12 gauge SharpShooter .680 ball and Lee 1 oz. slug loading

[johnny_xring]

107503107504107505107506105583105584105585105586OK , I have been absorbing all of the great information here. Got my Sharp Shooter USA mold for .680 balls and also the dual #4/00 buckshot one. I cast some of the .680s and used wheel weight that I water quenched (WCWW). They come out around .684 and at around 460 grains.

I shot these out of (smoothbore) 12 gauge Mossbergs, a 500 SPX and a 590. Both have good sights, especially the 500 which has the LPA sights. I could only test these at 25 yards presently but will work on the loads and longer (50 yard+) later.

Load for the balls: 5 WW12AA (old) with 21.0 grains Unique, DownRange copy of WWF114 (yellow), 1 20 gauge nitro card in shotcup and then ball, 8 fold crimp. Same for 5 with a DownRange DXL (blue) wad and 22.0 grains of Unique. The first five went out the 500, the other five went out the 590. I should have stayed with the 500 for both loads. I know these are light but I am working them up. Both wads/ball combos worked on the muzzle "slip fit" check to avoid problems. Everything else was too tight for safety. I want to increase the propellant in increments and try trimming both wad petals a little so that the balls open the fold crimp for sure before the wad does.

Lee 1 oz. slug loads were WW12 "high brass" 2 3/4" with WW F114 copy "trimmed petals" for the first five and then WW F114 copy "untrimmed" with 23.0 grains of Unique. For some reason, I only had four of these instead of five.

I am like everyone else---hardly any propellants except for the Unique, some HS6, HS7, 2400, and everything else is for rifle loading only. Cannot find anything online or anywhere else. My fault for not seeing this coming

Hopefully these pictures loaded correctly--if not I will try again.

[Hogtamer]

great start Johnnyx! Looks like the 500 is the winner. Are they both cylinder bore or is there any choke involved? In lieu of trimming wads, what does another 20 hard card in wad do as far as lifting the ball/slug up? If you can still crimp ok that will save a tedious step and perhaps be a more uniform load...

[johnny_xring]

Sorry--forgot to say that both Mossbergs are cylinder bore. The 500 has the bigger bore (I think it was around .725 and the 590 is around .720). I have a real 590A1 barrel that I got from the good people at Havlin Sales and Service but I need to put a front sight on it. It has a bigger bore than the 500 but cannot remember what it is. It is a 24 inch heavy duty mil spec with the thicker wall and bead only. May have to do some wraps for that one.

In fairness to my tests---my bench rest support was on a smooth heavy duty vinyl table top and the three leveling screws were moving around during firing. I'm going to firm up the support next test time and see if that helps. Both Mossbergs have ghost ring adjustable rears and very bright visible front sights. The aiming point was center of mass on the reduced "little guy" and both weapons were zeroed at 25 with the Winchester 1 oz RS that claims to be 1600 fps. I know my velocities are going to be lower and so the impacts should be higher up. I'll just use the same aiming point for now and sort it out later. Going to make some more up and try to test again this weekend. Will report back.

Johnnyx-ring

[pipehand]

Good job Johnnie. One thing that has helped me is using a Lee 1.3cc dipper of Cream of Wheat before seating the ball. That and the 20 gauge nitro wads really keep the plastic wad from trying to wrap around the ball. If you don't have the Lee dippers, try a .380 or 9mm case full, and see if it comes up to the correct crimp height.

[johnny_xring]

pipehand,

I have COW that I specifically got just for load testing. I will try that on top of the 20 gauge nitro card in this next batch. I know that the crimp height is going to get better with the powder charge as it increases. Nice way to adjust the ball or slug height in the load column.

[longbow]

One nitro card wad may not be enough. I usually use two or at least one + a scoop of COW.

Those wads want to get by that ball and will swage up around the spherical surface if allowed to. Many wads I have tried either crack/tear under the ball, or the gas seal fails due to lack of support from the distorted wad under the ball. A firm solid base of nitro card wads and COW prevent that.

Works for me anyway.

Longbow

[johnny_xring]

Just a quick update--I could not test the loads as stated (Memorial Day weekend) because the facility was closed due to the holiday. I have both Lee 1oz and .680 balls loaded for testing. I just measured the hardness of the Lees and the .680 balls. I made them at about the same time (three weeks ago approx.) and my alloy was about the same (water quenched WW but has some range scrap ingots mixed in). Lee 1 oz was 27BHN and the .680 ball was 18BHN. Pretty tough stuff I know and way overdone. Those both came out of the molds really hot before they hit the water. Sharp Shooter mold is aluminum also and has to be kept really hot to get them to fill nicely due to the size of the mold in order to get them to drop clean.

Plan is for all loads to go downrange this weekend.

JX

[johnny_xring]

Alternative range facility late yesterday--shot both .680 balls and Lee 1oz. Both the Downrange DXL and their clone for the F114 were used in the WW AAs and both had the petals trimmed slightly to initiate the crimp being opened by the ball and the wad shedding quickly after exiting the bore. Seems to work for both the balls and slugs. Mossberg 500 SPX cylinder bore, no choke tube at all. LPA rifle sights, no scope.

23.0 gr (weighed) Unique in the WAAs, CCI209M, with 5 trimmed DXL (blue) and 5 F114 DR clones trimmed. 1 nitro card glued in bottom of the wads and approx one 9mm case full of COW on top of nc then the ball. 8 fold crimped. These seemed to look good and held crimp nicely. I got 3 within 2 inches and then two fliers with both but the trimmed DXLs were better with two balls doubling. I will keep increasing the charge and adjust the fillers to get good crimp. They both shoot 7-8 inches above my POA (zeroed for 1600 1oz @25yds). I really like these balls so far for their ease of making and loading.

