a fast entry team may do 20-30 entries a day to clear a village and down time cleaning gear after that mess would be significant.

[fcvan]

These last few posts reminded me of an old experiment, although not slug related but relative.

Years ago, a buddy loaded some 41 Magnum rounds that were 210 JHP. He screwed up the loads and pulled them using a screw and pliers. The rounds were unusable so I melted the cores out of them. I then back filled the cases with #9 and Elmers, making them basically safety slugs. My buddy and I both have 8 3/8" S&W M57 pistols and to the range we went. They blew through a 3" oak limb and did not break up until they hit a water jug a foot or so behind. Then we shot a jug with standard 220 TC loads which resulted in a 10' diameter spray of water. The safety slug sent water 30' in a fine mist.

Oh, I bought him a powder scale and a kinetic puller and cast a bunch of boolits for him over the years.

[pashiner]

I was a little concerned about the toughness of your toilet ring wax/olive oil mix (yes, a fine boolit lube). I've had better luck with harder wax. I use the big white dollar store candles that break into granular pieces when you smash them. I don't know how else to describe them. They're cheaper per pound than parrafin if you get them after the holidays at a place like dollar tree.
Here's another experiment you might try: run a small screw with a large head into the the wad before you pour in your wax/shot mixture. if you leave the top half of the screw exposed to be buried in the wax, the wad should stay with the wax slug all the way to the target...brenneke style. Maybe also try taping the wad petals together with a little scotch tape so they don't peel back and cause drag.
Bear in mind that there is a sweet spot in wax hardness for slug use. Too soft, and they fly apart in globs, too hard and the wax shatters on ignition, and you simply end up with a buffered birdshot load. As somebody mentioned in another post, crayon hardness is about right.
I've had better luck with the wax holding together when I do a light roll crimp over a plastic disc on top of the wax rather than fold crimping.

It's good to see folks having silly fun with shotguns. The world is too dang serious right now.
stay safe, shoot straight.

[FullTang]

Interesting to see this ancient thread revived! Wax slugs were my first foray into reloading, and I've experimented with them quite a bit. Lessons learned:
1. Smaller shot is indeed better for slug integrity, and you get a more uniform, accurate slug (though still not very accurate)
2. Wads always separate from the slug, unless you use an unslit wad; tape doesn't do anything meaningful. Wads with stitched petals hold on a little longer, but only a little.
3. I've made wax slugs for a rifled barrel using "Cushioned LBC" wads from BPI, and those are fun. The tail does enhance accuracy and eliminated tumbling with a smoothbore, too, but they're still not very accurate. With a rifled barrel it's another story, and I can easily hit a 100m gong. Shooting a regular wax slug out of a rifled barrel causes instant disintegration.
4. Hard wax is good, but it doesn't have to be super-hard. Really soft waxes will fly apart, and they're more likely to melt on a hot day.
5. Hot melt glue is a PITA to work with, and doesn't make as good a slug as wax---hard to get even shot distribution
6. Epoxy makes a great slug, but that's expensive stuff, and it takes a while to cure. Makes a real mess, too.
7. Steel shot works fine, and doesn't scratch the barrel, even with a regular (lead shot) wad; makes a lighter slug
8. Use just wax, no shot, and you get a "less lethal" slug; those unslit C-LBC wads make a nice little wax baton that weighs about 130 gr; 10 grains of a fast-burning powder get them going about 400 fps
9. The hotter you get your wax, the more they'll shrink as they cool, so try to keep it from getting too hot.
10. Wax doesn't hurt your barrel at all---seems to actually shine it up and lube things.