Slugs in a auto?

[Bullshop Junior]

Hey guys. I've been shooting a old remington I think model 11 sportsman auto 20 ga. I enjoy shooting slugs. Is it safe to shoot slugs out of it as long as they slide through the choke easy? They would be hand loaded not factory.

[AlaskanGuy]

Hey Jr...

I shoot them all the time out of a auto12g.... It all depends on the slug your using???? Is it a key type from lee?? Or something that is to go wadless.. Also, both of my auto's are shortened, with cylinder choke, or improved.. Soft lead is meant to be swaged down a bit... What are you casting yours with?? If these are factory slugs, I cant help ya.....

AG

[Bullshop Junior]

I don't have a mold yet. This is a longer barrel with a modified choke. I wanted to ask before I tried to get a mold. I was thinking te lee would fit my needs

[longbow]

I don't think Lee makes a 20 ga. mould. They didn't a while ago anyway.

20 ga. seems to be gaining in popularity on the slug front but mostly rifled with full bore slugs from what I have seen.

Lyman makes their Foster design and sabot slug in 20 ga. but I understand the sabot slug is not too good from smoothbore and in my experience, the Lyman Foster design is poor for several reasons: much undersize (in 12 ga. anyway), too thin skirt, too thin nose. If the 20 ga. casts to reasonable fit to bore then the hollow base pin could be modified to give a thicker nose and skirt. Paper patching can work to bring the slug up to bore size if it is under. I have done that with my 12 ga. Foster mould. That did help accuracy.

Not sure what other slug options there are for smoothbore 20 ga. except round balls. Again, haven't done it with 20 ga. but I find that round balls in shotcups give quite good accuracy from 12 ga. if the ball fits well and has a nitro card wad or two under it.

Take a look through the 20 ga. posts and I am sure you will find some info on round balls both bore size and in shotcups. As long as the ball/shotcup combo fits through the choke without shearing petals it should work quite well and Lee 0.60" or 0.610" round ball moulds should suit and are inexpensive.

FWIW

Longbow

[jmsj]

Jr,
I like Longbow's suggestion.
My go to slug load out of my Remington 11/87P w/ fixed IC choke (.717) is a .662 round ball (1 oz.), 12S3 or wad (IIRC) going 1350 fps.
The ball/wad fit is good and it shoots minute of milk jug @ 20 yds every time if I do my part. I have not had any kind of failure out of about 100 rounds.
This is not a super hot round, I made them to let my wife and daughter learn to shoot slugs. We sometimes have bear problems around here and this looked like a good load to get them started. It has worked so well that it is our HD load. We do not have to worry about over penetration as we live in an old adobe house and the walls are a measured 24"-30" thick plus firring and a layer of sheetrock on both sides. I figured (always suspect) at "in the house distances" it would be powerful enough for the size bears we have here and allow for quick follow up shots.
I have not loaded for a 20 ga.semi-auto but I would imagine that a similar load could be worked up.
Good luck, jmsj

[AlaskanGuy]

Yes, your right longbow.... Lee doesnt make one... Which leaves a round ball, or a lyman foster slug or a lyman sabot slug.... Lyman makes both those in 20g.... And I think that Josh from A.C.E, otherwise known as 338remultramag made a bore rider slug for smooth bore 20, but it might have trouble with a modified choke... Might wanna check with him....

AG

[Bullshop Junior]

I don't want something super heavy. Pigs are not that big. I was thinking there if they had one or a round ball.

[jmort]

Ajay's thread is now on page 9 and this is perfect for what you want. A .575 DC Lee Mold around $20. Here is part of his thread, near the end. If you load 20 gauge read his thread backwards as that is where most of the 20 gauge info is located. Published data indicates up to 25 grains of Universal Clays and 20 grains of International Clays for a 286 grain ball. I deleted data as I can't find much data for the .575 ball other than the two I listed.

[tomme boy]

Don't use ANY of those loads that AJAY posted in a shotgun other than the Savage bolt gun. They are WAY!!!!! over PSI for normal guns. I am glad he is not posting those loads anymore because if someone didn't read the whole thread they might be wearing the gun. I even told him and was ignored.

[bikerbeans]

I've had problems back in the 1990s shooting factory slugs (fosters & sabots) with two different autoloaders. Both guns (japanese Weatherby & 1100 Rem) were made in the 1970s and the higher pressure factory slugs caused problems. 2 3/4" Rem Sluggers (1 oz) destroyed the slide on the Weatherby after only a few shots, this gun was a skeet gun with an open choke. The 1100 (factory rifled slug barrel) kept loosing the "o" rings after only a few shots and became the infamous 1100 Single Shot. After a couple of trips back to Remington the gun still wouldn't work with slugs or sabots so the problem was solved by upgrading to a Beretta autoloader.

BB

[W.R.Buchanan]

BSJr: in you Rem 11 which works the same way as a Browning Auto 5 there is the bronze ring around the mag tube that has to be set for either light loads or heavy loads..

I am setting my A5 up for three gun shoots, and need to be able to shoot slugs buckshot and normal #8 shot interchangeably. Also I don't want to be shooting a bunch of **** kicker slugs simply because they are hard on the gun and more so on me.

The solution was to get a round ball from Lyman. I got a .665 mould which drops WW material at .662. 422 gr. These ballz go directly into my existing Trap Loads. Same powder charge, same WAA12 wad, but a 20 ga. 1/4" thick felt cushion wad and then the ball on top. The crimp closes just like it does on the normal shot load.

The gun doesn't know the difference since it thinks it is firing normal 1 OZ loads. So you can leave the gun setup for light loads all the time. Recoil is mild and accuracy is excellent out to 50-60 yards.

I shoot these out of a Mossberg 500 with a 20" bbl right now. It is Cylinder Bore. My A5 will be Cylinder Bore as well as soon as I cut the barrel off to 20".

If you were to trim the petals on the wads back to where they are just behind the ball it would have no problem going thru a Modified Choke.

Just and idea for you to look at,,, and the pigs will definitely feel it when you connect.

Randy