Casting Hollow base sabots

[Turkey Slayer]

Hi I'm new here and am looking for info on how to cast hollow base sabots, I just bought a Lyman 12 gauge sabot mold and could use some tips from you salty bullet makers, I have a large quanity of lead and linotype since I'm a master plumber. Thanks in advance.
Tim

[Buckshot]

............Turkey Slayer, welcome to the board. Are you wanting to cast Sabots or the slug? The sabot is the device used to hold the projectile. The sabot is usually (nowadays) made from an injection moulded plastic of some sort.

If you mean the slug, since you said you got a Lyman mould, it's pretty easy really. Clean the mould cavity really well. The most foolproof and best way IMHO, and the messiest and longest is to boil the blocks in water with a dash of either laundry or dish detergent. Once dry you need to immediatly cast with them or lightly oil them and put them up.

I will assume you're using pure lead? If so, crank up the temp of the lead pot to all it'll stand. You want to cast pure lead HOT! DIp a side of the mould blocks into the alloy for about 15 seconds, or until lead doesn't soilidify around it. Pour your first slug, and watch the sprue puddle closely. You'll see it shift color and the area over the fill hole will probably dimple in. Wait another couple seconds before swinging the sprue plate over.

With this hot alloy, and the blocks hot your first pour should produce a perfect boolit. Not always required with iron moulds, but if you're still having complete and sharp fillout issues, try smudging the cavity with a Bic or Zippo lighter.

............Buckshot

[Turkey Slayer]

Awsome Buckshot, thanks for the speedy reply I knew you Salts where the ones to ask. The Lyman mold comes with a hollow base thingy (Sorry for the tech. term) that fits nicely into the bottom will this come out easily? Sorry just a bit naive still!
Thanks again
Turkey Slayer

[snuffy]

The Lyman sabot slug is made to be fired inside a conventional one-piece plastic wad. You can then shoot it from a rifled barrel made for expensive factory made sabots. Also, since it is a hollow based design, it can be fired from a smooth bored shotgun.

As buckshot said, if using pure lead, you have to cast at as high a temp as possible. Then you have to make darn sure the mold AND and the hollow base "pin" stay hot as well. The pin should stay in the bottom of the mold quite nicely if you make sure the clip that's in the middle locks under the screw in the bottom of the mold.

When I cast mine, I put about 2% tin in with the pure lead. This lowers the temp that the mold will make good boolits at, and greatly adds to the fill-out of the slug. With the size of the hole that slug would make in a deer, you don't need expansion. Besides the tin won't harden the slug all that much.

As far as results on target goes, I only tried a couple of loads from my trusty 12 gauge 870 slug gun. Mediocre, at best, BUT I DON'T want to try any more![smilie=1: My shoulder hurt for a couple of days!:( I gotta install a kick-eeze or decelerator pad on it!:mrgreen:

[Turkey Slayer]

That was one of the reasons why I bought this mold was that I'm able to use standard wads {WAA12F114} and the standard crimp. I shoot a Saiga 12 among other shot guns but this one in pertucular is what I'm loading for, the Saiga 12 is a 12 gauge smooth bore on a AK47 platform. I am thinking about trying it out this Deer season reason I want to start pouring my own. I think I maybe able to control accuracy to a point with different loads maybe. Thank you for the help, I will post pics to see what you salty lead men think.
Turkey Slayer