12 ga.2.5" bp/.72 cal. fullbore slugs?

[creatinewarrior]

i was looking to see if any of yall had any 12 gauge .72 cal slugs for black powder 2.5" or knew who sold besides all the usual places thatre sold out. Shuttlecock 450 grainers or hardcast 900 grainers, dont reckon it matters long as theyll go in a 2.5" black powder 12. Some of those .50/12 gauge sabots mighte work but theyre sold out too. i thank yall in advance

[longbow]

What about 0.735" round balls?

Lyman sells moulds and Track of the Wolf sells cast balls in 0.736".

I have good results with the full bore ball... though with smokeless but no reason it wouldn't shoot with BP. You would want to use a lubed felt wad under it with BP though.

Longbow

[creatinewarrior]

What about 0.735" round balls?

Lyman sells moulds and Track of the Wolf sells cast balls in 0.736".

I have good results with the full bore ball... though with smokeless but no reason it wouldn't shoot with BP. You would want to use a lubed felt wad under it with BP though.

Longbow

thanks i looked at wolf but became beleaguered by their many pages of bullets before i found it, and i searched .729 i think.but .736 should work.round balls will work.

[creatinewarrior]

I have a mould for .735" 605gr "collar buttons'' and have shot them from my rifled 870, but from 2-3/4" plastic hulls. I've used both smokeless and BP.

that sounds cool, are they flat, or collarbutton bullets? 605gr is fine.i can go to 900gr same load because only bp. if you want to come off of some in a couple weeks let me know.thanks.

[littlejack]

It's gonna tumbllllllllle.

[creatinewarrior]

If you're shooting a smoothbore, you'll want a roundball or a hollow based slug. My "collar button" might work out of a smoothie since its so short, but I've not tried it.

i thought of making the hollow based part so hollow it kindof acts like a shuttlecock and ill gas check it too.

[creatinewarrior]

It's gonna tumbllllllllle.

i figure i might get 30-35 yards before they keyhole. my smith has done it already and he said 35 is it. but my hunting is woods hunting,some heavy cover,right on top of you. plus the heavy slug up close will hammer a boar.

[longbow]

Those 0.735" round ball loads shot very well for me at around 3" to 4" groups at 50 yards. They did even better out of rifled gun. The groups from smoothbore start to open up not too far past 50 yards but they do pretty well considering. SOme 100 groups are pretty impressive but expect frequent fliers too.

excess650 I would like to see photos of that collar button. Where did you get it?

That would be a candidate for attached wad Brenneke style for smoothbore. That's what I am working on now and the latest design is shooting pretty well. I have the new style cast with minor mod's but no time to shoot lately.

I wouldn't be hunting with a conical from smoothbore unless it is drag stabilized because if it tumbles you will get unpredictable accuracy and results. Round balls are always pointing forward.

Longbow

[nanuk]

I recently got my hands on a Lyman .735 round ball

I'd be very happy with 4" @ 50 loads.

I want them for predator control when camping.

perhaps moose hunting in dense bush.

now to find time to cast

[longbow]

Best results I have gotten are using a plastic gas seal over the powder and hard card wad column. That gave good consistent results from my smoothbores and excellent accuracy from a rifled gun. I tried fiber cushion wads and factory wads with petals cut off with nitro card wads under the ball and got poor results. I figured the softer fiber wads would form around the ball and give it a nice ride but no. Didn't work fore me.

The hard card wad column under that 0.735" ball worked very well.

I have gone to sub bore balls now using 0.678" and 0.662" RB's in shotcups. Nitro card wad or two in the bottom of the shotcup and a scoop of COW on top then the ball. These also produce nice consistent groups of around 3" to 4" at 50 yards. The only benefit is that they are quicker and easier to load than the full bore balls.

If I had a rifled gun I would use the 0.735" ball or a full bore "square" slug.

Longbow

[longbow]

Hah! You posted while I was typing!

Why do figure the round ball would be better for penetration? The 0.735" balls weight about 575 grs. so a little lighter than your collar button... not much but a bit.

I based my round ball loads off the Precision Rifle loads for Blue Dot under their 610 gr. Piledriver slug (no longer available apparently). I did not reach their level of powder charge though. At 38 grs. of Blue Dot under that round ball in a light shotgun the recoil was about all the fun I could handle. After 30 rounds off the bench I was a bit punchy (still am I think).

I will have to go look at NEI's site for the collar button. Just curious.

Longbow

[RMc]

I have gone to sub bore balls now using 0.678" and 0.662" RB's in shotcups. ... The only benefit is that they are quicker and easier to load than the full bore balls.
Longbow

The use of .662" RB or smaller in a 12 gauge shotcup does have the advantage of precluding damage to a choked smoothbore.

[longbow]

Yes indeed. I was leaning towards full bore balls/slugs but if they are not choke friendly then that could spell problems if they ever found their way into a choked gun. No worse than different level loads for .45-70 ~ you have to know what you have and use it in the correct gun. However, I decided that if I went full bore, the slug had to be choke friendly so I messed around with hollow base slugs with very poor success in general, ribbed and vaned slugs then to sub bore in shotcups and got some pretty good results so that is the direction I went. Two main reasons: choke friendly and faster/easier to load than making up wad columns.

0.662" RB's a re a little undersize in most shotcups unless they are thick petal steel shotcups or ribbed but they can be patched or wrapped to snug fit and are conveniently 1 oz. so lots of load data around. Slightly better is the 0.678" RB which does fit most standard shotcups and is only a little over 1 oz.

This thread is about full bore slugs though so back on topic...

BP loads for a 0.735" RB should be easy. There will be a lot less wad column though so what there is may want to wrap around the ball. I use COW under the ball in shotcups to prevent that and it works very well so you might want to try it under the full bore ball especially if you only have a couple of nitro card wads under that ball. I am betting that recovered wads will show signs of wrapping around the ball if there isn't a filler to form a seat.

If you can fit a 1/2" hard card wad that should be enough but if less you might want to try a scoop of COW on top of the wad.

Longbow