SPW sabots in 20 ga from Slugsrus: load success?

[pastorcurtis]

For those of you using the SWP sabots from slugsrus.com...has anyone had success with using a .429 boolit in the 20 ga sabot? I'd appreciate hearing what loads you came up with.

May thanks,
pastorcurtis

[a danl]

i bought them however i did not like how tight the .429 bullet fit inside ; it was even hard assembling them by hand. the other thing i didn't like was the sabot stayed with the bullet all the way to its destination which would kill the BC because of the drag it would create. velocity loss i would think would be troubling. that's all i can add, if that helps in any way it's only my opinion , maybe someone else can add a better take, "god is good always"

[pastorcurtis]

The Lightfield slugs work like this (staying with the bullet until impact), and I've had great success with them. But, of course, I'd like to load my own. Nobody out there has tried the SPW with the 429 boolits?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Does STI have a Hammerhead Mould for these 20 ga. sabots?

The Fact that the Sabot stays with the slug in this particular case doesn't degrade the BC of the slug at all. In fact, the way they are designed a Hammerhead Slug wouldn't remotely fly strait if it shed the sabot. Still only a 125 -150 yard gun under the best of circumstances.

My 12 ga ones work pretty well and the accuracy from a rifled barrel is spectacular. Keep in mind if you load them into a 2 3/4" hull you need a 2 3/4" chamber for best results. 3" hulls for 3" chambers.

Here's a pic of a group I shot at 50 yards with my A5 with a Hastings Rifled Barrel, and open sights using the turned brass insert in the STI Sabot..

Randy.

[megasupermagnum]

The plastic does degrade the flight of the slug. For example, BPI's LBC blueforce sabot slug. I did quite a bit of shooting with it. I measured the velocity at 1950 FPS from my gun, which is smoking hot. Most loads will be much slower. Zeroed at 100 yards, it shot 1.5" high at 50 yards, and 36" low at 200 yards. Backwards calculating shows that to have a BC of about .05. That's poor, about identical to a round ball. Most rifled slugs are only around .07, however, so no slug is all that good. Hornady claims their SST slug has a BC of .2, but actual shooting shows them to be closer to around .15. The LBC slug was very accurate at 200 yards, even with all that drop.

That said, many of these non-discarding style slugs shoot very well like this SlugsRUs slug, or the Lightfield, or the BPI blueforce. The problem with them is they are far too expensive. My gold standard for rifled slug barrel accuracy is now the Federal power shok sabot slug, and has proven to be accurate in just about anything. They can be had for around $6-$7 a box of 5. You aren't going to be saving much money when you are spending $2+ a box on the sabot's alone.

A 20 gauge gives you more options than 12 gauge before recoil becomes extreme. Personally I'd be looking into a full bore .620" bullet (slug your bore first), like the Accurate 62-425S. That cast slug with a .375" meplat would be an excellent choice that would shoot as good or better than most, and fly better too.

I've shot something similar in 12 gauge, and it does shoot very well. The problem is in 12 gauge it weights 770 grains, and is just about unbearable to shoot if you push it fast.

[pastorcurtis]

"A 20 gauge gives you more options than 12 gauge before recoil becomes extreme. Personally I'd be looking into a full bore .620" bullet (slug your bore first), like the Accurate 62-425S. That cast slug with a .375" meplat would be an excellent choice that would shoot as good or better than most, and fly better too"

I have some of those slugs, cast up by a member of this board, who sent along some data for using them with Federal 20s1 wads (with the petals removed). Was that your set up for shooting them?

[megasupermagnum]

While a 20S1 can work, I prefer a gas seal followed by a number of nitro cards.

[Taylor]

i bought them however i did not like how tight the .429 bullet fit inside ; it was even hard assembling them by hand. the other thing i didn't like was the sabot stayed with the bullet all the way to its destination which would kill the BC because of the drag it would create. velocity loss i would think would be troubling. that's all i can add, if that helps in any way it's only my opinion , maybe someone else can add a better take, "god is good always"

I agree, this is my take on them too. I did make a tool to give me an even slit. But I was having trouble with the gun, so at this point I don't have a load at all.

[Blood Trail]

I’ve had great success with the 12 ga hammerheads slugs. All shots touching at 100 yards.

I have the 20 ga hammerhead mold. Haven’t been that successful. Best I’ve gotten is 3” at 50 yards. The problem I’m having is even with published data, none of my 20 ga slug guns will extract the spent hull. You gotta knock them out with a dowel.

I’ve tried loading .45 cal boolits, but like the 12 ga, the projectiles always blow the bases.

I’ll play around with them after deer season with my 220 and custom Tarhunt barrel.


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[SuperBlazingSabots]

Hello Blood Trail, what is that load that you need to
" My 20 ga slug guns will extract the spent hull. You gotta knock them out with a dowel."
Can you give details of powder charge, bullet weight, including the hull and primer that you used.
Thank you.
Regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

[NyFirefighter357]

Hornady claims their SST slug has a BC of .2, but actual shooting shows them to be closer to around .15..