Lee 1oz slugs were loaded into WW high brass (Super X) hulls, 24.0 gr Unique, CCI209M, trimmed F114 clones, and 1 nitro card with one 9mm case full of COW on top of nc, and 8fold crimp. I had a hard time on getting a good uniform crimp on these. The column needs to come up (one more nc or more COW) for a better crimp. They shot about the same as the balls but had 2 impacts about 3 1/2 inches below the three that were in 2 inch group. That would seem to show the crimp wasn't good/uniform enough and caused some velocity difference for the vertical dispersion.

Unfortunately I could only test these @ 25yds but will keep increasing up to 26.0 of Unique and see. I would like to try some Longshot and Bluedot but--none around any sources I've used. Still got some HS7 which was supposed to be close to BD in the burn chart, and got some HS6 also. I still plan on testing @ 50 yds and even out to 100 after that if things look any better.

Photos next time (got some of these last too) from the other tests. I know the rifled barrels are good but I'm trying to utilize these smoothbores for both buck AND slug. I'd like to go down that road later ($$). Got some Lyman 525s cast last week so here comes more testing. After that then some #4 and 00 buckshot and some combos of that--awesome.

JX

[pipehand]

Johnny, sounds like you had fun. Couple of questions- why did you glue the nitro wads into the plastic wads, why the COW with the Lee slug, and have you been able to recover any of the clone wads to see if they held up well?

I tried trimming wads, but got no conclusive improvement in my cylinder choked gun, so I quit.

Looking forward to your work with the Lyman slug.

[johnny_xring]

Pipehand,

The gluing nitro cards was recommended by others beyond my ability and seemed to help keep the nitro card and wad together and separate better upon exit. The same with the trimming the petals--keeps them from impacting the target which I have noticed since I have only been able to test @25 yds. The commercial 1 oz rifled slugs do this also most every time (@ 25 yds).

The COW was to help assist in a firm foundation (recommended by lots of other posters) and a kind of adjuster to get the slugs up a little higher in the wad. Seems to work also so far. I've got to improve the 1 oz Lee height for better fold.

I want to test the Lyman 525s with another powder (Lyman shows a 23.0 Unique load) slower for a better push for that big boy. I guess the HS7 would be a reasonable choice.

JX

[johnny_xring]

OK,

Got to test the .680 ball loads and the Lee 1oz loads. The balls appear to work somewhere north of 24.0 gr of Unique. I shot the balls first from a cold, clean barrel and they started off WAY left of POA and walked back to center. Hmmm, kind of different. I then shot the 1 oz slugs and the very last group was the commercial WW Super X rifled slug that has proven to be accurate in all of my smoothbores. I think the Lees like somewhere north of 26.0 gr of Unique. They opened up @ 27.0 and the 26.0 looks good with 4 going into a good group (with the wads too).

So, this is what the Mossberg 500 SPX likes and proved safe in my shotgun (ymmv): WW12AA hull, CCI 209M, 24.0 to 25.0 gr Unique, Downrange DXL wad (blue) with the petals trimmed about 1/4 inch shorter, glued in 1 X 20 gauge nitro card, and .680 ball (460 gr average) and fold crimp. The Lee 1 oz were in WW Super X High Brass hulls, 25.0-27.0 gr Unique, Downrange clone of the WW F114 wad (yellow) trimmed about 1/4 inch shorter, 2 X 20 gauge nitro cards with the bottom one glued in. I used the nitro cards only (tried to use COW again but-) because I could not get a sufficient column for a good crimp. The balls like 1 nitro card, the slugs like 2. I recovered some of the wads and they were TRASHED. It is evident they are getting a real hard impact because the nitro cards were retained and had the drive key slot engraved into them. I think 26.0 or 26.5 (I'll try both) is about equal to the accuracy of the WW commercial slugs. I understand the Lightfields and Brenneke are the best slugs for smoothbores but I don't have any. I have a LOT of the WWs. The .680 ball loads are happy around 24.0 to 25.0 and it looks like they open up from 25.0. I have seen other people going up to 31.0 grains of Unique with the Lee 7/8 oz but this barrel seems to like these 1 oz staying around here better. The recoil is below the WWs which are pretty stout for a 2 3/4 slugs. I want to chronograph everything but I'll have to armor up the chrono with plastic (wads can be brutal). I'm having trouble uploading the photos so will work on them and repost.

JX

[johnny_xring]

107544107545107546107547107548107549

I think I finally got these photos uploaded. I'm going to check a little more as previously stated but here is where I'm at for now.

JX108628108629108631108632108633

[johnny_xring]

Hope the photo uploads--this is a tame load compared to other stuff worked up with other posters. I still need to check these out at longer distances (I want to, just can't get the range or range time) and pop them for speed on the chronograph.

Anyway-used the Winchester Super X "high brass", CCI 209Ms, the Downrange clone of WW F114 wad with the tops of the petals trimmed by 1/4 inch, (2) two .125 nitro cards (bottom one glued in) below the Lee 1 oz. The charge that works in the Mossberg 500 SPX is 25.7 grains of Unique. This is an 18 inch "ported" barrel cylinder bore, no choke or choke tubes. It shoots the 9 pellets/00 buckshot "antipersonnel" load in @ 15 yards as good anything else with same length/cylinder bore.

Still got to work on the .680 ball load for this platform and also test in the Mossberg 590. I can't shoot the slug/wad combos in the stock barrel but will try the longer (and heavier walled) 590A1 barrel. Stock barrel will shoot the .680 balls safely with the Downrange DXL and the F114 clone. The ball loading seems to open up with over 24.0 gr Unique in the 500. I'll experiment in the 590 and tweak the load. I promise to test at longer range(s)--it is kind of a drive.108619I had to shoot these kind of fast (losing good light and we wanted to shut down the noise at the range).
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