minnie ball shotgun slugs?

[the sentinel]

Hi. I recently got into the shotgun loading thing, and also the casting thing. I have been reloading my shotgun shells with .690cal round lead balls. I find they're not horribly inaccurate, and deem them good enough for practice, but I'll use a factory (likely remington) foster slug for hunting, unless I can find a better alternative.

So here's my question. Can .690cal minnie balls be safely used in shotguns? I wasn't able to find any information on this, so I'm just throwing it out there. Thanks!

[longbow]

If you are going to buy a mould why not buy a shotgun slug mould like the Lyman Foster. Lyman sabot or Lee Foster?

They are made to suit the 12 ga. bore size so won't be as undersize as .69 cal. slugs or balls. They are also made to fit through chokes if shot in a choked barrel.

If you already have a mould and want to try it then I guess if you don't have a choke any tighter than the 0.690 cal. minnie and you use an appropriate powder charge for the weight it should be safe.

Others here have loaded minnies in shotcups with decent results but the .69 cal. will be too big for even a WWAA shotcup. Maybe a mylar wrap would act as "patching".

I'm also assuming you have a smoothbore since you are shooting .69 cal balls through it.

Longbow

[the sentinel]

I do have a smoothe bore. I was thinkin about eventually getting a lyman giant airgun pellet mold, but can't bring myself to spend $70 for one right now. I was lookin into likely alternatives. Thanks

[bohica2xo]

Dropping a .690 minnie in a plastic shot cup should be no different than a .690 ball. Through a .710 shotgun choke, the soft plastic wad just gets deformed a bit.

B.

[jh45gun]

I think your confusing some with the term "Minnie" If your shooting .690 round balls they work fine in a shotgun. A Minnie is not a round ball but a conical.

[bohica2xo]

So why are you confused JH? I sure as hell know what a Minnie is.

B.

[Greg5278]

Are you speaking of the Lyman 730Gr .690 diameter Minie? The nose on it is too long to roll crimp easily. The only decent 3" or so accuracy I got was putting the Minie in a 16Ga hull piece, sor tof a "sabot". That took the rifling, and hung on until impact with the Dirt. Thye problem with most non-shotgun designed slug and bullet sin the nose is longer than .375-.400" to the front band. You simply cannot crimp them well, using an Overshot card can help, but then they sometimes slip off. In extreme cases the OS card can get trapped between the barrel, and thew slug, potentially causing more than a "flyer".
Greg

[leftiye]

If you were to get a rifled barrel, you could load metallic shotshell cases just the same way as rifle ctgs. are loaded. There's a guy here who did many different 12 gauge rifles (and larger). I'm vapor locked though and can't remember his call sign. Look it up in old threads.

[jh45gun]

Yea my mistake I missed reading his asking about using a minnie over a round ball.