Hammerhead slug from slugs 'r us

[jmort]

For some reason it has been discontinued or is no longer imported. The unitized nylon fins make sense. I would not be surprised to see BPI bring them back some day.

[longbow]

In all honesty I do not believe the fins impart any significant rotation even though BPI said they did. Recovered slugs showed little remaining "fin". They squish down pretty much at firing.

Also, I made a mould to make finned slugs several years ago and while they looked very cool, they did not shoot well at all. First issue was fins collapsing so I solved that by oven heat treating and recovered slugs looked like they could be shot again. However, the hard slugs wreaked havoc on wads so I had to reinforced the wad with polyethylene discs under the slugs. That solved the wad issue and I got nice "gear" shaped holes in targets so they were stable in flight but I never managed to get very good accuracy with that slug. My feeling is that the fins were operating in a partial vacuum behind the nose due to shock wave and all. then if they tip there is less surface area for the wind to push back.

The armour penetrating "darts" used by the military are much longer and arrow like with fins that actually stick out like arrow fletch rather than being behind a full diameter nose. Anyway, whatever, they didn't work.

The AQ's did work very well but I think it is due to extremely heavy nose and extremely light attached wad along with balance point about in the center of the ball.

Longbow

[Cap'n Morgan]

Something like this perhaps. Self-sealing PP wad. Wad & slug snaps together. Length 1.2". Combined weight 1-1/8 ounce:

[jmort]

That looks more than useful. That should work real good.

[longbow]

Yup! I am liking that! When will you have them available?

[jmort]

I also like the proposed projectile weight. Could use Red Dot and Unique. Should hit like a freight train.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Longbow: the term you were looking for to describe the fins not getting any "air", is called "Blanketing"

On airplanes it is what happens when the wing separates the airflow so much that the stabilizer in trying to operate in essentially a vacuum. IE there is no flow to redirect and thus the control surface ceases to be effective in controlling the attitude of the Airplane.

This is why the stabilizers on an F4 are tilted down. So they can't be blanketed by the airflow over the wing and especially during landing when the nose up attitude is essentially making the wing fly thru the air with its bottom portion acting as a deflector more than a wing.

The little explosive projectiles I saw at SHOT Last year were fin stabilized and the fins popped out after the thing left the barrel. They were circular and when folded were the same dia as the body of the projectile. when they left the barrel springs deployed them.

A wad with fins that deployed would be a possible answer however the nose of the slug would have to be streamlined enough that it would allow airflow directly over the nose and not separate it to the point where the fins were blanketed.

As far a preventing collapse of the wad/fins I think making the slug have a spine say 1/4" in dia running the full length of the wad to act as a driver for the lead portion instead of having all the load compressing the wad assy.


There would essentially be a fin assy that was pushed onto the drive spine, and then the fins rolled down until the diameter would fit into the hull on top of a normal over powder wad.

This would be very close to the projectile I saw at the show without the explosive charge.

Something to think about, however it also must be considered that you will never achieve one hole accuracy with any thing coming out of a smoothbore shotgun. also part of the effectiveness of a shot gun slug is that big blunt nose that knocks the Krap out of whatever it hits. To have that, you have to give up the gilt edge accuracy of a Spitzer style bullet.

There are always going to be compromises.

Randy

[longbow]

"...one hole accuracy..." Hah! I'd be ecstatic with a consistent 6" t 8" at 100 yards!

As you are probably aware, a decent round ball load will give 4" or under groups at 50 yards or a bit further and generally speaking that is as good or better than I am getting from any home cast and loaded slug. It is the 100 to 125 yard accuracy I am still trying to get and 6" is good enough for me at this point.

I have not been out shooting slugs for several months now and do have to get back to it as I have some to test. Also from Bikerbeans post, he is getting pretty spectacular accuracy out to 100 yards from a turbo design in his 10 ga. If I could do that in 12 ga. my search is over. I just haven't managed it yet. I do have a mould I made that is basically the turbo design but with no grooves. I will resurrect that mould and try again using some different powders and wad columns to see if I can make it work as well as bikerbeans has.

Longbow

[longbow]

Forgot to comment on the Hammerhead for smoothbore.

The design appears to be a weight forward design so I am surprised that they are not recommended for smoothbore unless they just do not provide good enough accuracy. It would be interesting to try them in smoothbore to see though and no harm done but some time a a bit of powder.

Longbow

[brad2506]

need a little help for an aussie !?

the most suitable powder i can get my hands on is Blue dot (hopefully soon IMR4756 also) so just wondering if any of you blokes are loading the SPW/hammerhead slug with blue dot and what powder charges are you using ??

