12 Gauge .735 Round Ball Results

[longbow]

I am going to suggest a straight walled hull for heavier loads rather than the Win AA hull. A larger volume hull is a better choce.

Also, while the Ultra Slug Gun is probably heavier than the Rem 870, I found recoil at 38 grs. of Blue Dot "stout".

Longbow

[Harmon_Greer]

i have some federal target hulls, and i need to get some gold medal hulls.

i have hundreds of AA hulls on hand...it was/is my go-to hull.

i plan on getting some 3 inch Fiochi hulls to play with.....and some IMR 4756

[Harmon_Greer]

loaded some full power 2 3/4 loads today

federal plastic universal hull(plastic case, paper basewad)
win 209
44.0 grains Blue Dot
Claybuster 12R wad with petals removed
2.2 cc by volume baby oatmeal cereal
gas seal from fired Win WAA12 wad
a dab of TC bore butter
18 BHN .735 ball
roll crimped at 2.400 OAL

pressure looks moderate..cases fall out of the gun without the use of the ejector...NEF Ultra Slug Gun. case expansion is very slight...less than the original loads fired in the slug gun.

recoil on the other hand was MORE than moderate. in a lighter gun it would be a bit uncomfortable. Recovered wads show no tearing or other signs of failure.

[longbow]

How was accuracy?

What range?

Recoil in the Remington 870 rifled gun I borrowed was indeed "uncomfortable" with 38 grs. of Blue Dot. I shudder to think of upping the load to 44 grs. at least without good shoulder padding.

I am normally shooting a light single shot smoothbore and 36 to 38 grs. of Blue Dot is enough for me!

Longbow

[Harmon_Greer]

I actually would feel comfortable increasing the load by 2 grains in this hull. It is based on lyman 525 data that is low pressure to start with. I plan on testing for accuracy tomorrow and will post the results asap. I just shot one of these out of an 870 police magnum and the recoil was just as bad as federal 1 1/4 oz foster slugs

[Bullet Miser]

Hello Boolit Casters,

Forgive me for my ignorance and noobery...

Since the round ball is already overbore wouldn't it be possible to do without the wad altogether?

I've never cast a bullet before and never reloaded a shotgun shell, so this is all new to me. I've only reloaded .38 special.

But the idea of casting some round balls up sounds pretty neat.

[turbo1889]

. . . Since the round ball is already overbore wouldn't it be possible to do without the wad altogether?. . .

If you had a shotgun with a custom cut chamber that didn't have a forcing cone and the chamber cut was the same depth as the shell was long with a very close tolerance; then yes one could do away with the wadding for a 0.735" RB slug or any other tight fitting full bore diameter slug for that matter. Such a gun would basically operate just like a carbine that took giant oversize revolver shells that just happened to use hybrid metallic/plastic cases.

The forcing cone that is cut into shotgun barrels which has no parallel in rifle or pistol barrels along with the fact that people shoot short shells in long chambers (for example: 2-3/4" shell in 3" chamber) is what makes wadding almost completely necessary in all shotgun loads including full bore slugs.

[Baryngyl]

You have any data for loading 2 or 3 .690 Round balls, these weigh 1.1 OZ each?
I would like to push these around 1,400 or so.

Thank You
Michael Grace

[dogbert41]

I'm thinking about getting a rifled deer choke for my new shotgun and a .735 RB mold to see if I can duplicate some of the results Adam604 got at the beginning of this thread!

The only one I can find is this:

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/sid=7...nvector__Matte


I just got a Win SX2 3" Mag with 26" barrel and using an imp cyl choke did some pretty promising break-in shooting with .690 rb, but will have to put it on paper to see if I can get it anywhere close to what Adam did. Does anyone know if Lee makes a .735? I love their .690 RB mold especially for the price...

[missionary5155]

Greetings Baryngyl
You might want to cantact Dixie Slugs on that combination.
3 + ounces of lead and especially multiples changes the pressure curve dramaticly.
Plus you want to go with HARD balls as with this much weight the rear ball will be moving smashing the mid ball which is trying to push that top loaded ball which is not going to want to start accelerat.. Soft balls are going to expand in the barrel and pressures can go balistic.

[longbow]

Baryngyl:

I have a double 0.690" ball load someone published. I can't recall who published it or where I got it and didn't record the info.

I have not used it so cannot comment personally on the safety though he included pressure info with it.

I am reluctant to post it since I did not develop it or use it. I was planning to compare the powder charge and weight of lead to published data before trying it and just have not got to it.

The load is for 3" hulls. If you are interested I will look through my reloading info to compare and if it looks sane for powder, charge and payload I will PM you.

Also, you might look at the Dixie Tri-Ball load James Gates posted here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=tri-ball

Longbow

[excess650]

I bought the Lyman and Lee 12ga slug molds for use in shotcups, and tried them, but wasn't thrilled. I briefly tried .735" RBs and then bought a .735" mold from NEI. It casts a large "collar button" about 600gr, I'll have to go back and check...

My test mule is a Rem 870 with rifled barrel with sights. I had previously shot various factory slugs, both Foster type and saboted, and knew it would shoot 3" or less at 100 yards with ammo it liked. I also have a Browning ABolt Hunter 12ga, full rifled with scope that would shoot sube 2" at 100 yards with the same ammo the 870 liked. One of them preferred to be clean and the other dirty to shoot best groups.

The first incarnation of 2-3/4" Lightfields (1998?)I tried had .58cal slugs in sabbots and swelled the case heads in the Browning, so I used Federal 2-3/4" 1oz(?) .50cal.

The next generation 2-3/4" Lightfields were .62 in sabots and didn't produce the pressure issue with the Browning. Those were the (2) factoy loads that shot best in BOTH despite both being chambered 3", fully rifled, etc. I tried everything that I could find at the time from Remington, Winchester, Federal, Lightfield, and more! I shot whitetails with both the Federals and Lightfields as I was hunting in a shotgun or MLer only area.

Anyway, I fooled with the NEI slugs in the 870 and interpolated Lyman shotshell data to find starting points. (600gr is close to 1-3/8oz)I don't recall if I used a cushion was or just nitro cards under the .735" slugs, but built a wad column so that it would roll crimp shut with an 8 point crimp. I used only Blue Dot as it appeared to be the logical choice for up to 1-1/2oz 2-3/4" Magnum loads. I know that I was shooting 42gr, but the recoil was severe. When shooting at 50 yards I was getting a vertical string, and didn't realize the rear sight was creeping upward on its ramp!

Anyway, shooting .735" "collar buttons" casued no problems with my fully rifled barrel, nor did the .735" RBs. I suspect that if too oversized, the slugs might casue a problem with choketube barrels at the threads.

I may get a wild hair and revisit these loads when I feel like I need a beating. I'll bet they would flatten a wiley whitetail immediately.

[dogbert41]

Excess650, I started out with 36 grains HS6 for my Lee 1oz slugs and they were too fierce in the recoil department for lot of shooting. I can't imagine 42 grains blue dot behind a 600 grain ball! What were they moving?

[excess650]

I'm looking through my Lyman Shotshell Handbook and trying to remember. I see similar or heavier charges in 2-3/4" cases with the Vitt/Boos slug just shy of 1400fps. The 525gr Lyman sabot slug gets 1500fps+.

While you may think my charges were high, the 3" cases with 525gr Lyman sabot slug get 50gr Blue Dot for 1550-1595fps!

Like I said, recoil was noticeable, as in the hardest kicking anything I've ever shot!

[shotman]

.735 has quite of bit to swage in a rifled 870. I use a .728 over 30gr blue dot and NO crimp and does a good good job recoil is about what a 1 1/4 field load would be
dont think it would be good to use a .735 in a screw in choke. Try driveing a .735 down a cyl bore you will break a 3/8in wood dowl

[turbo1889]

. . . . dont think it would be good to use a .735 in a screw in choke. Try driveing a .735 down a cyl bore you will break a 3/8in wood dowl

For a hard cast ball you are correct; for smooth bore barrels using 0.735" RB slugs I suggest that the hardest alloy that should ever be used is 30:1 and soft nearly pure lead isn't a bad choice either. For such a soft cast ball the swag down force is minimal and they can even take a little bit of choke constriction such as a Skeet or Improved Cylinder screw in choke tube (0.005" & 0.010" constriction respectively).

