Now A Shotgun caster

[pipehand]

My moulds and other shotgun goodness arrived last week, so I was able to cast about a hundred Lee 1 oz slugs and a couple of pounds of .311" round balls.

Once I got the crimp sorted out on the MEC Jr., the 9 pellet #1+/0- loads in a WAA12 wad and a Rem Gunclub hull did real well. Patterned nicely, but I may have to increase powder charge.

I also loaded the slugs in the same hulls, but with the Waa12SL wads with a 20 gauge .125" card wad under the slug. had a little difficulty with a consistent crimp, but they shot well.

I do believe I found the most consistent and economical way to load slugs:

1. Buy a 100 round pack of Federal Multipurpose at Chinamart

2. Use a lag screw into the crimp, pull crimp open enough and dump shot.

3. Put shotless shell into the crimp station on the MEC, to dish in the crimp.

4. Put shell in the priming station, and use it to fold the crimp inside the shell, and open up the crimped shell mouth.

5. Remove wad finger guide from press.

6. Use wad seating station to seat card wad and slug.

7. Run shell through crimping station to uniform up.


Roughly 30 cents a shell. Shoots great.

[Gray Fox]

Have you tried shooting any of the latter shells? It would seem to me that the folded in crimp over the wad petals would disrupt the firing process/accuracy--am I missing something? I have used the same shells, but empty the shot, pull out the crimp and round it out with a file handle, manually insert the card wad and the Lee 1 oz. slug, then run it through the crimp stage with no problem. I shoot pure lead slugs through my modified choke on a Spanish double and WW slugs out of my 870 Slugger with nice results. GF

[pipehand]

G.F., I haven't recovered any of the wads from the federal hulls, nor have I done any real accuracy testing. Only made a few up to try and the results look promising. After firing, the crimps looked like they could be fold crimped again.

I did recover some of the WAA12SL's that I had loaded slugs in. No pinched petals, which surprised me, as the wad+slug fit was too tight for me to push through the bore.

I did find a few of the thick card wads. It looked like they did their job- the indents from going into the base of the slug were obvious, but it prevented the plastic wad from doing so.

All testing thus far has been with a cylinder bored 18&1/2" 870. A Saiga 12 is supposed to be inbound. Waiting on swamped gunsmith buddy to finish the conversion.

This is gonna be fun.

[UNIQUEDOT]

On those federal hulls...why not just finish opening the crimp and load them as normal? i have a 20mm projectile as well as a 20mm dummy round on my bench that i use for opening up and ironing out shotshell hulls. Due to the shape of the projectiles they will work for .410 bore through 12 gauge hulls.

[pipehand]

Why not finish opening them up? Tried it and it sure looked raggedy. Also short one 20mm projectile, that is to say, nothing I have laying around seemed to iron it out well. Would have tested some more this evening, but it was raining too hard. Loaded up a few buckshot rounds-finally getting the crimps to look better. Will accuracy test the slugs when I get home to the 870 with the rifle sights on it. I really like the big dot XS sight on my "out of town" 870, but I am still getting used to it for precision sighting... definitely improved my speed on target, though.

[35remington]

Ah.......why not shoot the Federal factory loaded shells first, then reload them rather than disassembling them? Shoot them at your steel reaction targets at realistic ranges if you don't want to shoot them at birds or clay targets.

That's more economical by far. Avoids the tedium of disassembling shells, removing already present shot, and the possibility of buggering up the plastic when inserting a screw in it to pull it open.

My cost per slug load:

Shells.......free in the dumpster, but to pay for gas let's say two cent for each shell, which is more than generous considering I may get 300 to 500 at a time. Three cents for the slug. Three cents for the primer. Three cents for the wad.

Eleven cents per shot. Much cheaper than what you're doing, which I don't quite understand, but then I don't understand a lot of things.

[pipehand]

35 Remington-

Valid points. Was not getting a good crimp with the slugs using the Remington Gunclubs, but finally got them running well with a nine pellet .311" buckshot load. Did want to shoot slugs, but didn't want to change anything on the press for buck.

Was able to shoot a bit before the rain started this afternoon.

Bad news is that this particular loading technique shreds the wads upon firing. Good news is that I never planned on reusing the wads, and that they shoot very accurately and to point of aim at 15 yards. I'm talking 6 shots that would all fit in the bottom(or top) of a beer can.

Once I can build up a stock of the Remington hulls I will make a lot of the Buckshot rounds, and then refine the process for star crimped slug loads. Will probably get the wads to crimpload slugs in the Federal hulls, and stay with the green hulls for buck and fine shot.

Did get to shoot some 9 pellet .311" buk loads, and it patterned better and more evenly than the Federal premium OOBuck I used as a control. Also recoiled less.

[35remington]

I have little difficulty getting good crimps with slugs or buckshot with the Gun Clubs. The catch is that the wad/slug is a tight fit in the hull, and I cannot "feel" the wad bottom on the powder so I use a reference mark to seat the slug to the same depth each time, doing it on my RCBS Mini Grand rather than my MEC's as the RCBS is more friendly to wad and buckshot use. This is due to a separate station for powder drop and for wad insertion.

Your load ught to recoil less than the 00 buck as the pellets are maybe 45 grains apiece or less, likely less if of wheelweights, so you're less than one ounce. About 0.93 ounce or so. Probably less. You might be close to 7/8 ounce or .875.

If the wads are shredding with the slugs, accuracy will be poor one you get past about 25 yards, and it will be maybe in the two foot range at fifty. Wads have to stay intact, even in just a smoothbore, for the Lee slug to shoot near its potential. It's not super accurate, but rather usably accurate in my guns with smooth bores. That's plenty good enough for practice. I usually use around 16.5 Red Dot and the WAASL pink wad, but as long as the weather is not extreme I usually don't get wad failures even without a card wad below the slug........so I don't usually use one.

[pipehand]

Tried the field expedient Lee 1oz. slugs in the Federal hulls with my Wingmaster Slug gun-IC choked w/ rifle sights at 25 yards.

All over a standard sheet of typing paper.

Gonna hafta go back to square one and do the star crimp thing.

Will have fun blasting away at the gong at close ranges with the rounds that don't make the cut.

On a positive note, the buckshot loads seem to be doing well.

[pipehand]

Made up a few of the published Dixie Tri-ball loads since a friend was able to pick up not just one, but two pounds of BlueDot for me. Got to shoot them this evening, and I've got to say I'm impressed. The only time I've sent more payload downrange was firing anti-tank rockets, and those are recoil-less! The Tri Ball not recoilless, but the three balls didn't just pattern, they grouped- better than the same number of individual Lee slugs.

Used the same hull. wad and powder to make a couple of 18x.311" buckshot loads, the heavy steel shot wads would only let the shot stack as 2 per layer, but 9 layers high. Total payload approx. 1&3/4 oz. These were 8 point crimped, as opposed to the roll crimp on the Tri-Ball. Only shot one round- very happy with the #and location of the holes in the target!

Will be making more of the Tri-Ball loads this evening. Out of water dropped .311" buckshot because I used it up in the 9 pellet 2&3/4" loads. Will beordering more wads soon,I think.