I use the Hornady SST's in the 512 I'd love to be able to cast a similar bullet and load for them.

[Blood Trail]

Hello Blood Trail, what is that load that you need to
" My 20 ga slug guns will extract the spent hull. You gotta knock them out with a dowel."
Can you give details of powder charge, bullet weight, including the hull and primer that you used.
Thank you.
Regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

AJAY,

all of these:





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[SuperBlazingSabots]

Greetings Blood Trail, The whole loading data can't be all wrong.
It must be your hulls being weaker or your gun ejector being far too narrow to be able to eject,
or both ! !
First thing I would use Federal hull ( The very best ) to see if they still hang !
Regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

[pastorcurtis]

I tried the same data on Tuesday. The Blue Dot load was hot and shells were sticky. The Longshot load failed to extract an 5 out of 5 shots. Stuck in there solid. Chrono at 1600fps with the Hammerhead in the SPW, each one weighed out at 29 grains of Longshot like the data at slugsrus said. Hulls were new Fiocchi, 2 3/4.

I cast the Hammerheads from the mold I bought from slugsrus out of wheel weight alloy. And there is no mystery here: the data at slugsrus says the total ejection weight of the slug plus Hammerhead is 410 grains. My slugs out of wheel weights where 380 and my SPWs weigh 48 = 428 grains.

My fault for not weighting everything first. But I do find it odd that slugsrus says their slugs are pure lead and mine out of wheelweights came out heavier....

At any rate: that overly hot load of Longshot still grouped pretty well. I've lowered it ten percent to 26 grains and hope to be able to shoot some tomorrow.

Pastor Curtis

[pastorcurtis]

Should have mentioned the gun: Mossberg 500, 20 gauge. Extractor skipped right over the stuck-in-there shells of the 29 gr Longshot load.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Pastorcurtis. Why don't you tone those loads down a little more so you can get them to extract?.. 1600 fps is a little fast and you could probably get the same terminal results at 1400-1500 fps. It won't hurt anything to back the charges off a little, and nothing bad will happen.

The group shot in post #4 was done with 23 gr of Unique which yielded @1250 fps (12 ga.) MY STI sabots with Turned Brass inserts are 550 gr. They will knock anything on this continent down with authority. I could run them faster, but it is pointless since I have nothing I need to knock down with authority.

Remember a 428 gr bullet at 1600 fps would be considered a Butt Kicker load from a .45-70, especially since factory loads for .45-70 with 405 gr bullets are loaded down to @1300 fps.

Also if you have a Mossberg then the chamber is probably 3" so you really need to load these into 3" hulls for best accuracy. My M500 rifled barrel doesn't shoot my slugs as good as my Browning A5 with a 2 3/4" chamber. Same loads with new 2 3/4" Rio Hulls.

Randy

[pastorcurtis]

Pastorcurtis. Why don't you tone those loads down a little more so you can get them to extract?.. 1600 fps is a little fast and you could probably get the same terminal results at 1400-1500 fps. It won't hurt anything to back the charges off a little, and nothing bad will happen.

I was using the suggested data from the sellers of the wad and slug...that's why I started there.

But yes...I'm dialing it down 10% and we'll see where it goes from there.

As for 3" vs 2 3/4" in the Mossberg 500...factory 3" shells shoot no better for me than 2 3/4". In addition, I find that the 3" shells are quite long for the powder and slug combinations I'm using. Perhaps I'll branch out in that direction...we'll see. I'd very much like to get 2" groups at 50 yards with around 1500 fps. Time will tell!

[Blood Trail]

I tried the same data on Tuesday. The Blue Dot load was hot and shells were sticky. The Longshot load failed to extract an 5 out of 5 shots. Stuck in there solid. Chrono at 1600fps with the Hammerhead in the SPW, each one weighed out at 29 grains of Longshot like the data at slugsrus said. Hulls were new Fiocchi, 2 3/4.

I cast the Hammerheads from the mold I bought from slugsrus out of wheel weight alloy. And there is no mystery here: the data at slugsrus says the total ejection weight of the slug plus Hammerhead is 410 grains. My slugs out of wheel weights where 380 and my SPWs weigh 48 = 428 grains.

My fault for not weighting everything first. But I do find it odd that slugsrus says their slugs are pure lead and mine out of wheelweights came out heavier....

At any rate: that overly hot load of Longshot still grouped pretty well. I've lowered it ten percent to 26 grains and hope to be able to shoot some tomorrow.

Pastor Curtis

I got the same results with every 20 ga load they posted. From three different guns: 220, HR, M500.

The only thing that did change was the hulls I was using. I was using new primed Fiocchi hulls.


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[pastorcurtis]

Did you weigh your slugs + SPWs? Mine ended up being 18 grains, or 4.4% over what slugsrus said the total weight would be.

Still haven't had the chance to get out and try again with loads downloaded 10% from listing...maybe later this week!

Pastor Curtis