2 slug gun questions

[mattd]

My dad bought a cheap single shot 20g when he was young so he could go deer hunt/have fun with this buddies. both of our first deer rifles, and neither of us got one with it...... yet. he's gone now, and I refinished it and measured the muzzle. turns out its full choke. we always shot foster slugs out of it with good results.

Is there a foster type mold? Is there another design that can pass thru a fill choke?

Do the lee loaders that periodically come up on the S&S forum reload slugs?

Thanks!

[longbow]

I haven't done much with 20 ga. slugs in about 40 years. I had a 20 ga. I cut a barrel down for slugs back then and got a Lyman Foster slug mould.

They are still available through BPI:

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Lyman-20ga-Foster-Slug-Mould/productinfo/1244020/

I do not think there are any other 20 ga. Foster slug moulds commercially available. I would not recommend the Lyman sabot slug for smoothbore or full choke use.

Not sure with the 20 ga. Foster as I do not recall dimensions mine cast and back then I was just lobbing lead so little finesse. Many years later I got into 12 ga. slugs and got a Lyman Foster slug mould. It cast to 0.705" for a nominal 0.729" bore which = pretty sloppy fit. It never did shoot well for me in 12 ga. until I paper patched to suit the bore and that seemed to help some. In all honesty, I have had much better accuracy using round balls in my 12 ga... cylinder bore though.

With a choked gun you can still use round balls in shot cups a long as they are no more than about 0.003" over choke diameter inside the shotcup. There are a few threads about using round balls in 20 ga. if you search.

If you want to pursue the Foster slug, cast them from pure soft lead and use a solid card wad under to help slug them up to bore size. Like I said, I never did get very good accuracy from my 12 ga. Foster. Factory Foster slugs yes, home cast, no.

Yes, Lee loaders can be used to load slugs.

Search around here a bit before you start buying things, there is lots to learn and lots of good advice.

Longbow

[Hogtamer]

575 round balls in a shot cup would do it, would buy a box of pure lead swaged balls first to try. No. 3 buck is deadly to 35 yds, especially out of that full choke. Not exactly an answer to your specific question but something to think about.

[Nix]

Longbow is correct; Lyman makes an excellent 20G fost slug mould and the Lee Load-All II does indeed do slugs. Not sure if I'd run a slug through a full choke barrel though, foster or otherwise.

[longbow]

I am with Nix there. While the Foster should swage through a full choke without damage to the gun, it is not likely do do anything good for accuracy. Also, a full choke barrel implies that it has a bead front sight and no rear sight which also does nothing for accuracy. I know many have used only a bead front sight and the smoothbore musket shooters will talk about good accuracy with only a front sight but... having a decent front sight and rear sight is a good thing. If you keep ranges short then you should get by without a dedicated slug barrel.

More of a perception than anything but it bothers me to think of that slug pounding into a choke on every shot whether the gun feels the same way or not. I mostly use cylinder bore or my Browning BPS I/C slug and buck barrel for slugs.

Like I said though the Foster was designed to swage through a choke so you have no safety concerns at least if you use pure soft lead. What you are not likely to get is good penetration with that thin walled/nosed soft slug so again short range is best.

Good luck.

Longbow

[mattd]

It actually has a rear sight. A notch ground into the receiver! By the factory btw, not bubba. The factory Winchester fosters have those fins molded into them. That’s kinda what I was expecting, but I guess the idea with the lyman is the hollow body can smash down, which really means deform and I can see where that might not be consistent and not accurate. Factory ammo is 2-3” at 50y, or better. Maybe the fins deform more consistently, and the solid body might penetrate more.

[longbow]

The ribs on factory Fosters are very shallow and do not do a lot except possibly to reduce bore friction a little. In fact the Lyman Foster moulds used to have a companion rifling tool no longer available. My suspicion is that when the rifling was swaged onto the smooth slug the diameter increase closer to bore size. Regardless it is the same slug.

In soft lead the smooth slug will obturate and fill the bore. I recovered many from deep wet soft snow and they were much shorter and fatter than they started out. They will swage through a choke safely as well. The biggest problem is that unless they have a very solid wad column, they tend to tip and slug up unevenly which is what I found with recovered slugs. If the nose is cocked they do not fly well.

The body is not solid and they will not penetrate well if cast from soft lead but they will not obturate properly if cast from hard alloy.

I think you can buy pre-cast slugs from BPI. If not try turbo1889, he seems to cast quite a variety of slugs.

Alternately the round ball in shotcup is not a bad solution. The solid ball will penetrate and accuracy can be quite good. I expect 3" to 4" groups at 50 yards with my 12 ga. and good loads.

Longbow