FYI the gun is an H&R 12gauge USH

[Rkeeper1]

Their website shows 40 grains of blue dot

[brad2506]

Their website shows 40 grains of blue dot

yeah thanks, i read that myself but i was just hoping someone here had some personal experience with this slug and blue dot ?

[CastingFool]

I see from the website they are using a roll crimp. I wonder if fold crimping is feasible, and if so how effective.

[longbow]

I have not used Blue Dot under that slug but I have used Blue Dot under slugs from 450 grs. up to about 800 grs. with good results. In fact I like Blue Dot and have mostly used Blue Dot for slug shooting. Lately I have been using 4756 as it was recommended over Blue Dot so I picked up a couple of pounds but so far I like the Blue Dot better.

I found 38 grs. under a 0.735" round ball produced punishing recoil in both my single shot and a Remington 870. A heavier gun like the H&R with bull barrel would probably help there.

If you decide to load 40 gr. of Blue Dot I suggest a good recoil pad or padded jacket. I am not particularly recoil sensitive but those loads off a bench were brutal after about 10 or so.

Longbow

[brad2506]

I have not used Blue Dot under that slug but I have used Blue Dot under slugs from 450 grs. up to about 800 grs. with good results. In fact I like Blue Dot and have mostly used Blue Dot for slug shooting. Lately I have been using 4756 as it was recommended over Blue Dot so I picked up a couple of pounds but so far I like the Blue Dot better.

I found 38 grs. under a 0.735" round ball produced punishing recoil in both my single shot and a Remington 870. A heavier gun like the H&R with bull barrel would probably help there.

If you decide to load 40 gr. of Blue Dot I suggest a good recoil pad or padded jacket. I am not particularly recoil sensitive but those loads off a bench were brutal after about 10 or so.

Longbow

Thanks longbow that's good info,
interesting your concern over the recoil with 40gn of bluedot as the slugs r us data says you can go higher?
Also could I get some more info on your .735" round ball load, some pics of your soft column and components would be great so I could try and replicate it with components available in australia??

[longbow]

My wad column was a cut off gas seal (no cushion leg) from mostly Pacific Veralite blue wads, 1/2" hard card wad + another 1/2 if memory serves but enough to raise the ball to almost crimp height then a 1/8" nitro card wad under the 0.735" round ball and roll crimped.

I based my load on research indicating that with heavy birdshot loads, Blue Dot was good without a cushion leg and a published load from Precision Rifle giving a recipe for a 610 gr. solid full bore slug in "a straight walled hull". They started at 36 grs. of Blue Dot and max. load was 44 grs. at 12,500 PSI.

I found the data a little vague and figured that 12,500 PSI was more than I wanted to try in my gun so I started at 36 grs. of Blue Dot under a 0.7535" round ball at 585 grs. so not only lighter but using the starting load they listed. That actually worked pretty well but I figured I wanted more so went to 38 grs. That was enough recoil for me both in a light single shot and a Remington 870. The pressure may be just fine but I really didn't want any more abuse than that was giving me.

Accuracy from both smoothbore and rifled gun was very good. Oh, I used Fiocchi 2 3/4" hulls and Winchester 209 primers.

I tried other wad columns including regular plastic wad with petals cut off and fiber wad under the ball for cushion but nothing I tried worked as well as the hard card wad column.

I also found that for any round ball load using a shotcup that a nitro card wad under the ball made a big difference in accuracy. Keeps the cushion leg from trying to wrap around the ball.

There are many here who have done a lot more load development than I have but so far I have to say that I like Blue Dot the best of any powder I have used for slugs. Unfortunately I am about out of it and none available locally anyway.

Longbow

[r6487]

I ordered the hammerhead mold today, will be ordering 200 SPW wads and starting with 40 grains of blue dot within the next month. will list some results when I get them.

[hcpookie]

I tested the Blue Dot load out of my Ultra Slug Hunter. Rem hulls, fold crimp. The primers were flattened! It was a stout load. Accuracy was adequate, but we tested at 50 yards only, and were just testing the load.

I ended up moving and boxed everything up so I can't say when I'll next get them to the range.

After seeing the price hike, I am interested in the hammer slug mold, however I suspect it could be improved somewhat. Interested to see some variations! I've seen some people using 50 BMG rounds for the payload, but never heard if they were really tested or only showing off

[Huntsman]

I ordered the hammerhead mold today, will be ordering 200 SPW wads and starting with 40 grains of blue dot within the next month. will list some results when I get them.

I just ordered the mold today too (2 years later lol) plus 500 SPW wads. I should be good for awhile.

[Blood Trail]

My favorite slug so far. Very accurate.

100 yard group: