The Dixie Tusker is Back!

[longbow]

Just so you guys know, I sent the Dixie Tusker drawing to Tom at Accurate Molds and asked if he could make a mould. He responded by saying it is now in his catalogue as 73-740TN. Of course the HB pin has to be outsourced. For those not familiar this is a full bore HB design that weighs 600 grs. hollow based. While hollow based it is intended for rifled gun. James posted the drawing on Cast Boolits several years ago

If I get a rifled gun or rifled barrel I will be ordering one for sure. I am also thinking it would be a terrific design for scaling down a bit to fit into a plastic shotcup and using the same top and bottom band dimensions as the Lyman 525 gr. sabot slug.

Here is a link to James' post with the drawing:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ghlight=tusker

I'd be making the driving bands to suit groove diameter of the barrel. Personally I think 0.725" is a bit small for a nominal 0.727" groove diameter.

I'm thinking of ordering a mould anyway then making a hollow base pin with spike to create a starter hole for a screw then I have a Tusker Brenneke... or Brenneke'ized Tusker.

This is a slug that at full bore diameter would not be choke friendly unless the driving bands were narrowed up so they'd give. That might work. Great for rifled gun though.

Longbow

[bikerbeans]

Is the Wooly Mammoth back too? Cast from soft lead that would be an interesting slug out of your 500 Slugster.

BB

[longbow]

BB:

While hollow base it is designed for rifled gun and I don't think the HB is deep enough for true shuttlecock effect. Greg Sappington sent me a few many years ago and I loaded them up and shot from my smoothbore single shot. Accuracy was not very good but they flew nose on and punched nice round holes all the way to 75 yards (I didn't try further). They were per the drawing at 0.725" diameter though and my slug gun is 0.733" so considerably undersize. If they were a close fit to bore they might do okay. Alternately if I get a mould I'll be making my own pin so can add a screw starter hole (spike on the pin) then add a screw on attached wad. I can also drop weight a bit by making a larger cavity though 600 grs. isn't outrageous.

I think I'd either narrow the driving bands a bit and go to 0.730"+ diameter (maybe as large as 0.735") or add a larger diameter narrow band onto the existing bands so they would swage to suit bore diameter. Ether way it wouldn't be choke friendly. But if scaled to fit shotcup... that might be the best of both worlds.

Anyway, I always thought it a nice slug design and not toooooo heavy like some.

On the "new" Slugster front. I am just preparing a bunch of Lee 1 oz. slugs to test out. I'll shoot some from my single shot to check accuracy and performance as it is a known quantity then I'll shoot some from the Slugster.

These Lee slugs are cast from wheelweights then sized to 0.672" (to remove taper). They will be put into forms I made yesterday to add hot melt glue skirts about the same length as the Lee slug then dusted with talcum powder or graphite powder, paper patched to suit wad/bore fit then loaded.

I'm looking forward to getting the Slugster out to shoot and also to try these modified Lee slugs. I've done the glue skirt on as cast Lee slugs before but not on sized Lee slugs. It worked well on as cast except the slug taper made it hard to align them in the forms. With no taper, no problem!

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

LB Have you shot that new gun yet? We want a range report so we have a base line to start "your" load development from. We are just full of good ideas!

Hoping my barrel shows up today. Need to measure the bore and lands and see what I've got to work with.

Everything I've read so far has pointed to slugs with attached wads being the most accurate answer in both rifled and smooth bores.

I've got to get some of those Lightfield slugs and see exactly what they are doing. Brenneke and various offerings from BPI like their Thug Slug seem to be ready made solutions for the Hunter. I have some .410 Thugs but haven't loaded them yet. They will go thru my M6 Scout. I also have some Factory Federal .410 slugs which are 125 gr at 1775 fps! That's 35% above a .357 Mag, and makes that gun actually good for something. Once again attached wads.

Randy

[longbow]

Randy:

I have not shot it yet!

Cleaned it, slugged it, fondled it, check for function and feeding which is all good. It is like new inside.

I just finished adding hot melt glue skirts to 30 sized Lee 1 oz. slugs and will be loading those up later. I should be shooting the Slugster this weekend.

Yes, I agree that attached wad slugs make the most sense whether they are bore diameter or wad slugs.

These modified Lee slugs only have about 1/4" extra skirt due to the components I have on hand. The wads I have are 1 1/4 oz. wads so not deep enough for longer slug but even that added 1/4" shout move CG forward enough to help. These same slugs without added skirt shot quite well last outing and full size Lee's with added skirt about the same length shot better than without the skirt. I'll post pics of the slugs later.

I'm thinking along the same line for the Tusker. Scale it down for wad slug, add some taper and a starter hole for screw to hold hot melt or other skirt in place... I'd like to try dense felt between two thick plastic washers like Brenneke Classic slugs.

The Slugster will be tested with 0.678" RB's and these Lee slugs. It has a tighter bore than my single shot so I'll patch slugs accordingly.

Longbow