Producing clean, crisp, consistent lyman 12 ga. Sabots

[michiganmike]

I bought the Lyman 525 gr. 12 gauge sabot mould last year. With it I cast for my Remington 870 dedicated slug gun. My 65 year old eyes need help, so I bought a Konus 1.5-5X32 scope. I have been very pleased with this scope. It handles the recoil without a problem and gives me a nice, clear view of my intended target.

The Lyman die produces nice rounds, though they are a little on the light side - about 485 grains. I obtain lead from a Lansing salvage yard, Friedland Industries. Lansing has been replacing its old lead city water and sewer pipes, so there is plenty of lead locally. I also have a 25-30 lb. roll of sheet roofing lead from them.

So, here is what I do:

• I add some tin (8 ounces of lead/tin solder in the last 10 lb. batch). I have found that the mould fills out better and I get a better looking slug.
• I pre-heat the die thoroughly before casting the first round
• I run the lead on the hot side.
• I place the die close to the Lee's bottom pour valve/spigot.
• After filling the die with alloy I tap it lightly several times. This may do as much good as a major league batter touching the bill of his cap 3X for luck. But I do all I can to make sure mould fills out completely. And it can't hurt.

I just finished producing about 75 "keepers" earlier today. They look great, and shoot well in my Remington. I weight each slug, and separate them so that I have sub-groups of +/- 2 grains. I try to control the variables.

The Remington shoots several loads well. My favorite is from the Lyman guide:

• Winchester AA hull
• Winchester 209 primer
• Winchester WAA12R wad
• 35 grains of SR 4756 [VERY little fouling. Clean up is a pleasure compared to other powders, such as Blue Dot. Meters well.]

According to the manual it yields a velocity of 1,378 fps. There are recipes that will yield higher velocity. But the recoil from the above load is very manageable for me. And I get my rounds consistently falling into a 2 inch group at 50 yards.

My biggest challenge is getting the inside, rear of the sabot defect free. It is there that I most often get defects. They vary from shallow dips or recesses to rather deep pinholes and voids in the bottom. Any slug with such a defect goes back into the pot, it will effect the balance of the projectile imo.

If anyone has any ideas for eliminating those voids and pinholes on the inside rear of the sabot, please let me know.

Now that I am retired, I will be going deer hunting for the first time in several year. I will be using the above formula. And I know a farmer who attends my church who has been having problems with deer eating up his alfalfa crop. And I know he would like me to thin the herd a bit!

I wish you well,

MichiganMike

[Hogtamer]

maybe run a little hotter for complete fill-out, but 2" groups @ 50 yds is really good. Wouldn't argue too much with success!

[MarkP]

I feather a propane torch over the hollow base pin to preheat it, this helps with the skirt fillout. I have had some skirt issues due to not cleaning the storage oil off well enough and it took 20 to 30 pours to burn off. I am running my pot at 725 with re-claimed shot. I drilled out one of my bottom pours Lee pots for use with larger boolits. I like my casted slugs to have a sharp edge along the end of the skirts, when this happens the skirts are fully filled.

[michiganmike]

Thank you MarkP. I've done everything else I could think of. I will try pre-heating the hollow base pin. I also drilled out the bottom pour on my Lee 10# pot. I enlarged it slightly. That has proven to be helpful with large capacity moulds like the Lyman sabot.

Happy Hunting,

MichiganMike

[longbow]

You might try ladle pouring to see how it goes. I have been a ladle pourer for most of my boolit casting career of about 45 years. I had a Lee pot at one time but preferred the ladle. Different strokes.

Nonetheless, with large cavity moulds I find the ladle works better than a bottom pour pot. Better fill with faster pouring of the lead. Your drilled out spout is a good idea and likely helps some but a ladle may work even better to get a lot of lead in quick.

I use an old plumber's pot and ladle (my grandfather was a plumber) and the ladle holds about a lb. of lead. I used a chainsaw file to make a slightly narrower pouring channel on the lip and it works great.

Longbow