Which powder for heavy slugs?

[Blood Trail]

I finally got around in making lube for my 770grs (1 3/4 oz) slugs. I've been looking at established load data for that weight (in shot) all morning. Here's the powders I have for 1 3/4 oz loads:

800X
SR 4756
Blue Dot
Steel
Longshot

I'll be using 3 inch clear Fiocchi and federal 3 in drylok and regular steel shot hulls.

I loaded a 'test' round with 31 grs of longshot, x12x gas seal, 3/8 waxed card, and felt wad under slug.

Looks like this:
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160403/07e1ea898229cfba41317a31bad8a53f.jpg


Which powder would you start out with?

[6pt-sika]

Nice looking slug !

Did it come from an Accurate Mold ? Also is it hollow base ?

[GRUMPA]

For my 525gr slugs I use nothing but B-Dot which works rather well..

[jmort]

You will find published data for Blue Dot. Steel will work well, but you will need to do some load development. Look through hebel458's thread 12gauge from H*** and the is some good info on Steel.

[w5pv]

Good luck and be careful

[Cap'n Morgan]

I have only tried Blue Dot and Steel from the list. Blue Dot gave me rather inconsistent results with slug loads at 1-1/4 ounce and lighter, but good results with heavy (1-7/8 ounce) shot loads. Your 1-3/4 ounce slugs should work well with BD. Steel will work too, but you should probably use magnum primers to ensure reliable ignition.

[6pt-sika]

To each his own . I personally use SR7625 or SR4756 in everything from the 10-28 gauge be it bird shot buckshot or slug . When that stuff is used up it'll be 100% Green Dot , Universal Clays and Unique .

[Blood Trail]

To each his own . I personally use SR7625 or SR4756 in everything from the 10-28 gauge be it bird shot buckshot or slug . When that stuff is used up it'll be 100% Green Dot , Universal Clays and Unique .

4756 is one that I'll try. The rest you listed burns a little too fast.

[jmort]

Not sure why you asked, but Longshot, Blue Dot, and Steel are all "slower" and better suited to what you want to do as opposed to 4756, the worst choice, well actually in a tie with 800X as the worst choice.

[Blood Trail]

Not sure why you asked, but Longshot, Blue Dot, and Steel are all "slower" and better suited to what you want to do as opposed to 4756, the worst choice, well actually in a tie with 800X as the worst choice.

That's exactly why I asked. [emoji6]

I've got published data for 1 3/4 oz with both 800X and 4756.

[hubel458]

WE got 1900 plus with 730gr slug and 90 gr 4759. 3" cases Get rid of wads and

go to a really slower powder in larger amounts, Just a bpgs seal, thin 1/4" white felt and slug.

About 85gr 4759.. absolutely no less than 70.Ed

[longbow]

Not a criticism of Ed's loads and results as he is in a league well beyond mine. However, I do not intend to be shooting 90 grs. of powder with every trigger pull for normal "plinking". I may get adventurous and try some of Ed's speedy loads one day but when I go out and shoot 50 rounds or so I don't want to have to get a bank loan for powder. For sure if I was looking for something to put some hurt on a big bad critter I would be looking at Ed's loads.

Like jmort and Grumpa, I have had good results with Blue Dot under slugs from 1 oz. to over 800 grs.

4756 was recommended to me but I have not found it to be as good as Blue Dot in any loads I have tried so far. It seems to be harder on wads and recoils more for similar load/velocity and I am not venturing into hot load territory. Having said that, I have not chronographed to compare what should be similar loads using the different powders. Maybe the 4756 is producing higher pressure and velocity in which case I could dial it back a bit.

I will say that with lighter slugs, Blue Dot seems to like to be loaded in fairly heavy charges or there is unburned powder left in the barrel. 4756 may be a better choice there but for me I still like Blue Dot.

Different strokes.

Longbow

[jmort]

I will see If I can dig up some data for your Blue Dot, Longshot and Steel. I thought you were looking for powder "opinions" not load data. I still have some 4759 and that makes some crazy power using the load development that hubel458 did. If you look at his thread there is also data for Steel and RL 17 as I recall.

[bikerbeans]

BT,

I am looking forward to your test results. I have a 730g 12ga HB mold headed my way plan to use blue dot and 4759. My loads will be in the 1200 fps range as my gun is fairly light.

I have shot +700 grain 12ga slugs with 4759 at charges pushing 90 grains. You need a heavy gun for these loads, the 9.5 pound H&R USH i was using was kinda light for the task.

