Favorite smooth bore slug load?

[Kylongrifle]

Just curious? What’s your favorite smooth bore slug load?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Fed Blue Slug hull, 18 gr of Green Dot with Blue Claybuster Slug wad, Win 209, Lee 1oz slug, Roll Crimped.

Also recondition the hulls using the mandrel and heat gun.

Randy

[megasupermagnum]

I've yet to find a 12 gauge load I really love. I've got a pretty good round ball load in 10 gauge, but I have not messed with it too much yet. My absolute favorite smooth bore load so far is in 16 gauge

2 3/4" 16 gauge Federal hull
Federal 209A primer
27 gr Bluedot
Claybuster CB100-16 wad with petals cut off
1/8" 16ga nitro card
Lyman sabot slug (.680" diameter)
fold crimp

I shoot this in my 11-48, which has a .675" bore.

[Kylongrifle]

Fed Blue Slug hull, 18 gr of Green Dot with Blue Claybuster Slug wad, Win 209, Lee 1oz slug, Roll Crimped.

Also recondition the hulls using the mandrel and heat gun.

Randy
you ever tried this wad with a lyman slug?

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have tried it,,, and I have never got any usable accuracy from this slug in a Smooth Bore.

I will be trying it loaded in some STS Hulls in my Rifled A5 Barrel on Thursday (11/19) and will get back to everyone with my results. If I get the kind of results that Hogtamer and Blood Trail get with it from their rifled barrels I think we'll have a winner. Mine are loaded a little lighter than theirs are but that shouldn't make any significant difference in the overall accuracy context. If it groups,,, It can be improved with load development. If it doesn't I'll move on.
I have every confidence that it will work as the other two guys have a pretty good idea what they are doing with Slugs in rifled barrels and have the meat to prove it.

The Lee Slug Load shown above in post #2 has been working really well in my A5 Buck Special Smoothbore Barrel, and I was getting 3" groups at 50 yards at Front Sight with it during sight in.

Randy.

[Budzilla 19]

WW AA hulls, Lyman 525 grain sabot style slug, WW AA 12r wad, 44 grains of BlueDot, WW 209 primer,fold crimp. Right straight out of the Lyman book.
STOUT recoil. Not shot them for group yet. Two deer shot with this load went down in one shot apiece.

[longbow]

When I got my 0.735" RB mould I put together a load based on Prevision Rifle's load data for their 610 gr. PileDrive slug which was a solid groove diameter SWC design.

My version was:

- Fiocchi 2 3/4" hull
- Winchester 209 primer
- 36 to 38 grs. of Blue Dot: I loaded up to 40 grs. but it hurt! So I backed down to 38 grs. In a heavier gun maybe more powder wouldn't hurt so much (Precision Rifle listed up to 44 grs. in any straight walled hull for their 610 gr. slug with more bearing surface so I knew I was safe)
- plastic gas seal cut off a shotcup (we have limited selection here so I didn't have gas seals)
- hard card wad column topped with a 1/8" nitro card wad (IIRC I used 2 x 1/2" card wads but whatever hard card wads to get near crimp height then a nitro card wad on top.)
- cast round ball ACWW (they cast at 0.736")
- roll crimp

I tried using plastic wads with petals cut off ~ failure! And fiber wads instead of hard card wads ~ not a failure but accuracy not as good as with hard card wads. The hard card wad column worked best in my smoothbore and a borrowed rifled Remington 870.

Groups sizes run 3" to 4" at 50 yards from smoothbore and 2" at 50 yards from rifled gun. Groups expand rapidly beyond about 60 to maybe 70 yards and generally run 8" or bigger at 100 yards with frequent fliers. So maybe 3 or 4 out of 5 would be in a 6" - 8" group then one or two would be out at 10" to 12". Not dependable accuracy at 100 yards from smoothbore. I didn't get to test out to 100 yards with rifled gun.

The above load and one using a cloth patched 0.662" RB provided the best and most consistent accuracy for me.

I should qualify and say that I got 6" groups at 100 yards consistently using home loaded AQ slugs, but they are too pricey to shoot many of, and I have shot several factory Foster slug loads that have been very accurate to 100 yards with groups of 6" or less from smoothbore. I have not succeeded in matching factory Foster slug loads for accuracy.

Longbow