Got some 870s out of the house today

[Hogtamer]

Pretty afternoon, not much wind so why not?
Attachment 213509
Of course managed to forget some ammo I wanted to shoot so started with some Lyman 525s out of the rifled Express. 8-10 mph crosswind from the left.
Attachment 213510
Then some cavity filled Lee 7/8 out of all 3 guns. They shoot worse than the naked slugs on hard cards. My standby for the 7/8 only got 2 of 3 on the board at 50 yds. Reminder to self: KISS! 5 of the other holes were my "oddball" loads shot from the Police w/fixed IC. It's a single .600 RB in a wad in a wad....my "carry" load if you will, always in the truck, always ready. Those were shot standing as fast as I could accurately shoot. Nothing groundbreaking but notice the bright sunny day and imagine the smell of burnt powder!
Attachment 213514

[longbow]

Hal:

It does look like a nice day! Been a while since we had one of those I have to say!

Those Lyman 525's do okay. That target looks pretty good.

I've got to wonder why Lee put so much taper on their slugs. My 7/8 oz. mic at 0.682" on the nose and 0.667" at the base; the 1 oz. mic at 0.685" on the nose and 0.573" on the base... way more taper than wad petals have or at least way more than my wad petals have. I also have to wonder why they are not the same diameter at the nose as the 7/8 oz. should be in a short wad or spaced up on nitro card wads. I guess for the "Drive Key" to work they shoudld sit directly in a shotcup with no nitro card wad.

Having said that my moulds cast exceptionally round and consistent slugs. I had to deburr my 1 oz. mould core pin a bit but it drops slugs beautifully now and the 7/8 oz. isn't bad as is with just a tap of two on the hinge bolt. So they seem to be made well and cast well.

I have loaded up both 1 oz. and 7/8 oz. Lees as cast from wheelweights along with 0.678" RB's and several "custom" slugs for testing and had planned to do that before now but things keep getting in the way. I had planned to go Sunday but we got a nasty snow dump then heavy rain on it so I decided to tie flies and work on my hammer sizer.

On the hammer sizer... my plan is to remove some of the Lee taper then paper patch to snug fit. Not sure it will work as I doubt I can size down far enough but I'll try. The sizer is currently a bit small at 0.660" and no way I can push a Lee slug through that (I tried). If I go much more than 0.675" then there is no room for paper patch... well maybe one wrap or two of very thin paper. Even that is sizing down almost 0.010". I'll bore it out by 0.005" then try again. I think under 0.670" would be good if I can get them through.

Not sure why I bothered with that as I have a home made mould that casts 0.660" and with two wraps or printer paper it is a nice slide fit in Winchester wads and tight but not super tight with 3 wraps.

I made up a form for the 7/8 oz. Lee's so I can add a 3/8" skirt of hot melt glue making it more Brenneke like. I made a few of those up to try and will get them loaded shortly. I tumble in talcum powder so the glue doesn't stick to the shotcup. This same idea reduced group size in my 1 oz. Lee slugs ~ from smoothbore.

Next weekend come hell or high water I got to get slug shooting! Too much talking about it and not enough trigger time! Got a bunch of slugs to try and now to get to the range!

Good on you for doing some shooting and posting targets.

Longbow