Ready for hogs!

[Hogtamer]

I've hunted with a recurve bow for 40 yrs, with nothing else for the last 15. Killed maybe a hundred deer and 2x that hogs. Just ready to burn some powder I guess and recently brought out my old reloading stuff. Yes, 30 yr. old powder and powder still good. You guys have been most helpful and saved me lot's of trial and error. My goal was to come up with a heavy slug load and buckshot load that was good @ 50 yds. Well, the slug performance came easy enough, getting about 6 in. group with my reloads. For the record though, the best performance was from a Winchester heavy field load, 1 1/8 oz birdshot emptied, 2 - 16 ga shot card in the wad, my lee 1 oz slug, one more shot card and a perfect recrimp! Those loads are about 10 in. @ 100 yds better then my recaps, no wad damage and easy enough on the shoulder. The buckshot was surprisingly tough, though. I tried numerous combos but got
disappointing results until today. I know 50 yds is a tall order but finally got it! 6 OO pellets in a 12 in circle today. For comparison I first shot a Winchester supreme load, 12 pellets OO @ 50 yds, only 2 pellets in circle. Then my home brew as follows: Rio hull, 2 3/4 in, 30 grns old 540 powder,BPI base wad, 2 16 ga overshot cards on top, trimmed Teflon wrapper to fit, 4 perfect little triangle stacks of 3 - OO pellets, BPI
buffer shaken down, another overshot and good tight 6 pt. crimp. Now, to the Savannah river (GA) swamp soon! Homemade andouille sausage after that. Thank you for the good advice and who will sell me some hard buckshot!??

[Hogtamer]

Oh yeah, if anyone's interested I loaded some BPI 16 ga. DGS. I know they're "store bought" and come mounted on a green wad. I loaded federal hulls with 28 gr. 540 (HS-6) for a perfect fit and was amazed how accurate they are! Out of my old sweet sixteen shot 6" group @ 100 yds off hood of truck with front bead only, 28" mod. Choke. Couldn't do better with rifle and open sights.

[TonyfromItaly]

hello Hogtamer

they are made here in italy by gualandi, they are the most used in italy for hog hunting, for their accuracy at long range. Only problem we find is that they are "too hard" and do not expand as much as we wuold like for a clean kill.

[longbow]

Yes, I shot some of the Gualandi 12 ga. DGS slugs and they were quite accurate. I was shooting at 50 yards and running about 2" to 3" groups but had one keyhole.

Recovered slugs from our 100 meter sand berm did not expand much at all like Tony said. Also, I was surprised to see significant skirt damage from the cushion leg ramming into it.

Also, very good are AQ slugs from BPI. I think these are actually European slugs. They are essentially a bore size round ball with a core hole and attached wad. They are considerably softer than DGS slugs (the ones I shot were anyway) and very accurate.

Longbow

[TonyfromItaly]

I think the key to accuracy is having a slug with rings (skirts?) protruding from the main trunk of the slug (like rings in a piston in a car's engine), so that the shrink as they go through the choke, but mantain perfect alignment in the barrel. I am surprised that lee or lyman has not produced something like this:67809

67811

[Hogtamer]

Longbow, they don't carry those AQ balls anymore. BTW, got any favorite buckshot loads? #1 or #2 buck. I want something heavy and still a decent pattern @ 50 yds. (I know that's a stretch). 4 stacks of 4 #1 made a good load for me but barn size pattern. Hal

[longbow]

No more AQ's! Let me look... nope, they've still got AQ's:

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/AQ-Slug-12ga-25_pak/productinfo/0151000/

Out of stock apparently but still listed so they should be getting more.

Hmmm, looks like their price dropped a bunch unless my memory is worse than I thought ~ I would swear I paid $25.00 for a 25 pack. Might be too because the Canadian dollar was down then and I had to pay shipping so maybe it was $25.00 Canadian.

Anyway, these things shoot well. I have been trying with moderate success to clone them with readily available "stuff".

I have a Lee bucksot mould but have not done much with buckshot to date. I have enough trouble trying to get my slugs to perform like Brennekes and AQ's!

I do have BPI's buckshot reloading manual though. Pretty limited components listed but some good loads. Patterns are another issue of course.

Longbow

[Hogtamer]

"This item no longer available." They marked them down and sold them out a couple of weeks ago. Is there another source?

[longbow]

Hah! You are right indeed! I guess my eyes quit working after seeing the photo and price. I don't know how I missed the words right underneath.

My apologies.

I thought AQ's were also available from European suppliers and could have sworn that I had found a site at some point making me think they were actually of European origin but I sure can't find it now.

I guess we are out of luck then.

Sorry about that.

Longbow

[TonyfromItaly]

i put to your attention this italian supplier of slugs, interesting selection, they ship overseas--
http://www.siarm.com/index.php?cPath=2_20_164_60&osCsid=aedaabc4dcdf3183756c563e3275dc82

[longbow]

They certainly do have some interesting slugs. I went to the site to check for AQ's thinking maybe this is where I saw them but apparently not.

Not sure whether it was a European distributor of BPI AQ slugs or whether it was the same slug manufactured by a European outfit but that was my impression because I remember thinking that BPI didn't come up with it, they simply bought it... not that there is anything wrong with that. If I was correct then they may still be available somewhere but I haven't turned them up again.

Anyway, there are some nice slugs there but a little pricey for plinking/target rounds. I bet several of those perform pretty well. I am a fan of the Brennekes but there are a few similar designs that look very nice too.