00 Buck and Slugs

[sh00ter787]

I am just about to start loading for 12g, primarily it will be 00 and Slugs (Lee 1oz).
What would you guys recommend as to the hardness of 00 and Slugs? I have read that 00 needs to be water dropped but would rather hear the pro's and con's.

The main alloy that I use is around 14bhn air cooled and double that if water dropped and left for a bit.

Regards

[Pb2au]

For my money, and I am definitely not an expert, the slugs should be on the soft side. Lee calls out the use of pure lead for use in the mold, and it makes sense to me. Even on the high side of velocity, you will be around 1400fps I'm guessing. On pretty much most creatures on this side of the Atlantic, 1oz of lead is going to be devastating.
So I think part of the answer depends on what you plan to use it on. For sure if your target has a massive amount of muscle, bone and hide, then sure you are going what to go with something a bit harder to raise the penetration performance. But I'm certain on deer/boar/bear sized animals, then soft lead would perform well.
As for buckshot, I'm a babe in the woods on this one. I just this past weekend started down the rabbit hole of buckshot loading. What I have notice from reading here is that a lot of folks seem to be fond of water dropping them, and using a harder alloy similar to wheel weights or the equivalent. I hope someone will chime in and give us both the benefit of their experience on this one.
I hope this helps

[bstarling]

I have been taking cheap bulk bird loads (7 1/2, or 8 shot) and melting the shot into a Lee 1 oz mold. Then placing the old shot, now a slug, into the case. With a bit of a wad beneath the slug if will fill out the case nicely and is a real hoot to shoot. Did I say inexpensive, yes they are! They are also reasonably accurate. I have no idea what the hardness is, but they work.

Bill

[sh00ter787]

Pb2au - with regard to 00 im not bothered about terminal ballistics, its purely whether I will encounter leading etc (told you I was new to 12g loading!) I was not planning on wd the slugs, as velocity wise there is no need and I certainly agree with your softy is better on target :)
bstarling - I dont blame you as the price of birdshot is so cheap, I have quite a healthy supply of lead though!

[Pb2au]

I never thought about leading in a shotgun barrel with buckshot........hmmm. We will find soon, as my first round of test loads are loaded with pure lead buckshot! When I have results, I will post them here.
I'm curious, are you planning hunting with these rounds or just target shooting? If yes to hunting, what critter are you after?

[sh00ter787]

I cant think why they would cause leading, like i say im a total n00b with shotgun loading! Its only going to be target shooting, not much in England that needs 00 ;)

[John in WI]

I have never loaded or cast slugs, so have no idea. I do cast quite a bit of #1 buck. And believe it or not, leading can happen under certain conditions. If I want to get layers of 4, I need to cut the petals off my wads and that results in direct lead on steel contact on firing. That is one source of damage to the balls that can cause them to pattern poorly. (if you're worried, you can use a Teflon sleeve or a thinner wad). The other thing is that on firing the balls can get damaged simply by lower balls accelerating into the upper ones. I think this is where some people recommend buffer (I've never used any), or you can use harder balls. The suffer less deformation.

For terminal performance, it's a similar idea to boolits. Soft shot will tend to deform on impact while harder shot will tend to keep driving forward. From what I read, soft 00 buck really puts the thump on deer. The expansion/deformation probably helps "dump" energy into the target.

I've been using mostly WW with a bit of lino and tin. It's fairly hard and the pellets I recovered from wet phone books is showing minimal deformation (so they are surviving firing and impact). Although the recent threads on copper alloys has me thinking--copper doped lead might be the ticket for ultimate buckshot!

Anyway, I'm no expert on the subject, but for me, harder shot seems to pattern a bit better and should give a bit of an edge for penetration. But I guess I wouldn't over think it too much. One of my friends uses soft range scrap all the time and it's working well enough. Leading is easy enough to remove.

[Nix]

I don't hunt, so for me I shoot shotgun strictly in tactical/recreational and target applications. I DO do a heck of a lot of shotgun casting and shooting, many-many years worth, and I will say from my experience you want buckshot hard (I use WW alloy and water quench) and your want your slugs soft.

Buckshot that is too soft will deform as soon as it's fired (it actually leaves the barrel looking like little eggs or pancakes instead of spheres) and that makes it pattern horribly.

For slugs the main reason you want them soft is two-fold; they cast a lot easier (hard slugs are often really hard to get to drop from the mold, particularly lee molds with the drive-key base). If you do hunt as well super-hard slugs will pass right through your game which does a lot less damage to the animal (which serves only to prolong needless suffering) and also presents a hazard as your slug will keep going depending on the distance it's already travelled etc.

I cast my slugs from WW alloy and sometimes I do have problems with them sticking to the mold, some people swear pure lead is best (I know a guy who uses the lead filters you can get from dentists office film) as it's supposed to shake loose easier I guess.