New Batch of Lyman 525's

[smokeeter]

With the nice mild weather we've been having I thought I'd replenish my supply of Lyman slugs. I set my casting equipment outside and started the process. This MiHec mold requires a bit of futzing before the slugs come out nice , I discarded the first 10-12 pours primarily to get the lead in my pot hot enough and to get the mold adequately heated as well. The double cavity mold is nice for producing a higher yield but it eats up the lead at the same rate, I finished off with approx. 200 slugs. I still have the fill the bases with wax. Now I have to get busy reloading.

[bottomline]

They look great. I've been meaning to get a mold for that slug.

[rancher1913]

just starting down this road, could you show the whole reload process, might save me a problem or two. what does the wax do?

[Hogtamer]

That is a dang nice looking mold! Good thick skirts on that slug too.

[rockrat]

I think the wax keeps the wads from being shoved into the base of the slug and messing things up

[Y-man]

This is HEAVENLY. I finally got the accuracy that I have been looking for with this slug.

[Y-man]

The wax stops the wad from being pushed into the cavity on firing. I have the Lyman mould.

[Blood Trail]

Never seen the Lyman double cavity sabot slug. Where u find it at?

[Wyatt 525]

Very nice mold and slugs. Are you casting softer lead or outta wheel weights? Do both cavities drop approximately the same average grain weight per slug? What load recipe are you going to dress those into?

[smokeeter]

These slugs weighed in at 505 grs. (not pure lead) and with the bases filled with wax are 514grs. Both slugs are very close in weight. Some the guys are filling the bases with hot glue but I thought I'd try the wax which is easier and less expensive than hot glue.
I haven't done a side by side comparison for accuracy with or without the bases filled, I jumped right in to try some proven results and I was pleased with the accuracy I got with the bases filled.
I did start a thread when I first loaded these with some W571 mag powder I had on hand and got good results (Blue Dot pwdr is quite scarce ), I did have to put a fiber card in the powder column to bring it up flush with the hull and used recommended Winchester components I already had on hand also.

[frkelly74]

Makes me want a great big pellet gun.

What if you seat these right on the powder so there isn't a wad to get pushed into the cavity at the base. May be shorten the shell to 2" or so. Re engineer the whole thing and you can get more in the magazine too.

[Blood Trail]

These slugs weighed in at 505 grs. (not pure lead) and with the bases filled with wax are 514grs. Both slugs are very close in weight. Some the guys are filling the bases with hot glue but I thought I'd try the wax which is easier and less expensive than hot glue.
I haven't done a side by side comparison for accuracy with or without the bases filled, I jumped right in to try some proven results and I was pleased with the accuracy I got with the bases filled.
I did start a thread when I first loaded these with some W571 mag powder I had on hand and got good results (Blue Dot pwdr is quite scarce ), I did have to put a fiber card in the powder column to bring it up flush with the hull and used recommended Winchester components I already had on hand also.

Let me know if you want blue dot. I got plenty.

[rancher1913]

would really love to see some photos of the reloading stages, please and thank you.

[Wyatt 525]

smokeeter

I really like that double cavity mold. Seems like twice the payday for the same amount of efforts. I have the single cavity mold from Lyman. It does the deed. I am also working out some loads with these slugs. Have a few 2 3/4" Blue Dot loads with soft lead slugs casting in at around 520+ grains for the smoothbores. I am also working on a 3" load for the H&R USH rifled barrel. Leadhead 500 shared his recipe as well as a few pointers and tips on the 3" load. For these I am casting wheel weight and they usually drop around 510 grains. Hot glue in the cavity brings em in around 520 grains. Interested in the wax theory as an alternative to the hot glue.

[smokeeter]

Ok here goes, here's how I load these slug loads. It's not the only way and maybe not the best way but it's how I do it and I've had pretty good success with it. I don't have a roll crimp (yet ) I wanted to see if these would even shoot so I used the crimp on my shotshell loader and it works well enough for now.
As mentioned earlier I am using recommended lyman loads which calls for Winchester components which are now obsolete (but I did have some old supplies that I'm using).
First step was to weigh the slugs and group them together, to try to obtain the best accuracy available.
I then shaved some paraffin wax with a utility knife and melted the shavings in a spoon over a lit candle and melted the wax, I then poured the wax into the hollow base of the slug. Then I trimmed the excess wax with the utility knife once the wax hardened.
I didn't have any of the recommended Blue Dot powder but I did have some old W571 so I measured some 42 gr. charges and loaded them into the AA hulls. This charge left the height in the hull too low so I made some cardboard wads to bring the powder column up to the correct height. I used some dense cardboard and punched the discs out with a 5/8 hole punch that produced a disc that fit perfectly in the AA wad base.
Here are a few pics of the process.

[rancher1913]

thanks.

[smokeeter]

Got out to shoot these the other day, wads held together nicely (no blown wads) and slugs expanded good too. The wax stayed intact in the slug base.

The best group of the day , but I did have a flyer on the 3rd shot I think I pulled it so I fired a 4th and it settled back into the group ( these do kick).

[rancher1913]

don't need to add flux on your next smelting day

[longbow]

I think you'll do better with a wad other than the WW AA Red. I found them to be less than satisfactory for my slug loads though I wasn't using the Lyman 525 gr. slug. The wads seem to be softer than other WW wads and I got more sheared petals with them (like yours) than other makes or even other Winchester wads. Also, I found that the gas seals were failing fairly often as well though yours look good.

Regardless, I got better results with other wads.

Longbow

[Wyatt 525]

smokeeter

Nice pictures with what looks like great results. What kinda gun/barrel did you say you were using to on those loads. Didn't see any rifling on wads or slugs so Im thinking a smoothbore?