The ZLUG Thread

[white eagle]

Not using zink but I do however cast from lead/tin and hardball alloy
the full bore slug that I designed with Tom @ Accurate shot this group
,,

[Hogtamer]

I remember those from an earlier post and IIRC wat made me call Tom. 750 grns or so? Ouch at both ends! Great job!

[Blood Trail]

Y'all ever do testing with Blue Dot?

[Electric88]

Longbow, I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of results you get in a smoothbore. I only have a smoothbore, and would really be tempted to load up a whole heap of zlugs for it

[longbow]

My truck is almost back together now (finally!) so I plant to get back to slug/Zlug shooting shortly. Hopefully I have good things to report.However, I do have to say that I spent more time making the Brenneke Zlugs than any slug I have made to date so even if they work well I would not plan on plinking with them. Too much work for me!I have had some pretty good success with my Brennekes suing hot melt glue skirts but unfortunately it is difficult to get consistency and accuracy varies by batches so far. Small differences in skirt quality make big differences in accuracy.Longbow

[Electric88]

My truck is almost back together now (finally!) so I plant to get back to slug/Zlug shooting shortly. Hopefully I have good things to report.However, I do have to say that I spent more time making the Brenneke Zlugs than any slug I have made to date so even if they work well I would not plan on plinking with them. Too much work for me!I have had some pretty good success with my Brennekes suing hot melt glue skirts but unfortunately it is difficult to get consistency and accuracy varies by batches so far. Small differences in skirt quality make big differences in accuracy.Longbow

That is good to hear about the truck! I figured if I cast up the zinc wheelweights that I have, I would just stash the zlugs away in case a Mack truck attacks or something. Doesn't seem like too much would stop it

[white eagle]

I remember those from an earlier post and IIRC wat made me call Tom. 750 grns or so? Ouch at both ends! Great job!

yeah that is for sure
fired it yesterday only could handle 5 rounds off the bench
very accurate though first 2 stacked and share the same hole

[longbow]

Okay then... I finally got to load and shoot some Zlugs Brenneke style!

Unfortunately it wasn't real pretty. That seems to be the story of my life these days with slug tests, or in this case Zlug test.

In any case, I loaded up 12 as I only had enough polyethylene to make 12 attached wads. I turned the polyethylene to a sliding fit to the bore with just a bit of resistance.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Zlugs were a little undersize for my smoothbore so I assembled attached wads to Zlugs the paper patched the Zlug portion to a snug fit.

The assembled Brenneke Zlugs weight 565 grains.

I loaded into Federal Field hulls using CCI primers and 35 Grains of Blue Dot with a plastic gas seal over the powder. The gas seal and finished Zlug were a perfect fit in the hull for fold crimp so that's what I did.

The paper patching did not survive very well since it could not be folded under the base of the Zlug without patching the whole works and the attached wad was already bore diameter. So, some patching came off, some got wrinkled and some loaded up okay. Not a good start. However, I loaded up the 12 since I wasn't sure when I would get to the range again.

Recoil was stout though the powder charge should not be near max. in fact that should be a quite moderate load so maybe there was more bore friction than I anticipated.

Two targets were shot at 50 yards.

Groups weren't as bad as some slugs I have tested but still not good.

One target was shot with 5 rounds and the other with 7 rounds. Both targets had clusters of 4 or 5 hits in about 6" with one flier outside making for 9" - 10" groups. I shot one group and a friend shot the other. My group hit higher than his and his cluster was at the bottom of the paper with one shot going low and missing so 6 hits on that target.

All holes were perfectly round so no yaw but groups were pretty large. Since the holes were round I have to think the Zlugs were stable but that the slightly undersize Zlug was not centering well in the bore so launch was inconsistent.

I shot some of Dixie's (James Gates) Tusker slugs a few years ago and got similar results. The Tusker is a hollow base slug, and very nice design in my opinion, but meant for rifled bore and I shot them form my smoothbore. Those were also undersize but moreso at 0.727" so rattled down my 0.730" bore. Again holes out to 75 yards were nice and round but groups large so I chocked that up to the undersize slug not leaving the muzzle consistently.

I will try again and try to do better! Next time I will try knurling the Zlugs to get them up to my bore diameter. Also, next time I will use a hot melt glue skirt. I spent way too much time machining the last set of attached wads.

I may just resign myself to round balls and 50 to 60 yards shooting... or break down and go to a rifled gun with round ball. Actually, this may stimulate me to get back to work on my rifled choke tube. Started and not finished but it is snowing now so that would be a good winter project and if it works, the best solution for me anyway. As a reminder, the rifled choke tube plan is for deep wide grooves and narrow lands at 1:72" twist. it might even handle a Zlug so I may save some for that.

My apologies Hogtamer. I tried and failed but I haven't given up yet.

Longbow

[Hogtamer]

Progress! Although the process of elimination is tedious at best. The final version is zlugs of .731 diameter and may show a better result out of smoothie. Best of all though you're off your heels and back on wheels and the wife is prolly happier with the truck out of the driveway! YAY!!

[longbow]

Yeah, I guess the paper patching idea was sketchy at best and didn't work out well. I know I miked those Zlugs but I can't recall what size they were. I have more though so can check them. They were a rattle fit in my smoothbore though so I suspect that is the main reason for poor accuracy. Like I said, all holes were dead round so they flew well. I think the launch was the problem.

I'll come up with a better way to increase diameter for the next round... knurling or powder coating or knurling and powder coating but something that can't slip off.

Yeah, the old beast drove me and the guns up to the range on Sunday. I took the shotgun and Zlugs, two Lee Enfields and about 100 rounds of .303 British topped with NOE 315299's and my .44 Marlin with a variety of boolits. The rifles shot well which made up for not so good Zlug accuracy.

While those Zlugs didn't perform real well, they shot well enough for bear protection up close and I bet they would go through a substantial (let's say skookum) bruin end to end.

As for the truck, it was in its usual spot so not blocking the driveway but an awkward spot to pull heads. Most of the time and work was due to a rather sketchy engine rebuild. I know I wouldn't buy anything from that outfit aftre seeing the work they did.

Mostly time went into research learning about squish and quench and just how much they affect things. Suffice it to say that squish and quench were poor to say the least which has been largely rectified at the expense of increase compression but so far no ping so I may be able to run pump gas. I have been told that it may not like pulling my trailer though and just might ping with the extra load. However, with not bad squish I may get better performance and less likelyhood of pinging than I would have before with the poor stack height and excessive squish clearance.

Back to Zlugs, I am not finished yet. I will try knurling the next batch so they fill they fill the bore. Yes, 0.731" should do it. Have you shot those in your rifled gun? Accuracy?

At least I am driving and shooting again! More driving and more shooting to come, that was fun.

Longbow

[uncle dino]

Finally got a chance to fire some of HT's zlugs. I borrowed a scoped savage 212 bolt gun and I am very happy with the results. Federal hull, Blue dot with x12x a stack of .125 hard cards with a roll crimp. sent 12 rounds down range, 4 different shooters. That paper plate didn't stand a chance at 75 yards. 10 holes with 2 fliers..I'm thinking the youngest member of our group has a flinch..we gotta work on that.. HT did a great job of casting on these slugs..d