Another Russian Slug mold

[Blood Trail]

Hey Blood Trail,

Do you have this mold? Can you tell me height of the slug alone and the stack height of this slug on one of the "special wads". I am looking to order one and just curious. Also if you have any good load data that would be great too.

Thanks,

Kraken Fan #69

Attachment 208563

Give me a few minutes.


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[PapaG]

Have the original Lyman Foster. Had the die. Made no difference at all for accuracy in three different guns, all with "sixties" non rifled deer barrels, Browning, Remington and IThaca. As far as Fosters bumping up, my experience is yes and no. I feel mostly no or why would Federal make the TruBall load which is specifically designed to keep the slug centered in the bore.
I have fired Fosters, both factory and mine through a clean, shiny bore and found lead streaks unevenly distributed along the tube.
Been fooling around with slug design, loading, and experimenting for the best part of forty years and don't know it all. Probably not much but a few things I'm sure about. Barrels have preferences. Rifled choke tubes are not much of an improvement. Some guns shoot Fosters better than others shoot sabots, a few anyway. Hastings rifled barrels were good. My 220 is the most accurate that I have had. I have dumped quite a few pounds of lead down range out of shotguns and no longer enjoy getting the snot pounded out of me on the bench.
Patched Lyman Fosters are fun out of a muzzle loading Navy Arms double.
Nuff rambling. Lots of fun left to have.

[longbow]

Hah! I was wondering if anyone had tried patching Fosters and shooting them out of a muzzleloading musket or shotgun.

How well did those shoot for you?

Even if they shot well, I really dislike casting with my Lyman Foster mould. The pin sticks pretty much always. A little more taper and a good polish might help but I don't much like the undersize slug so haven't bothered. If I had a Brown Bess or a muzzleloading shotgun I would give them a try though.

In my experience with soft lead they do bump up. I shot many into deep soft snow and found them in the spring. All had bumped up to bore diameter. That may depend on powder and wad column some but all I found had bumped up. BP should ensure bump up.

[PapaG]

Shot great to about 35 yards where they kind of converged and crossed. One was higher than the other.
I shot a few out of both a Pedersoli Mortimer and a Dangerous game rifle. Both patched. Five inches out if DGR. Lyman Sabot was 4" out of the rifle. 125 grain ffg was all i could take.

[longbow]

At some point the nose will likely blow off. I was playing with short hulls and real short wad column in my smoothbore and wound up blowing wads right through the slug. I didn't fill the slug so the nitro card wad and gas seal blew into the base and took the nose with them. The nose and skirt are very thin and the nose won't contain the pressure like a minie... at least in my experience.

An altered pin should fix that easily enough though, shortened a bit to thicken the nose and a little more taper to thicken the top of the skirt would help a lot I think.

Another alternative is the Nessler Ball. As far as I can figure they weigh the same as a round ball but have a shot hollow base and short skirt. They were designed for smoothbore muzzleloaders and were widely used during the Crimean war and apparently also in the American Civil War. I made a mould based off graphics and it weighed almost exactly what a 0.735" RB weighs. They did not shoot exceptionally well from my smoothbore but were slightly undersize so I knurled some up and made a sizer to suit my bore and plan to try again.

I know... thread wander! Oops!

But in my experience, just like with cast boolits in rifles and handguns, fit is king! The Lyman Foster just plain doesn't fit.

Longbow

[Blood Trail]

LB,
Was able to hit the range today, mainly to test some 20 ga slugs, however I loaded up 3 groups of of those Russian Italian slugs to shoot in my smoothbore. Should of used my 590A1 but instead I used my 930 duck gun with 28” barrel and IC choke. Impact appears to keyhole. A found two of the tailwads that departed from the slug before impacting target.

Best group was using BD. This wasn’t a serious test. Next one will be and I’ll use my 590 (looking for a smoothbore slugger too). This was a 50 group bead sight.


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[longbow]

Yup! Looks like a bit of wobble going on there alright.

I'm surprised the tail wads would separate. How tight is the fit into the hollow base? Maybe some epoxy into the cavity then the tail wad would help? Hmmm, epoxy might be too brittle so maybe silicone or some other flexible adhesive would be better.

Either that or a small wood screw through the nose and down into the tail wad. That should hold that tail wad even if loose in the cavity.

I've had hot melt glue tail wads come out of HB slugs. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it but I am thinking the lead is smooth and cold when the glue hits it so the glue freezes at the surface without properly bonding then is just a size for size fit in a tapered cavity so not much to keep it there. Then kick it in the butt and squeeze it through the bore so don't be surprised if it loosens up more! If I pre-heated the slugs it might solve that but a screw in the cavity solves it faster and easier. That holds the tail wad in place even if it isn't well bonded to the lead.

I still think old Wilhelm Brenneke got it right. I'd like that Tusker with an HB pin to form a tit or rib (Drive Key like) with a screw hole for screw through the wad like Brenneke classic. I can do that if I buy the mould.

I was thinking of getting Accurate to make a Dixie Tusker mould then I'd make the HB pin and use hot melt glue for tail wad but it would have to be paper patched or cast into a plastic tube so no glue contacted the bore.

Looking forward to more test results... both yours and mine. I'm slow but getting closer to testing.

Longbow

[cwlongshot]

Any new news on distributors for these proprietary slug wads?

I was able to buy small quantity from Russia but cost wise it's not a viable option. RLN and Bal Prods is out.

[Blood Trail]

Any new news on distributors for these proprietary slug wads?

I was able to buy small quantity from Russia but cost wise it's not a viable option. RLN and Bal Prods is out.

I’m not certain. I bought 10k a couple of years ago. I’ve seen them on eBay but the prices ain’t pretty.


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[cwlongshot]

Thank you!

I found some .25 ea... shipped.