Just finished molding a couple of slugs

[ASSASSIN]

I just finished molding a couple of slugs, and as soon as the rain stops and I can get to the range, I hope to do some load developments and accuracy testing.

Slugs are 488 grains, with a + or - of 1.8 grains.

My reloading hull will be a 2 3/4" Federal Gold Medal.

Just doing chronograph readings, I have the following velocities recorded:

1,100 fps.

1,200 fps.

1,300 fps.

1,400 fps.

1,500 fps.

1,600 fps.

1,700 fps.

The highest pressure limit of any load does not exceed 10,800 psi..

What do you guys think the best velocity level might be, when it comes to the accuracy of these slugs?

I don't want to have to shoot hundreds of rounds to find an accurate load, and was hoping you guys could tell me which direction to go for an accurate load.

Thank you for your time and help.

[megasupermagnum]

488 grains? Did you cast them of Linotype?

Here's the old buckbuster slug advice. Load up 1 grain at a time until the wad petals deform and or shear off. Back off 1 grain, and that is going to be about your most accurate load. The reasoning is your slug is expanding when you fire, and the tighter it can fit without destroying the wad, the better. It worked out that way in my case, and my old load was 1 gr under where the petals began to shear of 800x.

[Hogtamer]

Velocity will not matter as much as accuracy. I found the Lyman slugs much more accurate with soft lead. 36 gr Longshot drives my ~ 522 gr slugs at about 1500 fps using trap commander wads in hulls you describe. 3” at 100 yds with rifled barrel.

[ASSASSIN]

megasupermagnum - my mold is for a 32 gram slug, which is 493.8 grains, and with mine coming out at 488 grains, I'm a little under 1 1/8 oz., which is very suitable to me.

No, I am not using linotype. A couple of years ago, I bought 18 bags of #8 magnum shot at an estate sale, and this is what I cast my round balls and slugs out of.

I will see just what it takes to shear off the petals.


Hogtamer - I will be loading and testing with Red Dot, Green Dot, Unique and Longshot.

3" groups @ 100 yards is very impressive! I hope I can get at least half the accuracy that you are.

May I ask what kind of gun you are shooting?

Are you adding hot glue to the base of the slug, or just using a nitro card in the base of the wad?

I will be doing all of my testing with a Remington 870 with a 40" Paradox barrel.

I can keep 5 .690 round balls in a 4" circle at 100 yards with that long Paradox barrel, pushing those round balls to 1,700 fps..

[longbow]

I'm guessing your mould is one of the Russian clones?

What wad are you using with the 0.690" round balls? I haven't found a wad that works with 0.690" balls in smoothbore. Wad selection is very poor locally so I haven't tried many different types.

Longbow

[Hogtamer]

Here’s a link I posted for another guy.
And I will trade you some soft lead for some of those magnum shot #8s.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?359321-Lyman-525-for-Boomer81&highlight=Lyman
290974 This is 100 yds loaded as described out of hastings cantilevered barrel on 870. 290975290976

[ASSASSIN]

Longbow,

I am using a Russian Svorag slug mold that comes with 4 different pins, for 4 different weight slugs.

As far as the .690 round balls go, I have found the "choke" to be the most critical part when it comes to best possible accuracy potential from these loads, and the wads themselves seem to make very little difference.

One wad has a nitro card in the bottom of it, and another wad has a gas seal from a 20 ga. AA wad, and both shoot exceptionally well at 100 yards. The AA wad shoots best with a modified choke, and the Gualandi wad shoots best with a full choke.

[longbow]

All my shooting with 0.690" RB has been through cylinder bore.

So far most wads I have tried have been too thick and petals sheared or extruded. Accuracy was poor.

I did find a wad with thin petals that fit the bore well with ball for nice friction fit but those petals sheared and again accuracy was poor. This is in smoothbore.

I've had very good results using cloth pathed 0.662" RB in shotcup, 0.678" RB naked in shotcups and 0.735" RB over a hard card wad column.

Longbow

[ASSASSIN]

One thing that I forgot to mention, is that in all my years of shooting round ball loads, at least for me anyways, every gun that had a long, tapered and smooth forcing cone, would always out shoot most any barrel that had a short abrupt forcing cone, especially when distances exceeded 40 yards.

I'm willing to bet that it will make a big difference with these new slugs as well.

[ASSASSIN]

I have only shot the .690 round ball, and accuracy from a cylinder bore or improved cylinder have been very sad to say the least.

[ASSASSIN]

Excellent post Hogtamer!

Shipping is too expensive to swap out, and I figure that if I can stay with the same shot, then I won't have to worry about my loads changing by going to a softer shot, ie., softer slugs or round balls.

[ASSASSIN]

I have seen a couple of posts where guys were "cutting" the hot glue from the bottom of their slugs, and this just takes up too much time. This is what I do.

Take a piece of flat glass or acrylic, give it a good cleaning, then buff it with paste wax. This will make the slugs very easy to pop off, once they have a few seconds to set up.

Now, when you fill the slug cavity with hot glue, mound it upon the middle, then press it down onto the glass or acrylic and hold it there for about 5 seconds. Do 10 to 15 at a time, and once you put the last one down, the first one you did has had time to solidify, and you can just start plucking them off one by one.

