Lee Drive Key 12 gauge 1oz load success!!

[Huntsman]

Well after much reading on the web I gathered all the tips that other shotgun shooters have use with the Lee Drive Key slug and put them to all together.
Equipment;

Lee Load All
Remington/Peterson blue hulls
Win WAA12F114 (Yellow wad)
Fed 20S1 yellow wad (just the base)
12 gauge 1/4" felt wad
CCI 209 primers
Hogdon Titegroup powder
Lee 1oz Drive slug cast from pure lead AC
Remington 870 Wingmaster with rifled cantilever barrel
Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40 scope

I chose the yellow wad as it had the thickest petal out of all my wads. I trimmed the petals down by clipping 1/4" off.
And the Federal 20S1 I completely cut the entire wad column off so i just had the base.
So it was 20S1 first then felt wad then 1oz slug; (the petals aren't clipped in the pic)



I then placed this load on top of 18.5 grs of the Titegroup powder and fully crimped.



Now off to the range. Where I am hunting i'll be using a ground blind like I did last year. The distance from my blind is the well used deer trail is 33 paces (30 yards) with a max shot of 50 yards!
So my target was placed at 33 paces from the shooting bench. My first 3 shots produced this group;



I did have other loads using Green dot and 800X but they didn't group quite like this. At 50yds the group opened up 1" No biggie.
So with all the tips and points and tricks that all you fellow boolit casters and shotgun slug shooters have come up with over the years have worked and I thank you
I tried all this back in 2008 and had the worst of luck using my 28" barrel Winchester 1200 with Carlson rifled choke tube, I gave up out of frustration and never went back until recently. After shooting a nice buck last year with my shotgun using a Federal 3" 00 buck shell I soon started thinking of that shot using a slug.
I have plenty of factory "Rifled" slugs on hand and even went as far as purchasing some factory "Thug Slug" loads.
In the last week a Remington 870 Wingmaster with rifled barrel came into possession from a good friend of mine.
Right away I thought great, Now I'll be spending $25 bucks or more for some sabot slugs. I found some Winchester BRI slugs for cheaper than that. Well they never even got shot or taken out of the ammo can after I saw how well these Lee slugs grouped.

Here's some pics I thought I'd share


My recovered wads. You can see even though one batch weren't clipped shorter they still opened up well. They did however not group as well as the ones that were. They did group well mind you Not all holes were touching lol



I haven't tried any 100yd shots/groups as I didn't need to. I have a nice 30-30 with NOE 165gr cat boolits for that
Off to the garage I go to cast some more slugs!
Thanks for reading

[Geezer in NH]

Nice report Thanks!!!

[Moleman-]

Congrats on your success. I need to break my loader back out and try some new loads. Tried clipping the WWAA12 wad petals, but if I didn't put a fiber shot card under the slug I'd get the occasional wad that would stick to the drive key and open up the groups quite a bit. Didn't try a felt wad and the plastic wad bases look to be a better route to take. Shooting mine out of rem 1100 and 1187 both with rifled barrels.

[Huntsman]

Hey Thanks.
Ya I'm pretty happy with the results. That Remington 870 was a blessing for sure. I did try these slugs before in a rifled Mossberg that I failed to mention. And they shot miserably. I had pretty given up after both guns failed to produce decent groups.

Moleman- I don't think your Remington's will give you any problems.
good luck!

[Pumpkinheaver]

Looks like you found the sweet spot.

[izzyjoe]

Group looks great, I love those wingmasters, picked up one myself last week. I said I wasn't going to buy anymore shotguns, but for $150 in very good condition I couldn't pass!

[Huntsman]

Group looks great, I love those wingmasters, picked up one myself last week. I said I wasn't going to buy anymore shotguns, but for $150 in very good condition I couldn't pass!

Theyre a nice shotgun aren't they. This is my first. I always used Winchester and Mossberg. Boy did I miss out on a lot. Lol
i paid $200 Cdn for what you see in the pics. On another forum there is a matching glossy finished modified fixed choke barrel selling for cheap which I might snag as well.

