Rifled Slug Mold

[ReconJohn]

Does anyone know if there is a mold that casts rifled slugs. I don't own a rifled barrel for my shotgun. I'm sure if there is a mold that makes them it probably will cost just as much as a rifled barrel.

[Cowboy_Dan]

I think the rifling on a slug is usually swaged on. If it was angled or had more than 4 lands it would mechanically lock the mould shut, or else would be destroyed by opening the mould.

Lyman used to sell dies to swage rifling onto Foster slugs, these increased the diameter of the slug a bit.

[bstone5]

If the shot gun has a screw in choke there is available chokes that are rifled.
I have some hunting friends who use the screw in choke on Remington pump shot guns.
The Lee slugs I shoot go down a smooth bore and are accurate up to 70 yards.
Shot a few pigs up close and they drop when with the Lee slug hits them just about any where on their body.

[longbow]

Does anyone make a rifled slug mould... yes. Cap'n Morgan in Denmark has made a beautiful rifled slug mould and I have made a straight ribbed slug mould but these are not typical moulds. Mine is a relatively simple push out mould but Cap'n Morgan's is much more sophisticated. But no, no-one makes rifled slug mould commercially. As stated above, conventional moulds would not work for rifled slugs, they are swaged in special dies.

However rifling on a slug is purely cosmetic and does not cause any significant rotation of the slug (if any at all). The intent is to reduce bore friction and to crush easily if the slug is shot through a choked gun.

Hollow base and attached wad slugs for smoothbores are drag stabilized like a badminton shuttlecock ~ nose heavy with lighter skirt.

The Lee Drive Key slug can provide pretty decent accuracy but so can round balls out to at least 50 yards. My good round ball loads will stay under 4" at 50 yards and generally shoot better groups than most hollow base slugs to at least 50 yards.

What is your intent with the slugs?

Longbow

[ReconJohn]

My use for them is just to shoot them, little competition (3 gun), or shotgun courses. I only waterfowl hunt with shotgun. All other hunting I do is with a bow or rifle. Im pretty new to the shotgun game.

[ReconJohn]

I have the lee 1oz mold right now. What would be a good mold to complaint this mold. I was thinking the lyman?

[jmort]

^^^ Do yourself a favor and get in on the Group buy for a two cavity 525 grain Lyman clone brass mold from Mihec right now.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?308047-Group-buy-2-cavity-brass-Lyman-525-for-use-in-wad-by-MP-Molds

[MOA]

ReconJohn,

I too struggled with the issue of slugs with shotguns, and what I wanted to do in the casting field for my scatter gun. As Longbow mentioned, the raised ribs one finds on the foster style slugs that are loaded by the factory are not there to impart any spin on the slug, they are solely there so those who have shotguns that are a fixed full choke will not damage the barrel when the slugs are shot through them, you have to remember that the time slugs of the foster style were first manufactured most shotgun owners did not have shotguns with mod, or cyl choke barrels, if you had money you could get a Cutts compensator put on the end of your barrel from a gunsmith which would allow you to change the chokes before the screw in chokes were common, so that is why the slugs have the ribbing on them, when fired in a tightly choked barrel as the slug went through the choked area the ribbed lead would flatten down and allow the slug to pass through without damaging the barrel.
I have a rifled mossberg barrel and for shooting slugs I use the Remington copper sabot hour glass shaped slug, it seems to work the best in my shotgun, but I also have a Remington 1100 with a 18-1/2" cylinder bore barrel that the Remington slug is a no go for accuracy, but with the lee 1 oz, and the Lyman slug mold it is great up to 50 - 60 yards. I like the lee mold because it is easy to cast good key drive slugs with pure lead, the alum mold gets hot and stays hot which is what you need for pure lead and good fillout. Here are a few images of the loading I did a while back with the AA super lite hull and the Lee slug.

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140517_104659_zpsmmligmyh.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140517_104659_zpsmmligmyh.jpg.html)

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Mobile%20Uploads/20140316_124715_zpsbgdx06ea.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140316_124715_zpsbgdx06ea.jpg.html)


http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140316_124727_zpsrvojbjm2.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140316_124727_zpsrvojbjm2.jpg.html)

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140316_124815_zpsls3bompm.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140316_124815_zpsls3bompm.jpg.html)

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140316_130739_zpszvm3tbfe.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140316_130739_zpszvm3tbfe.jpg.html)

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140316_130750_zpsty9insf0.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140316_130750_zpsty9insf0.jpg.html)

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/20140316_130759_zps1d0167b4.jpg (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/20140316_130759_zps1d0167b4.jpg.html)

And this is the Lyman mould I got to try out, one in 12 ga and the other in 20 ga.

http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab136/nitroexpress450400/Hand%20loading/Screenshot_2016-07-17-16-01-47_zpsmyqcvoms.png (http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nitroexpress450400/media/Hand%20loading/Screenshot_2016-07-17-16-01-47_zpsmyqcvoms.png.html)

[GoBig]

MOA, I notice you don't trim the wad petals. Do they get folded up in the hull crimp or are they far enough down? I've been trimming mine, but it's a pain in the rear. What sort of accuracy do you get?

[longbow]

I still haven't gotten as good accuracy from my Lee 1 oz. slug mould as with one of my home made moulds or plain old round balls. The best group I have gotten from my Lee Drive key slugs is about 6" at 50 yards which is not as good as my round ball loads or one of my home made HB slug moulds but not too bad and way better than the Lyman Foster slug mould (don't waste your money on one of those). In fairness, I have not used the Lee mould much and not experimented with different wads and hulls so could likely shrink groups some with not much work.

I have not shot the Lyman Sabot slug so cannot speak to that one but several folks here report good accuracy to 50 yards or better in smoothbore.

The Lee Drive Key slug mould has also gotten some good reviews.

If you want to go with the Lyman design Randy is right... get in on that Mihec slug mould group buy. You cannot do better than a Mihec mould.

Longbow

[ReconJohn]

Thank you all for the advice and I'll be looking into that group buy. Just have to clear it with the check book holder...LOL.

Thanks again.

[MOA]

GoBig,

The petals sit low enough not to get caught in the crimp. I used to trim them, but I didn't notice much difference in accuracy at fifty to sixty yards. I started using the standard Red AA hull, but I was trying out some of the silver handicap lite hulls without cutting off the petals and with my slug barrel which is a Remington that I got back in 1986 I can get a 4 to 5 inch group at the short yardage I hunt at when using a shot gun. I suppose I should spend time to play with some different components to see if I can tighten up the group, but when I need to get longer shots because of where I am hunting I'm lazy and just grab the Mossberg with the rifled barrel that is scoped and some Remington factory sabots.

[MarkP]

In rifled bbl.'s I have not been able to get the Lee to shoot very well, the 525 Lyman with every load I have tried has yielded acceptable accuracy. Must note after Lyman constantly showed best results I have not made any more attempts to use Lee slugs.

Limited experience with smooth bore and slugs but have shot probably 100 or so in a smooth bore; 0.690" round balls shot the best as compared to the Lyman and the Lee at 75 yds.

In 20 ga rifled bbl the Lyman sabot slug (giant pellet, like 525 gr 12 ga) has been pretty challenging to get decent groups. The Lee 58 Target Mini shoots great but not a good low recoil load for my daughter.

[MOA]

The Lee and lyman slugs I believe were designed for use in smooth bore barrels. Remington sabot factory loads are best ammo for rifled barrels. The wad does not do well with the rifling in rifled barrels, at least that has been my experience.

[victorfox]

Ive read the 7/8 outperforms the 1oz lee key slug easily. Something to do with shape maybe. And they can be shot in any barrel rifled or smooth.

I would try the lyman 525 if I could but i'm getting by with .690ish ball with mediocre but acceptable results...

[MOA]

It does seem that many are wanting hundred yard slug guns. Shotguns with the help of rifled barrels are now able to reach that distance and even do it more accurately if a scope is employed, but the important factor of how much power is left on the projectile to do its job is often forgotten. IMHO, and it is just my opinion, the shotgun performs best if held to 70 yards max, and 50 yards is even better for a clean kill. I use a low power scope for both my smooth bore Remington barrel, and on the Mossberg rifled barrel. If one is looking for a shotgun for their son or daughter and recoil is a factor, than I would look for a semi-auto in twenty gauge with a short 18 or 20 inch rifled barrel that has a cantilever rail incorporated into the barrel so it can be matched up with a 2.5 power scope, and that will handle 3 inch shells.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

"Rifled" ribs on a slug do have another benefit besides passing through the choke. Shotguns, especially old ones, do vary considerably in bore diameter, and the ribs will make them a snug fit there without excessive pressure. But as to spinning the slug enough to improve stability, they have no effect whatever.

Many hollow base slugs are subject to deforming or cracking of the skirt. This may be avoidable by filling the cavity with something incompressible like hot melt glue or wax. There is actually no such thing as a standard shot cup wad, as they do vary in thickness of the petals. The best way is to try what you have in the bore, find out what it takes to give a snug fit, and choose your slug or ball from there. Some of the mould makers don't publicise what the diameter actually is, but you would probably be able to find out from members of this board for most of them. I think you would find a round ball loaded this way to be about as good as any.