bikerbeans
12-15-2013, 02:12 PM
I am currently working a 58cal Huntsman MZ that I had converted to a 24ga rifled slug gun. I will post about this gun conversion later (once I can get some pics and verify it is going to shoot decently).
I have become a recent convert to the "hard" wad column theory to support shot gun slugs. I have had very good success (including a dead deer) shooting 12ga 600g HB slugs, that have been heat treated. These are some very hard slugs and I am shooting them out of fully rifled barrel.
I tried this same theory on my 24ga slug loading and the accuracy at 25 yards wouldn't be acceptable for buckshot. I was using a 360g minie ball cast form air cooled WW lead, that was over bore diameter, would drop down the muzzle end. I didn't recover any slugs that could help answer by questions about the skirt but I got to thinking, never a good thing, about shooting minies out of a MZ.
With a MZ and minie ball there isn't any real support under the base of the minie which allows hot gases to enter the HB and help expand the projectile into the rifling. Minie are generally cast from close to pure lead so the boolit is very soft. Also, a BP Muzzleloader operates at a higher pressure than a shotgun.
It is clear to me that shooting a minie or HB slug on a hard wad column has the effect of concentrating the force of the combustion on just the skirt of the boolit, which in my mind, will increase the chances of skirt failure. So my thought is if a very soft lead minie can be shot accurately without any wad column and at a higher pressure that found in a shotgun, why wouldn't it work in a shotgun slug?
I appreciate any and all input on this. I am going to start testing this theory once the weather warms up a tad.
BB
I have become a recent convert to the "hard" wad column theory to support shot gun slugs. I have had very good success (including a dead deer) shooting 12ga 600g HB slugs, that have been heat treated. These are some very hard slugs and I am shooting them out of fully rifled barrel.
I tried this same theory on my 24ga slug loading and the accuracy at 25 yards wouldn't be acceptable for buckshot. I was using a 360g minie ball cast form air cooled WW lead, that was over bore diameter, would drop down the muzzle end. I didn't recover any slugs that could help answer by questions about the skirt but I got to thinking, never a good thing, about shooting minies out of a MZ.
With a MZ and minie ball there isn't any real support under the base of the minie which allows hot gases to enter the HB and help expand the projectile into the rifling. Minie are generally cast from close to pure lead so the boolit is very soft. Also, a BP Muzzleloader operates at a higher pressure than a shotgun.
It is clear to me that shooting a minie or HB slug on a hard wad column has the effect of concentrating the force of the combustion on just the skirt of the boolit, which in my mind, will increase the chances of skirt failure. So my thought is if a very soft lead minie can be shot accurately without any wad column and at a higher pressure that found in a shotgun, why wouldn't it work in a shotgun slug?
I appreciate any and all input on this. I am going to start testing this theory once the weather warms up a tad.
BB