[Drm50]

Good post, I have been through all this slug stuff for 50+ years. Using same gun, but smooth
bore. We are now going into 3rd year of rifle season , if I have my druthers will not have to
ever hunt with slugs again. I've got 3 slug guns, Brn-A5, Rem 1100, Rem 870/scope-- with
any luck will be using slug barrels to stake tomatoes. If I had all the money we spent on molds
dies, special tools and wads, it would finance a nice hunting trip. When rifled barrels came out
we were already at the height of what we could do with smooth bores, which was the same as
your results. Slug shoots were very popular around this area, we use to dominate them, then
guys with rifled, canl. mts. & saboted slugs were beating us. The best guns we had were older
models with non removable barrels and we always D/T for scope mounts. The only reason that
I still have the 3 mentioned above, is I have shot barrels for them. What we ended up with
were guns that would do 5shot groups of 4" at 100yds. Not all guns would do this, we went
through a lot of guns & barrels to get our results.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I have a 1970`s 870 that I put a slug barrel on that only had a rifled screw in choke. I D&T the reciever and mounted a Canon 4x scope. Thru testing all factory loaded slugs I got the best accuracy with the old time Winchester 1 oz. Foster lead slug. At my 100 yd. range I can put 5 rounds into a coffee cup sized group from a bench rest. Last buck was a 75 yd. shot, he went only 25 yds. with no heart and punctured lungs with this slug. I`ve converted quite a few slug shooters to use this terribly expensive slug, about $5.00 for a 5 ct box. I`ve tried the LEE slug and their load reccomendations but with lesser results that the Winchester did.Robert

[OnHoPr]

Alright, I have acquired very good groups with the Lee 1 oz of @ 50 yd 1" one ragged hole to 2" groups with many different reloading combos. I have also been able to get 4" @ 100 yds with them. Then I said to myself "Hey, I will have to do a few more test groups". There within the "more testing", like out of 25 or so I would get five or six flyers out of the groups, not far, but enough to open them up to 5 or 6" groups. One basic piece of data that is congruent with all Lee slug info on the net is that the all the guns and especially barrels are different even with in the same model. I have never shot a deer with a slug even though I live in a shotgun zone I usually hunt the almost unrestricted rifle zone. I have gave it a whirl though on and off in the past 5 or 6 years, its just that boiler room hasn't presented me an opportunity yet. The main reasons that I am wanting to harvest a deer with a slug gun is that it is a repeater, it doesn't have to be cleaned immediately after a 16 hour day from start to finish in the field, you load it and unload it, you don't have to worry about leaving it with an uncapped load in the trunk or garage so the steel doesn't sweat and cause a misfire the next day. I also believe the Drive Key has a good design quality with the key is that cast 50/50 or just WW is that it doesn't flatten like a pancake and will hold its shape for deeper penetration over the regular foster in a harder raking shot scenario. You just have to tweak your load components for your weapon to your needs or liking.

@Drm50 - Since you have much more experience that I would you please enlighten me. First of all, my general knowledge of the foster style slug has a few points. It is usually a 100 and under projectile for "Woods/Brush" short range hunting. If a deer gets hit solidly center mass in the boiler room that runs are short if any. Foster slugs can deform easily on almost any brush obstacle enroute to the boiler room, hence being throw off course if said brush is more than a couple of yards from the target. Foster slugs in a general fall crosswind of 10 mph with velocities from 1400 to 1700 fps can have close to a 10" wind drift. Now add a decent average 5 MOA to that. Basically sighted in @ 1" high @ 75 yd with scope, drop is basically meaningless for all other external ballistics contemplated. So, a broadside to quartering deer with no brush obstacles within 60 yd even with a 10 mph wind should be tidy, correct? Anything beyond this 60 yd point (just in general speaking) with windage, brush, target angle, etc and you have to start considering a mental cheat sheet like shooting a 308 win at 300 yd, correct? Oh, shells can go on sale for $3 for 5 in deer season.

Now, to the next considerations scoped rifled shotguns and rifles. A number of states have started to incorporate a straight walled rifle scenario in their laws. In one essence I believe that this is good all things considered. A barrel jacked up to a 30 degree angle is still basically a less than mile of travel. speaking of many of the legal cartridges. Depending on hunter experience regardless of age the excited weekend warrior with a deer in front of he/she doesn't know all the there is compared to the seasoned hunter that has 100,000 rounds under the trigger from various weapons and at least 25 deer notches on the stock. The restricted rifle has more deer hunting ethics in a kill compared to what most shotguns with slugs can deliver with accuracy and who might be doing the shooting especially with the younger ages of today trying to feed the bureaucracy as well as to fight the diminishing hunter numbers (that's a whole society issue there).