Good luck,

BB

[6pt-sika]

4756 is one that I'll try. The rest you listed burns a little too fast.

Velocity doesn't intrest me as much as pressure . The majority of what I load for shotgun wise anymore are Damascus or twist steel so I like to keep velocities in the 1100 range and pressures as low as possible .

[Blood Trail]

BT,

I am looking forward to your test results. I have a 730g 12ga HB mold headed my way plan to use blue dot and 4759. My loads will be in the 1200 fps range as my gun is fairly light.

I have shot +700 grain 12ga slugs with 4759 at charges pushing 90 grains. You need a heavy gun for these loads, the 9.5 pound H&R USH i was using was kinda light for the task.

Good luck,

BB

90 grs of anything in a plastic hull sounds downright insane. Wonder what the pressure is on that? [emoji23]

My two guns of choice are my Mossy 835 fully rifled barrel topped with 3-9x40mm Cabela's brand slug scope.

The other is an USH topped with a Bushnell From Dusk till Dawn 3-9x33mm (i think).

I might throw in my smoothbore mossy 500 to see how they do out of it.

I was thinking 33 grs of Longshot and 40 grs of Blue Dot.

What do y'all think? Too low? High?

[hubel458]

We had the 90 gr loads of 4759, 3" case,lab tested and peak pressure was
like magnum turkey- goose loads. I know hard to believe.

But for everyday shooting can go lighter, You can go 4759
with 70 gr, no less and peak pressures will be like mild skeet loads
but you'll still have more speed than factory foster slugs, and 100 loads
per lb of powder.

I like 4759 better than any shotgun powder Why? Well We had guy, it
is in 12ga FH thread, with loads in sabots, spread all over the paper with Steel,
changed to using much more of the 4759 and group tightened up great.
Killed deer fine. Ed

[Greg5278]

IMR 4756 and 800X are going to be too fast, unless You keep the Velocity around 1100 FPS. Blue Dot and Steel will work, but can be hard to ignite, especialy in cold Weather. Steel requires a Federal 209 Primer. Longshot is a bit fast for my taste. IMR n4759, 4227, VVN105, and Lil Gun would be better.
Greg
AKA 12 Bore

[Blood Trail]

IMR 4756 and 800X are going to be too fast, unless You keep the Velocity around 1100 FPS. Blue Dot and Steel will work, but can be hard to ignite, especialy in cold Weather. Steel requires a Federal 209 Primer. Longshot is a bit fast for my taste. IMR n4759, 4227, VVN105, and Lil Gun would be better.
Greg
AKA 12 Bore

Never thought of using pistol powder for shotgun.

BTw, I flagged your post as inappropriate by accident. Meant to hit quote instead.

[runfiverun]

I got you covered.
I see the reported post and will take care of it.

but since I'm here.
pistol powders and shot shell powder are overlapping co-existing powders that are designed to work at lower pressures.
2400 was developed for the 22 hornet but has since made the jump to shot shell and pistol uses.
why? because of it's stability and burn rate falling within the window needed to burn well and propel the weight on top of it without going 'ballistic' while creating gas volume.
Steel should work pretty well.
it'll propel some pretty heavy loads without going silly either and does light well in the cold unlike blue-dot, I too use a magnum primer with it [just always have] because it seemed more consistent.
going slower from there would allow more powder volume and velocity.

[Greg5278]

Some Slow Pistol Powders work well in the Shotgun. The only one that I know personally to never use in 12 ga is H110. It had a Flame out, then reignited and opened the Action on my Gun. Lil Gun is in the same Powder Series as Primex 513, which is excellent. Most of the Big Ammo Companies are using some of the Primex in their Slug, Buck and Steel Loads. As far as Reloaders can get, Lil Gun works well with IMR 4759 being discontinued.
Greg
AKA 12 Bore

[Blood Trail]

I know I interchange my pistol powder (.44 mag) with my 12 (blue dot, unique, 4756, etc) but never thought to use 2400 or lil gun, much less rl17.

That's why I love this place. [emoji1474]

I'll start with BlueDot and steel.

Any ideas on charges? I was gonna look at load data for similar payload weight and go from there (unless someone has walk a path similar).

I'll think I'll add 4756 in there for craps and giggles.

[bikerbeans]

.... thinking 33 grs of Longshot and 40 grs of Blue Dot.

What do y'all think? Too low? High?

BT,

I haven't tried longshot for slugs, but I have burnt a lot of Blue dot pushing fullbore slugs. I am thinking 40g of BD is probably at or over max for a 770g slug. If it were me I would start in the lower 30 grain range.

BB

[Blood Trail]

BT,

I haven't tried longshot for slugs, but I have burnt a lot of Blue dot pushing fullbore slugs. I am thinking 40g of BD is probably at or over max for a 770g slug. If it were me I would start in the lower 30 grain range.

BB

Note taken. I remember when I was messing around with the triball load, James called for 28 grs of BD for slightly over 2 oz of lead.

Thanks for the reminder, BB!

I'll start around 28-30 grs of BD.

[Hogtamer]

BT, I recalled a progression table that Turbo worked up (he disappeared but was a fount of knowledge) that showed a relationship of blue dot to steel, among others. It showed that for a given load of blue dot one could safely use that plus 2 grns of Steel. You'll have to search to find it but In working up some of my loads I referenced some steel shot loads in a lyman manual that basically confirmed this. Now someone may have a cautionary note but steel shot shotcups are really a solid column as the wads have no crush section. I have used that theory in several loads to no ill effect. To the point I'm confident that if a load is appropriate for 32 grns blue dot I could safely use 32 grns of Steel powder and in fact can go a couple grns higher. This is of course anecdotal and not pressure tested so do your homework. And the resulting targets show me that the equivalent Steel loads impact 2 - 3" higher @ 100 yds with the same slug. Most recently with 1 1/2 oz. slugs. BTW, and this is totally unrelated, but I'm not sure my PM messages are getting out. I'm going to send you a pm and if you get it please reply. Thx.

[Blood Trail]

BT, I recalled a progression table that Turbo worked up (he disappeared but was a fount of knowledge) that showed a relationship of blue dot to steel, among others. It showed that for a given load of blue dot one could safely use that plus 2 grns of Steel. You'll have to search to find it but In working up some of my loads I referenced some steel shot loads in a lyman manual that basically confirmed this. Now someone may have a cautionary note but steel shot shotcups are really a solid column as the wads have no crush section. I have used that theory in several loads to no ill effect. To the point I'm confident that if a load is appropriate for 32 grns blue dot I could safely use 32 grns of Steel powder and in fact can go a couple grns higher. This is of course anecdotal and not pressure tested so do your homework. And the resulting targets show me that the equivalent Steel loads impact 2 - 3" higher @ 100 yds with the same slug. Most recently with 1 1/2 oz. slugs. BTW, and this is totally unrelated, but I'm not sure my PM messages are getting out. I'm going to send you a pm and if you get it please reply. Thx.

HT,

I got your PM. It's work my way. Wished I'd checked this msg before I started but I got a 4 month old and gotta fit it in when I can. Lol. This is what I loaded up of the following:

Reloading Slug Data
Group A:
-28.4 gr Blue Dot
-x12x gas seal
-1/2" hard card wad
-1/4 felt wad
Group B:
-28.4 gr Blue Dot
-flex seal
-1/2" hard card wad
-1/4" felt wad
Group C:
-33 grs of Steel
-x12x
-1/2" hard wax card
-1/4" felt wad
Group D:
-33 gr of Steel
-flex seal
-1/2" hard wax card
-1/4" felt wad

My hulls are 3" Rio and Fiocchi. I labeled the brass A-D to keep track of the components.

I loaded 6 a piece of each group. I plan on checking groups thru my USH and 835 (3 each). I'll chrono each load.

The only thing I changed besides the powder, was the gas seals. I went with an x12x and a mirror load with the flex seals.

The shells with the x12x have very deep roll crimp. The flex seal was a little shallow on the roll crimp than the x12x, but still really nice, deep crimps.


Here is a see-thru on the loads:

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/355ebd09073712ae78fb645553c2845e.jpg

Difference in roll crimps:

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/7b7c6e6e9e4d73c01ad10548a5978c82.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/df4dca329c53da77cf2a51ad30277cff.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160405/b1d4d9c735ab0f845eea0c41d5acc80f.jpg

[bikerbeans]

Time to make some noise!

BB

[cpileri]

what did you lube them with?
C-

[Greg5278]

Looks like NRA or 50/50 Lube to Me.
CRC Marine Corrosion Inhibitor works as a Trail Spray on Alox for those not wanting to Dip Lube.
It's not quite as good as Pan Lubing, but does give a fairly hard coat after a few Applications.
G
AKA 12 Bore

[Blood Trail]

what did you lube them with?
C-

1 lb of bee's wax
10 oz of Vaseline
Couple tablespoons of STP oil treatment
A little paraffin as well

Note to Mod:
I again submitted a post for inappropriate content by mistake AGAIN! I think Tapatalk changed some function keys around. Sorry.

