Acetal ball in base of forster slug

[GBertolet]

Some time ago a poster mentioned they placed acetal round balls inside the hollow base of their foster slug reloads. I have had problems with the bases of forster slugs collapsing under the force of firing. I have tried filling the bases with hot glue, with only limited success, so I thought I would give the acetal balls a try. I have read that Federal has had good success with this idea in their "True Ball" slug ammo. What size balls did you use, and where did you get them? I have the Lyman 12ga forster and Rapine 550gr Flying trash can foster molds. The websites I have looked on don't give much choice in sizes. It seems that 1/2" is the closest size available that could fit, @ $15 per hundred. 3/4" would be the next size up, which is too big.
Anyone who has had experience with using the acetal balls I would appreciate hearing from.

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Hello GGBertolet, a good idea of placing an Acetal ball in the base cavity, while you are waiting for the answer to your question may I suggest a .170 darker nitro card from BPI right below the slug or even a .250-12 ga nitro card from Circle Fly.

Cast your foster slugs of WW and water quench!

" A happy man is one who loads his own slugs and burn's powder at the range" - Super Blazing Sabots!

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He treats his failures simply as practice shots. ~ Charles F. Kettering

Best regards,
Ajay Madan
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-Elite Group of Slug Shooter's
We all, who take slug loading seriously are a dedicated family, who have taken it upon ourselves to perfect our tech. We experiment to find better techniques and share our knowledge.

[longbow]

I have had HORRIBLE results from the Lyman Foster. It is so far undersize as to be laughable and the skirt is so thing it cannot help but distort ~ slugs recovered from snow show severe distortion of both skirt and uneven obturation.

I have managed reasonable accuracy by paper patching to bore size but still got too many fliers for my liking.

I have been told that using a very solid wad column can provide quite good accuracy but so far nothing I have done has worked for the Lyman Foster.

Now the Rapine is a different story. I had a few given too me and they were cast of wheelweights. Accuracy was quite good at 50 yards. I got a couple of 2" to 3" groups on one outing but did not repeat that and next time groups ran more like 4" so not bad but no better than good round ball loads. These slugs were a slide fit to the bore of my gun.

I believe that a thicker skirt is required for most hollow base slugs and as Ajay says cast them from wheelweights then oven heat treat or at least water quench.

The ball in the cavity is not a bad idea but getting the right size ball could be difficult. You might try Corbin for balls, not sure what sizes they have:

http://www.corbins.com/bball.htm

Personally I would turf the Lyman mould or get it machined with driving bands to make it bore size and thicken the skirt to about 0.100". The Rapine slugs might get by with heat treating but could probably use a slightly thicker skirt too.

Just my thoughts.

Longbow

[gfisher]

Many different materials and sizes can be found here:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/sea...h=balls&page=1

-George

[Green Lizzard]

i went to hobby lobby and got plastic beads, they did help but i went another direction

[GBertolet]

Longbow, I modified my Lyman mold already. I put it in my lathe, and with a boring bar, put a driving band on the slug. I am anxious to see how it will shoot with the ball inside the base. It's about .732 diameter as cast now. Also I have a series of push through sizer dies that I made, with 1.25 X18 thread that fits my old Herter's press, so I can make a final diameter of any size I chose. If I am going to harden the slugs up I will want the diameter to be close to bore size

[Greg5278]

I used some Balls from Salem Ball Company. I seem to recall they were Polypropolyene, and something like 3/8".
I believe the price was around $39/1000, but that was a few Years ago. You don't really need the Properties of Acetal, and it costs more than some other commonlu available materials. HDPE or a lighter desity Polyethylene would be fine, and probably much cheaper. You don't need Bearing quality balls, as produced is fine.
Greg

[44magLeo]

Air soft round balls can be bought most anywhere.
Leo

[Carryacolt]

Does the ball stick out past the bottom of the slug? When loaded, does the slug sit flat on the 170 dark nitro wad? A benifit of it extending out the bottom is that it should add to the airodynamics of it. Wouldn't the hollow base of the slug (without the ball) create a big drag and/or turbulence?

[turbo1889]

I've used "jaw breaker" very hard candy balls for this purpose. They work and unlike plastic are not plastic litter downrange after the load is fired (If you care about such things, I do to a limited sense in that its a preference for me but I don't like mandatory laws and such along those lines.)

Find somewhere that sells them by bulk in either bins or by the bag and find the right size to work for you.

[turbo1889]

Does the ball stick out past the bottom of the slug? When loaded, does the slug sit flat on the 170 dark nitro wad? A benifit of it extending out the bottom is that it should add to the airodynamics of it. Wouldn't the hollow base of the slug (without the ball) create a big drag and/or turbulence?

It helps support the slugs skirt and keep it from collapsing under load which is important because distortion means reduced accuracy down range especially for a hollow base slug fired from a smooth bore gun because the hollow base of the slug is what stabilizes it and makes it fly straight and nose first down range without having a rifled bore.

With an undersized slug for the bore diameter of the gun (common with factory slugs and factory slug molds) the right size ball that is just a little bit larger diameter then the hollow in the base can act as a spreader wedge that fairly evenly expands to slug to bore diameter. This is by no means the ideal situation, however, best to just make the slug the right size to begin with and the only distortion being just a very slight thousandth of an inch or two squeeze in the bore and just use the ball to transfer the structural loads and be loose enough to fall away from the slug cleanly leaving the hollow base open to get the vacuum suction effect that is part of the stabilization of a smooth bore slug beyond just the weight distribution fletching effect.

[GBertolet]

I wound up getting a 100 1/2" acetal balls from Amazon Supply for $14.91. They fit perfect in my Rapine slug with about 1/8" protruding out the rear. I have encountered an unintended consequence though. Even though the ball fixes the collapsed skirts, the 1/2" hard wad the slug rests on, upon firing it completely wraps around the rear part of the ball and wedges itself partially into the hollow base of the slug. Sometimes the wad and ball release from the slug shortly after firing, while other times they stay with the slug until impact. I know this as I find them at various distances, including in the dirt behind the target. The balls when I find them are undamaged and reusable. Occasionally a seperation occurs near the target and I have two holes in my target, both passing through my 1/2" plywood backer. Often I couldn't tell which hit was which. All my testing was done at 50 yards. Some groups were quite good, while others had fliers including slug tipping, and even an occasional keyhole. Slugs were cast of wheel weights and some had Lee Liquid Alox on them, while others were wrapped with teflon tape. I also made push through sizer dies of .723 and .729 diameters which I tried, all giving the same results in 3 different slug guns.

This project needs more work, but as deer season opens here in less than a week, this project will be put on hold. I like the concept of a slug that is shaped like a 38 WC bullet, but I will have to stick with my NEF Slug Hunter for now, using the .735 RB, as I know that works.

[Y-man]

I have actually done this same thing: as far back as 2010: took my locally cast slugs, inserted a frangible plastic ball/ bead into the cavity, for all the reasons above, as done by Federal for their Tru-Ball slugs. But I discovered something: when the balls pushed against the skirts, the expansion of the edge of the skirts led to shredded wads. Some wads would have the petals cut off NEATLY, from the main wad. I got reasonably good accuracy from these slugs, but I have gone to using hard plastic under-slug disks, and filling up the cavities with hot glue. All these with Lyman slugs. See some work and analysis I did in pictures attached.