Shotgun mold

[Dales66Ford]

Has anyone ever tried to take a piece of sawed off barrel to make a full diameter slug mold? I seem to remember seeing something online about a guy making a slug mold with a small length of barrel and a nut epoxied on one end with a bolt going into the mold to make a hollow cavity and to get the slug out of the mold.

[razerok1]

If the slug is the diameter of the bore when the slug is fired and the shell folds open wouldn't the slug iron the plastic shell smooth inside your bore?? Not sure if I explained that correctly but I don't think it would work. Also if you could get it to work how accurate would the slug be without a rifled barrel?

[longbow]

Yes, you can use a piece of barrel or bore out a chunk of steel to make a bore size slug but you do have to be careful with full bore slugs as shotgun barrels are thin and a solid slug that is a few thou oversize is not going to squeeze down without some argument. That could cause a large pressure spike. Lube grooves, knurling or hollow base is the safest way to run full bore slugs without excess pressure, in my opinion anyway.

If you used a piece of barrel from the gun the slug is to be shot from then it should be fine but yes, if shot from a smoothbore any solid slug that is not drag stabilized will tumble and not be accurate. Also, epoxy wouldn't last one use.

Since the hull and chamber are larger than the bore there is no problem using a bore size slug. It won't "iron out" the hull. A solid bore size slug will "iron out" or split a choke though if shot through one.

Typical Foster type slugs are hollow base like a shuttlecock and then there are the Brenneke style with attached wad. Both types are drag stabilized and can shoot reasonable accurately from smoothbores. Both types are typically designed to squeeze through chokes.

I have to ask though, if you want a slug why not just buy a Lee Drive Key slug mould for about $25.00? They are so cheap it isn't worth messing about making something from a piece of barrel unless you have no access to a Lee mould. They are not quite bore size though. They are designed to drop into a shotcup which makes for easy loading as well. In fact many people just buy factory loaded shotshells, open the crimp, dump out the shot, melt it down and make Lee Slugs then drop the Lee slug back into the shotshell. While a bit crude they work and you do not need a bunch of reloading gear to make a few slug loads... and more importantly they are safe in any gun because the Lee is hollow base so will fit through a choke.

If you are bent on making your own slug mould the simplest is like the old Ideal Cylindrical Moulds (do an internet search). They are about as simple a mould as you can make. I have several I have made for slugs and boolits of various sizes.

Longbow

Longbow

[Y-man]

I did this some years ago. It worked too.

Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWLYKJG1-W0

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/02/05/guest-post-the-saga-of-the-nigerian-shotgunner-part-4/

[OnHoPr]

Interesting, instead of using a barrel why don't you use a choke tube. You can get them darn near any size diameter for your constriction or use the same size choke to form and for your barrel.

[Dales66Ford]

Y-man, that was the video i was saw a while back. I am looking at getting a lee slug mold in the future, not sure which size yet. Liked the "outside the box" idea though.

[Y-man]

Dale, of course I have long moved ahead from all those shenanigans :-)
I got me a Lyman 525gr 12g mold on my trip to the US, and it has PROMISE! (I also got a good BPI Roll Crimper...)

I am getting much better performance from simply pouring out the shot from birdshot shells, and reloading with same weight in Lyman slugs inside the wads (NOT bore size as one would get from a "Barrel mold"). Getting good accuracy out to 115feet (38yards)

Check this out ->

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/09/13/y-man-finally-moment-slugs-stock/

[turbo1889]

I've seen it done using an appropriately sized socket (as in used with a ratchet handle to undscrew nuts and bolts) with a square rod inserted into the drive end at a set depth to form a square shaped hollow base and the resulting **** is either six sided hex shape or twelve point star shape with the points riding on the inside of the bore and squeezing down easily in the forcing cone and choke constrictions.

You basically use a socket with a flat inside (to form a flat base on the resulting slug, not all brands of sockets have a flat bottom to them) where straight across the points of the socket measure a little over bore diameter for the guage of gun your making the slug for and the square drive size of the socket (1/4", 3/8", or 1/2" whichever is the right size for the size of the slug to make a decent hollow base with decent wall thicknesses on the skirt) and take a length of that size square rod and mount it in a vice straight up and down sticking up the right amount and then you put the socket over it with the open side up and the square drive end down over the square rod with the square rod sticking up into the bottom of the socket to form a hollow base and then pore a measured portion of molten lead in the top of the socket with a dipper and as soon as it hardens you pull the socket up off the vise base with a pair of pliers and knock it against to bench to get the slug to drop out which will be flat nosed with a little bit of rounding on the edges due to the surface tension of the lead and either 6 or 12 point star ridges on the sides with a square hollow base.

Easiest way to get all the slugs to weight the same is to melt the lead for each cast in the dipper itself over a propane torch and have big hunks of lead pre-cast as pre-measures (three 45-acp boolits cast from a real mold for example). And you also use the propane torch to pre-heat the socket mold as well.

It's slow and you can only make a handful of good slugs in an hour but it does work and is one of the best ways to make a choke safe slug because the 6 or 12 star points formed by the socket do squeeze down in a choked gun just like a commercial rifled slug.

Hardest part is finding just the right socket to use. Go to a pawn shop that has buckets of used sockets for sale where you dig through the bucket with a set of calipers in your hand measuring promising sockets with flat inside bottoms and the right size square drive across the inside points until you find a few that are promising and then pay a buck or so a socket for a handful of promising ones and try them out. For guns below 16ga. size you want to try to find a 12 point socket that will work otherwise you start running into problems with the square drive size being too big to make a good hollow base that isn't too thin in the skirt at some points. Doesn't work for 410-bore unless you absolutely use a 12 point socket and grind the corners down on the 1/4" square rod where it forms the hollow base to be 1/4" round otherwise the skirt comes out too thin and won't even fill out much less hold up during firing. Works good for a make-shift plan for anything from 8ga. to 28ga. though being sure to go with a 12 points socket for anything smaller then 16ga. just using the square rod as is so long as you get the appropriate drive size to make an appropriate hollow base.

One of these days I should make a video of the socket selection and casting process and post it on u-tube since its a good trick for a "make do" solution. Can't claim its my original idea though, someone else showed it to me a long time ago and he used it to make himself up a few slug loads every once in a while cast from bird shot since he was mainly a bird gun guy.

[Hogtamer]

Ingenious! I'd love to see that video!

[Dales66Ford]

There is a youtube video of someone using a socket to make slugs already

[Garyshome]

Just buy a Lee slug mold, they are cheap and easy to make. Don't be blowin' up your shotty for something silly!!!!

[UNIQUEDOT]

I've used a length of barrel as well as choke tubes in the past, but I've also always had a slug mold as well and did it just to tinker around. You need to make sure you know your bore diameter before playing around with stuff like this though.

[kostner]

I use the Lee 1 oz slug mold and it works great make perfect slugs and doesn't cost a leg or arm. Midway has them in stock.