[duckey]

Had good results with Green dot. I put together some slug loads using 50 cal .370 gn maxi balls in a Blue BPI sabot cup over the RS12 (I think?) gas seal. decent group at 50 yards.

[Blood Trail]

Had good results with Green dot. I put together some slug loads using 50 cal .370 gn maxi balls in a Blue BPI sabot cup over the RS12 (I think?) gas seal. decent group at 50 yards.

I load RS12 blue sabots too. However, this is a whole different ball game.

[bikerbeans]

For rifled shotgun barrels I tumble lube fullbore slugs with 75% JPW and 25% lee liquid alox. For my smooth bore "Tens" I usually don't lube the FB slugs.

BB

[cpileri]

Cool BT thanks for the recipe.

After trying the CRC corrosion inhibitor, I noticed it looks exactly (when dried) as AMSOIL's Heavy Duty Metal Protector. So I tried it as well. Spray, let dry in the sun, spray again maybe.
Seems to work well.

also, been powdering the corrosion inhibitor-lubed slugs with a coat of hBN just to see.

Not sure I have any good comparative data to share since they all seem to work for leading.

Maybe that can be another future project for me: accuracy w identical loads but differing lube concotions.

beans, you do NOT lube your 10ga smoothebore slugs?

C-

[bikerbeans]

-C,

I forgeo to lube the 10ga slugs once and didn't notice leading. Being a lazy fellow I just keep "forgetting" to lube them.

BB

[Blood Trail]

Just got back from the range. Will post results shortly b


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[More_Slugs]

Just got back from the range. Will post results shortly b


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey BT, what were your results?

I'm trying to put together the same. I have a custom mold made replicating the Dixie IXL-DGS slug @ 1.75oz, before any components are added.

I too only have B-Dot, Steel, and Longshot. I'd prefer to use Longshot since I have significantly more, it's easy for me to get and costs less than the other 2.

Thanks!

[lawdog941]

46 grains of Lil Gun will get you around 1299fps for a 1.75oz, 3 in load. Just have to work on your column height.

[More_Slugs]

46 grains of Lil Gun will get you around 1299fps for a 1.75oz, 3 in load. Just have to work on your column height.

I appreciate the information!

[pipehand]

800X is my best Lyman 525 wad slug powder. I had heard it was discontinued. Anything heavier, Blue Dot has been my go to powder, up to 945 grain payload.
I haven't ever tried Steel or Longshot.

[More_Slugs]

Thanks!

Blue Dot is very close to Longshot in burn rate, just a tad faster, whereas Steel burns a little slower.

[white eagle]

I finally got around in making lube for my 770grs (1 3/4 oz) slugs. I've been looking at established load data for that weight (in shot) all morning. Here's the powders I have for 1 3/4 oz loads:

800X
SR 4756
Blue Dot
Steel
Longshot

I'll be using 3 inch clear Fiocchi and federal 3 in drylok and regular steel shot hulls.

I loaded a 'test' round with 31 grs of longshot, x12x gas seal, 3/8 waxed card, and felt wad under slug.

Looks like this:
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160403/07e1ea898229cfba41317a31bad8a53f.jpg


Which powder would you start out with?

The powder I use is Blue dot if memory serves
I also use Longshot with my new venture
If that is a Accurate mold it looks like the one I designed
I found it to be very accurate but ended up selling the shotgun I had for it

[More_Slugs]

Thanks, White Eagle!

What's your load with the Longshot, and how is that working out?

The mold I have is what I had custom made for myself last week because I couldn't find anyone with it.

The same person also makes the DGS Thunderbolt like BPI's plus Brenneke's.

[Blood Trail]

Hey BT, what were your results?

I'm trying to put together the same. I have a custom mold made replicating the Dixie IXL-DGS slug @ 1.75oz, before any components are added.

I too only have B-Dot, Steel, and Longshot. I'd prefer to use Longshot since I have significantly more, it's easy for me to get and costs less than the other 2.

Thanks!

Man, blast from
The past right here!

This is what I found from back then. This was at 100 yards. I believe insured blue dot. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240509/af48ee19029ff2b30ed639476421a11c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[More_Slugs]

Nice BT.

Do you recall how that test load with 31gr of Longshot performed?

[white eagle]

this is the Accurate Molds one I was referring to
https://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=73-770S,
can not remember the longshot load I used for it

[W.R.Buchanan]

Leon: what is the name of your Slugs R Us company now?

Randy