Lyman forster slug, what wad do you use?

[webbertelli]

Good Morning.
Yesterday I cast my first batch of slugs from an old Lyman forster slug type mold. The slugs all measure about .703" and have a weight variation of about 3 or 4 grains from the lightest to the heaviest.
What wad should you use with a slug of this size?
I have tried about 3 or 4 diffeernt types of plastic cup wad but with every one the petals of the cup were too thick and with the slug in the cup , the wad and slug combination would cause the case to bulge.
Is a slug of this size intended solely for a column wad without petals?
The reason I ask is that if I put the slug on top of a felt wad it just rattles around in the case.
Im sure a roll crimp would hold it if it was forced down onto the slug but is that usual?

[UNIQUEDOT]

Is a slug of this size intended solely for a column wad without petals?

Yes this slug is designed for a traditional wad column or you can use a modern wad with the petals removed or a combination of plastic gas seals and traditional wads to gain height. There are many possibilities, but the slug (foster type) is designed to obturate to fill the bore much like traditional muzzleloader bullets.


Im sure a roll crimp would hold it if it was forced down onto the slug

It was originally designed for roll crimps, but some folks use fold crimps with them...either will hold the slug in place.

[longbow]

Good luck with the Lyman Foster!

Are you shooting smoothbore or rifled gun? The Lyman Foster is intended for smoothbore.

While UNIQUEDOT is correct in saying that the Lyman Foster is intended to obturate, it is so undersize that in my experience while it does obturate, it does so differently every time resulting in uneven skirts, skewed nose and poor accuracy. Also, to obturate they have to be cast from pure or very soft lead.

I started out slug loading about 35 years ago with 0.690" RB's loose which were not very accurate at all ~ no surprise. Later I bought myself a Lyman Foster mould and followed Lyman slug loading recipes exactly with poor to even poorer results.

Slugs recovered from snow showed what I had suspected ~ the slugs certainly did obturate but every one was different because they are so sloppy in the bore. 0.705" to 0.729" is a long way to swell up consistently.

I tried paper patching them to bore diameter with moderate success but still got fliers. Also, you need to fill the base with hot melt glue or something to keep the wads from blowing into the cavity.

Some have gotten reasonable success with the Lyman Foster but I am not one of them. SluggerDoug did a good write up on his success (try "search") but that involved knurling to increase the slug diameter to bore diameter.

I have tried a variety of smoothbore slugs over the years and while some factory Fosters seem to work quite well, I have had very poor results with home cast hollowbase slugs unless they were cast hard, close fit to the bore and had thick skirts.

I have had better success with attached wad slugs and round balls.

For shooting out to 50 yards or so it is hard to beat a round ball load. I can expect 3" to 4" at 50 yards from good RB loads.

In any case, back to your Lyman Foster. If you are not familiar with slug loading it is not at all like metallic cartridge reloading. Use a good shotshell reloading manual for slug recipes. You cannot just work up a load easily for shotshells as there are no reliable pressure indicators. Component changes can result in large pressure variations and can be dangerous.

Best to get yourself the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook, Reloading For Shotgunners or other shotshell reloading handbook with slug recipes in it and follow them exactly. Minor exceptions like adding nitro card wads under the slug or filling the cavity should not affect pressures much if at all but hull, primer or wad changes can have significant effect.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Longbow