12 Gauge from hell

[John Taylor]

Most gunsmiths that do re-barrels should have some short pieces of rifle blanks. These would be 4140 steel and hard enough to hold up for making a sizing die. I have made a few sizing dies for smaller cartridges and will need to make one for my 28 gauge rifle. Mild steel like DOM will not work as good.

[oldred]

In addition, the ATF makes exemptions to the " .500 " rule for rounds that have a sporting purpose.

True, BUT the builder must have applied for and received an exemption from the feds before building such a round, a "sporting purpose" exemption is not just automatic! However as the reply you quoted points out it would likely be considered a 12 ga and thus be ok, with the key word here being "likely". In all likelihood an exemption should be easy to get or to find out if one is even needed in this case, probably an E-mail or phone call would take care of it but trying to argue with the BATF after the fact would almost certainly be a losing proposition.

[megasupermagnum]

Not just likely to be ok, the OP did not modify the gun in any way. This is an off the shelf H&R ultra slug hunter, rifled 12 gauge shotgun. All he is doing is using brass cases, and an ungodly amount of rifle powder in place of a shotgun shell.

[oldred]

Not just likely to be ok, the OP did not modify the gun in any way. This is an off the shelf H&R ultra slug hunter, rifled 12 gauge shotgun. All he is doing is using brass cases, and an ungodly amount of rifle powder in place of a shotgun shell.

I don't see how that could possibly be a problem and if I had of thought a bit more about it I would have realized the gun had not been modified, as I said earlier I was more curious as to the possibility of there being a problem rather than suggesting there might be.

Now back to the interesting stuff -the project itself!

[INTRLOPER]

Subscribe- waiting for the YouTube video.

[Bigbore.729]

In the process of moving to a new house! When I get the time to anneal a case and get set up for a test fire I will post a video. Just bare with me haha

[Bigbore.729]

Been super busy, but I did this today! This is only a 200 gr load with zero starting powder to see what happens. Maybe it'll hang fire, maybe it won't. I am using magnum 209 primers so hopefully that helps. Used 2 and 1/2 .5" fiber wads to take up empty space in the case. Using US 869 Spherical powder.

[472x1B/A]

Hi, am curious about your US 869 Spherical powder. Where is it procured and an equivalent powder?

[Bigbore.729]

I got it from Midway USA my local shop doesn't cary it. It's a replacement for H50 BMG which is now out of production.

[lar45]

If you are going to be burning huge quantities of very slow powders, you might want to look into the milsurp powders.
https://www.gibrass.com/gunpowder.html
$7.50 a pound would be pretty tempting if I had anything that would shoot it.

[wjham77]

I had a project action I bought from Ed Hubbel. It's a 50bmg shellholder action that he modified to take 12ga rim, no barrel or stock. My plan was to get a barrel from pac-nor and headspace using a barrel nut. Also had plans on using the Rocky mountain Cartridge cases. At this point in my life it's more of a dream than a possibility.

[Bigbore.729]

First test fire was a failure. Used 200 gr of US869 with zero starting powder and got no bang. It pushed the bullet and wads out and jammed them into the forcing cone. Will try same load again with starting powder next time

[skeettx]

Why not use black powder to start with?
Safer on pressure, high on performance,

[Bigbore.729]

Good test fire. Had a very ghetto rig, but it worked out nicely. Could not get a good velocity reading will try again. Also, sorry for the shaky out of focus 2nd vid. I could not see my phone screen good so I had no idea what i was filming

https://youtu.be/xJGGdeAIKxU
https://youtu.be/g_RvG3G3wCg

[Bigbore.729]

If anyone here has experience making dies and wants to make a few bucks, get in touch with me. I'm having trouble getting a die made and would be glad to pay someone for their services

[Bigbore.729]

Language warning for videos. Took test shots at a friends house.


I can't believe this is a light load. Still not getting full ignition so I need to increase neck tension to get full ignition I think. 5 grains of Hodgdon Clays and 200 grains of US869 best shot of the day was 1550 FPS 107 ft-lbs of recoil 3200 ftlbs of muzzle energy.

https://youtu.be/wBXkDX8dIbA




https://youtu.be/E9wpv36JZks




https://youtu.be/2kskwnwDpTU



This last shot I barely grazed the jug as I have no front sight. We are close to the chronograph because the cushion wad was throwing off the reading. The recoil was pretty stout. Hardest hitting firearm I've ever shot. The recoil pad made it nice on the shoulder but boy it made my head hurt!

[lar45]

Excellent, thanks for sharing the videos
What size slugs are you loading again?
I'm sure that a good heavy crimp would help with combustion.
I had a thought about your wads messing with the chronograph readings.
What about putting up a couple of layers of cardboard in front of the chrono, then the slug would pass through and the wads, hopefully, will hit the cardboard and stop or get stuck. It also might help if you are getting any muzzle blast interference with the screens causing erratic readings.

[Bigbore.729]

Hmm never thought about the cardboard idea. I will have to try that out. The slugs are 616gr. When I did the math on my previous post, I figured everything with a 600gr pill so it's not accurate. Accurate data is 3287 ft-lbs at the muzzle and 113 lbs of recoil. As for the crimp, I think it would drastically shorten the life ofthis brass. I've been told to just increase neck tension by a couple thou. I also might try a slightly faster powder like retumbo with like a 150 gr charge and see if that gets a complete burn. My barrel is pretty short for an extremely slow powder I think.

[Bigbore.729]

Got 2 more loaded up. Hope to touch them off tomorrow. Slightly faster powder this time.

[megasupermagnum]

Got 2 more loaded up. Hope to touch them off tomorrow. Slightly faster powder this time.

Well I sure hope it isn't Clays powder!

Ed Hubel said he had his best results with the now discontinued sr4759. His second best choice was Reloader 17. Don't quote me, but I believe he used a few grains of Bluedot as a starter with the super slow powders you are currently trying. You say you are using magnum primers. It looks like a CCI 209M to me, which is a good primer. That and the Federal 209A are the ones you want to use. Personally, I think a heavier bullet will do you more good than more neck tension. Ed Hubel I don't think went much below 700 grains for his, and was mainly in the 1000-1200 grain range. I'd like to send you some of my 770 grain slugs, they cast about .731". I'll let you know when I cast more.