Okay, I made it to the range again! Thats 3 times in a month! Things are looking up.
Actually things are looking up in more ways than one. I am finding answers to some of the failures I've had lately and some successes or at least not failures as well.
Things weren't very pretty with the Russian Paradox slugs that KrackenFan69 sent me though. Nor were they pretty with my 565 gr. TC slugs with Russian Paradox wads installed!
All groups shot at 50 yards from smoothbore cylinder gun.
Both the above slugs gave rather large groups:
Russian Paradox slugs:
- One extreme flier resulting in 25" overall group!
- 6 out of 10 went into a 9" x 4" group and the other 3 made that into about a 12" group so poor but not the worst I've seen (can you say Lyman Foster?)
- Load was 36 grs. Blue Dot in Federal field hull; roll crimped very nicely
- Federal 209A primer
- no target posted
- recovered slugs told a story:
- Slugs as cast are 0.727"
- Slugs after firing are bore diameter at 0.733"+
- driving bands are much wider after firing
- groove is "squished" after firing
- Pic:
- the alloy is quite soft and these slugs didn't do well on impact with wet fine sand in the 50 yard berm
- the slugs below likely followed the others into the berm after cutting a trough as they are not badly damaged but look at the driving bands and groove in comparison to the unfired slug:
also note the divot in the bottom driving band over the stiff part of the cushion leg. All base bands were somewhat distorted this way and the same as I have seen in Gualandi DGS slugs. Pic from a previous range trip:
You can see the base band distortion quite clearly
So my take on poor accuracy here is that the load is causing slug distortion. Having said that, all holes in the target were round so they flew well after leaving the muzzle but they must have gotten poor launches. I'll try again with lighter load though this was not a particularly heavy load.
565 gr. TC Full Bore Slugs with Paradox Wads
- approx. 15" group kinda scattered like
- no slugs recovered
- no target posted
- same weight and load as above also roll crimped very nicely
No clue why these shot so badly. The slugs are somewhat undersize in the bore but with that long wad I expected better. I wish I could have found some slugs in the berm. Also, the paradox wads fit these slugs like they were made for them so again, a bit of a mystery as to why the poor accuracy. All loads felt the same for these and Paradox slugs above... recoil, BANG, etc. all good. Again all holes in the target were round so no significant wobble and certainly no keyholes.
Lee 7/8 oz. Slugs As Cast:
- first group had one flier due to cocked slug at crimping 6 1/2" O/A group with 4 in 4" so not too bad
- 2nd group was larger at 7 1/2" but still not horrible and maybe shooter error contributed
- load was Green Dot in Federal Field hull and unlike last trip using Unique these all went BANG the same; roll crimped very nicely
- target:
Overall not horrible but could be better. That large hole in middle right has one slug from each group through it.
Lee 1 oz. Slug:
- overall group 8" with 4 in 4 3/4" so not bad and again, that flier... well could be the shooter...
- these were sized and paper patched Lee 1 oz. slugs
- powder was SR4756 per first range trip
- target:
Lee group is on top
Other than the one bad flier this is one of the best Lee 1 oz. groups I've gotten though I haven't shot that many and one group doesn't mean much but these will be tested again.
0.678" RB on Copper Tube Skirt:
- as in the title... this is a 0.678" RB drilled for a wood screw, screw install, flared 1/2" copper pipe placed over ball with screw up, hot melt glue filled skirt
- obviously the ball fits a shotcup and so does the copper tube; these got cross strips of paper to snug them up for bore fit
- these have done well in the past and seemed to again putting 3 into 2 1/2" with one flier to 6" (shooter?) still not bad
- one low primer wouldn't fire so only 4 shots
- target: bottom target above with Lee 1 oz.
- oddly, my TC slugs with spigot fit into the same copper tube skirt have not shot well so far. Trying to figure out why
Now some pics for interest:
Ribbed and Finned Slugs From a Home Made Mould
The ribbed slug is HB and fly about the same as my other HB slugs so mediocre to okay. The intent of the ribs is to make it choke friendly though I have not shot them through a choke. Same slug has been Brenneke'ized with reasonable results.
The finned slug was the original intent and again designed to be choke friendly. They didn't work too well due to fins collapsing at firing though oven heat treating fixed that. They were also hard on nitro card wads so I had to put polyethylene disks under the fins.
Also, I think the fins are operating in a partial vacuum due to the shock wave so are not terribly effective. I've found that full diameter skirts seem to perform better... for me anyway.
Both the ribbed and finned slugs punched "gear" shaped holes in targets which look pretty cool. Too bad they don't group better.
Copper Tube & Glue Skirt Slugs:
The copper tube skirted TC slug is made the same as the 0.678" RB with copper tube skirt but so far they do not fly as well for some reason I have yet to determine. this one is recovered from "Part - 2."
The glue skirt slug is solid with wood screw in the base then glue skirt cast on. This is so far one of my best slugs. These are quite undersize as they were designed for steel shot wads by Greg Sappington so I paper patch them up to snug fit in a standard shotcup. I've had some very good results with these though the skirts are a bit hard to get consistent. I'll be making more of these.
Now MrBigTong's 3D printed wad idea come's to mind here!
This one was recovered almost intact most likely from deep snow. You can see some paper from patching still stuck to it. I tumble them in baby powder now before patching to avoid that. Accuracy has always been quite good with these so why do I keep searching? Now that is a good question! These will get some focus!
Greg's Slug
Here is a slug designed by Greg Sappington. I made the mould for him for testing. Intended as a wad slug for rifled gun it also fits snuggly into some unslit wads so I saved a few for myself and tried that. Other than the wad wasn't as sturdy as it could have been they did okay. I don't have access to many wad types locally but for those that do this is not a bad idea to experiment with for a Hammehead like slug. 12 ga. steel shot wads apparently take 0.662" RB's perfectly and these wads which I don't have a name for, but are likely BPI wads, take these slugs perfectly. There are two recovered slugs and wads (I "knurled" grooves into the slugs for tighter fit) and as as cast slug in a wad with 4 x 16 ga. nitro card wads under. Likely better to shorten the shotcup some.
Wads stay with these to the berm hence the mangled wads.
I'll be back at it again shortly. I'm narrowing the field but still will be testing some of the same designs to determine consistency (are fliers slug issues or shooter issues?). I need to recover a bit... that was another 40 rounds of slugs shot off the bench. My brain is starting to rattle with each pull of the trigger!
The Lee slugs in both weights are shooting okay but I think the sized version is better. Copper tube skirted balls and slugs will get another go as will glue skirted slugs and my knurled and sized 565 gr. full bore slugs. And of course I still have more Paradox slugs to test but will tone down loads some to see how they do. I like the slug and they are easy to load. The wad seems very sturdy as well so hopefully I can come up with a good load and get accuracy from them.
That's it for now!
Longbow