Hard Cast 0.735" RB slugs can be used in true cylinder bore smooth bore guns but like yourself I'm hesitant to suggest it as standard operating procedure. Save the hard cast ones for the rifled slug barrels. But I wouldn't go so far as to condemn it either. I have fired 0.735" round ball slugs among others cast from a variety of alloys including commercial hardball alloy through a gun equipped with a variety of choke constrictions including full choke in purely an academic experimental endeavor to examine whether all that is said about hard cast full bore slugs splitting choked barrels (Don't try this at home without taking extensive precautions including a mounted, shielded test stand with remote trigger set-up). I can conclusively state that it takes more to split, bulge or otherwise damage the end of a choked barrel through abusing the gun with harder and harder full bore slugs then most think it would take but it can be done if you try hard enough.

[dogbert41]

Thanks for the heads up guys! I guess I'll stick with the .690 ball and a thin shotcup or one with no pedals.

[savage308]

I am waiting for my .735 Lyman mold to get delivered so I have no loads to talk about yet but I have tried many different Tri-ball loads exactly as Dixie Slugs loading info with 3" fiochii hulls and Precision Reloading wads and 28
grains of Blue Dot and haven't had great results. one shell would eject fine with no pressure signs and the next one
would stick in chamber and show minor signs but only slight marks at the rim. IT could just be my gun as far as the ejection problem goes but I can't get good grouping with this load so far. This is with 3 .600 hard balls. I am loading more with 26 gr. and 24 gr. to try out. When I get my Lyman .735 mold I will try single ball loads to compare to my LEE slug loads. I am also having good results with a 2 .600 2 ball load in a 2 3/4 cheditte hull over 23 gr. Green Dot and it grouped good at 50 yds. Sometimes I get 2 holes touching then the next shot is 4" lower and holes 2" apart which I am pleased with. still working on that load.

[savage308]

I am waiting for my .735 Lyman mold to get delivered so I have no loads to talk about yet but I have tried many different Tri-ball loads exactly as Dixie Slugs loading info with 3" fiochii hulls and Precision Reloading wads and 28
grains of Blue Dot and haven't had great results. one shell would eject fine with no pressure signs and the next one
would stick in chamber and show minor signs but only slight marks at the rim. IT could just be my gun as far as the ejection problem goes but I can't get good grouping with this load so far. This is with 3 .600 hard balls. I am loading more with 26 gr. and 24 gr. to try out. When I get my Lyman .735 mold I will try single ball loads to compare to my LEE slug loads. I am also having good results with a 2 .600 2 ball load in a 2 3/4 cheditte hull over 23 gr. Green Dot and it grouped good at 50 yds. Sometimes I get 2 holes touching then the next shot is 4" lower and holes 2" apart which I am pleased with. still working on that load.

[Mayor]

I am waiting for my .735 Lyman mold to get delivered so I have no loads to talk about yet but I have tried many different Tri-ball loads exactly as Dixie Slugs loading info with 3" fiochii hulls and Precision Reloading wads and 28
grains of Blue Dot and haven't had great results. one shell would eject fine with no pressure signs and the next one
would stick in chamber and show minor signs but only slight marks at the rim. IT could just be my gun as far as the ejection problem goes but I can't get good grouping with this load so far. This is with 3 .600 hard balls. I am loading more with 26 gr. and 24 gr. to try out. When I get my Lyman .735 mold I will try single ball loads to compare to my LEE slug loads. I am also having good results with a 2 .600 2 ball load in a 2 3/4 cheditte hull over 23 gr. Green Dot and it grouped good at 50 yds. Sometimes I get 2 holes touching then the next shot is 4" lower and holes 2" apart which I am pleased with. still working on that load.

If I had to venture a guess about your inconsistancies with these loads I would say that the .600 RB would be the issue. It is quite a bit under sized for the bore and is probably letting your gas seal blow out or pressure to blow by it since it doesn't present a "flat" surface against the seal like a load of shot and it is too far away from the inside of the bore.

A .690 like the feller posting before you would fix that.
The .735 you spoke of would probably require a this brass hull like the CBC/Magtech.