The restricted rifle, most generally the straight walled cartridge. Most of these cartridges are loaded with basically low BC boolits/bullets and most generally below 2000 fps. The 375 Win, the 38-55 loaded to its FULL potential in good firearm, 444 Marlin, 460, 500 S&W and probably a couple more are just able to get to or surpass the 2000 fps threshold with the 375 cal probably having the best capable BC. So, these cartridges in experienced hands could more than likely be made to shoot a 250 PBR scenario. At 100 yd most of these cartridges in their general loading configurations with their average BC projectiles will still have 2.5 to 5" of wind drift and lets say an average 2.5 MOA. So, a 250 yd shot is very doable in a cut corn field. In the "Woods/Brush" scenario the groups have shrank and windage has been rectified 50 to 75%. Though very possible, shooting a boiler room in a 12" brush hole is not without its fallibles, nothing like a 500 BC bullet doing 3000 fps. Reloading for them is economical, but factory could be expensive and not produce optimum results. Recoil can be reduced.

The rifled slug gun. There are many sabot style ammunitions on the market today of all sorts of configurations. Some of these projectiles range right up there with the BCs of the restricted rifle boolits in the general same fps speeds giving them basically the same ballistics. Accuracy from non sensitive average shooters are par with one another. Though, I suppose a 444, 45-70. or 500 S&W loaded to their capacities might even be more than the slug gun. The ammo concern is that the companies are always changing their products while ranging in price from $7 to almost $19 a box of five with an average of $10 - $12 which is about in the same ball park as a lot of metallic cartridge prices. Good sabots for a reasonable price are difficult to obtain for reloading and most weekend warriors don't want to mess with them, unless, one becomes available that is tried and true in which the word would spread. There are sabot slugs available that exceed 4000 flbs of energy. There is bear hunting as well as restricted zones in this country for bigger game than deer.

So, in general terms the restricted rifle does have a number of good points if you have one, but the rifled slug gun has its points as well.

Question, asking your experience, for the "Woods/Brush" which would be a tidier load considering property lines and bad weather with a extreme tracking scenario with an any angel shot in thought to be clear shooting, an accurate full bore slug like the foster, Lee, or full solid, or something like a 50 cal 440 gr solid hollow point sabot 12 ga or 44 Keith all doing the same general speed of about 1500 fps?

[Huntsman]

I have a 1970`s 870 that I put a slug barrel on that only had a rifled screw in choke. I D&T the reciever and mounted a Canon 4x scope. Thru testing all factory loaded slugs I got the best accuracy with the old time Winchester 1 oz. Foster lead slug. At my 100 yd. range I can put 5 rounds into a coffee cup sized group from a bench rest. Last buck was a 75 yd. shot, he went only 25 yds. with no heart and punctured lungs with this slug. I`ve converted quite a few slug shooters to use this terribly expensive slug, about $5.00 for a 5 ct box. I`ve tried the LEE slug and their load reccomendations but with lesser results that the Winchester did.Robert

Winchester Super X 1oz 2 3/4" Foster slug was my goto slug when I got sick and tired of messing around with the Lee D.K. slug.
Thats also the slug that I suggested my brother use in his smoothbore.

[Blood Trail]

Man, good job on those! Did you run those threw a chrono?

[Huntsman]

Man, good job on those! Did you run those threw a chrono?

Not yet but I'm guessing 1300 fps

[mdi]

New to shotgun reloading here (but reloaded metallic 30 years), so excuse me but why were the petals shortened 1/4"?

[copdills]

thanks and good luck with the 100 yd test

[Huntsman]

New to shotgun reloading here (but reloaded metallic 30 years), so excuse me but why were the petals shortened 1/4"?

I did this based off what I've read from other shooters/casters using the Lee drive key slug. This was to allow the slug' tip or nose to sit higher than the petal so that when fired the petals won't fold over the nose which could cause the likelihood of erratic groups. I also used wad spacers. It seemed to work better than I thought.

[mdi]

I did this based off what I've read from other shooters/casters using the Lee drive key slug. This was to allow the slug' tip or nose to sit higher than the petal so that when fired the petals won't fold over the nose which could cause the likelihood of erratic groups. I also used wad spacers. It seemed to work better than I thought.

Makes sense to me! Thanks...

[white eagle]

I found that after 33 yds my groups opened up big time
but I was below the max charge listed for the powder I was using(blue dot)
I increased the charge and groups tightened up at 50 yds now I am middle of
the road charge wise and have room to go to max and may try my shotshell combo
at the max powder charge
I am also not using a star crimp instead I prefer to roll crimp mine

[Blood Trail]

Huntsman, looks like you've found a winner! Maybe I should switch to a faster burning powder with lee slugs


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