After the hot glue has had time to cool, pluck it off the flat surface and roll the hot glue ring right down off of it.

By forming the hot glue plug this way, it stays perfectly flat with the base of the slug and takes less than 10 seconds per slug to do.

[megasupermagnum]

That's the way I do it too, but all I use is an old cookie sheet, and spray with whatever is in reach, say PB blaster. The knife method definitely works, and has potential to be faster, but requires care in cutting. Dexterity is not my strong suit.

[ASSASSIN]

I thought about using a cookie sheet, but when my wife caught me eye balling one of hers and gave me THE LOOK, I quickly abandoned that idea and moved on to something else.

[longbow]

I have a block of steel I use but same idea, overfill a bit then invert and press down on the lubricated block of steel to squeeze excess out.

Yes, don't mess with wife's cookware!

[ASSASSIN]

My range has been too wet to get out and shoot, so I spent a little more time in the casting room, and cast up some of the 1 oz. slugs identical to the ones in the first post, and shot them for velocity today, just to see how fast I could safely push them.

Still keeping pressures to a maximum pressure limit of 10,800 psi or less, I was able to get 3 loads that exceeded 2,000 fps..

I "mopped" the bore with motor mica, as well as coated the wads with it. Even at 2,000+ fps., there was no issues with plastic fouling in the bore.

It would be great if these light and fast slugs proved to be accurate, but I won't know just how well they shoot until I can get to the range.

I'll be sure and post my results after I can get in some serious range time.

[megasupermagnum]

A 1 oz slug at 2000 fps, and you haven't even hit 11,000 PSI yet? No way you are doing that with shotgun powder, even 2400. Are you using IMR 4227, or SR 4759, or something else?

[ASSASSIN]

Yes, I am using shotgun powders.

Considering the minimal bore contact with this slug design, plus it being inserted into a shot wad, with the addition of motor mica and a 40" rifled barrel, it is quite easy to get loads that will exceed 2,000 fps. without running into excessive pressures.

Question is, will these lighter weight loads prove to be acceptably accurate.

[megasupermagnum]

What powder? I'm sure a 40" barrel gets you some more speed, but it can't be 300 fps. The very fastest 1 oz slug data I know of is the Lee 1oz slug at 1700 fps with Bluedot. I have no idea on the pressure of that load, but it has to be up there. I'm looking through old data, and see some up around 1550-1600 fps with powders like 571 and 800X. About the slowest powder you can still call a shotgun powder is STEEL, and from what I've seen it doesn't gain you that much speed over Bluedot, not 300 fps.

[ASSASSIN]

The problem with listing the powder, is potential liability issues. Someone without the proper pressure testing equipment may try and see just how much more powder they can get in a load, and I don't want to be responsible for their actions or consequences.

[turtlezx]

whats the point of speed ?? 12 gauge at 1200 fps will knock most any thing down littlest groups at what ever speed is king

[ASSASSIN]

whats the point of speed ?? 12 gauge at 1200 fps will knock most any thing down littlest groups at what ever speed is king

Flatter trajectory over a longer distance!

Just like my .690 round ball loads. I was fortunate enough to have "2" accurate loads at both ends of the spectrum. One at 1,100 fps. and one at 1,700 fps.. Anything faster or slower than those two velocity levels would not shoot accurately.

I shoot the 1,100 fps. load for "plinking" inside of 50 yards, and the 1,700 fps. load does very well out to around 150 yards.

I worked with my round ball loads until I was ready to throw the mold in the trash, because no load was accurate enough to get any consistent use out of it. I learned that the round balls it was producing were not perfectly round!

I took the mold to one of buddy's and he put a .692 diameter carbide ball in the mold, and squeezed the two halves together in a 90 ton press, and made the mold to where it would in fact produce perfectly round balls.

Now, the worse load I have shot to date has been 2" at 50 yards, to where the best loads from the mold in factory form was 8" at 50 yards!

With the pellet type slugs, I have never shot that type for accuracy before, so I am really looking forward to trying it out. I also want to see just how much difference there might be between leaving the base of the slug hollow, vs. that of filling the base with hot glue.

Lots of different things to test, and I cannot wait to get started.

[megasupermagnum]

So don't list your powder charges. Just list what powder you are using. No liability in that.

[Blood Trail]

Yeah, that’s smoking fast for a 1 oz slug. Fastest slug I’ve reloaded (with crappy accuracy) was the 7/8 oz LBC sabot from Ballistic Products using published data of 60 grs of longshot in a 3.5” hull. Those came in around 2100 fps on a hot, Summer Texas day.

Are you pressure testing that load? If so, how?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ASSASSIN]

Watching bucks chase does yesterday, I tested the 2,000 fps. load at 100 yards, and it did so bad that it be shameful to post a picture of the target.

Blood Trail - I use a Piezoelectric Transducer System for testing all shotgun loads.

On rare occasions, I'll drag out one of the test barrels for the Lead Crusher System just to see what the LUP readings are.

Then there is the Oehler System 84. While a very worthwhile testing system for shotguns, this one just seems to be gathering dust and doesn't see as much use as what it should.

[ASSASSIN]

5-shot groups at 100 yards, with group size measured center to center.

1,100 fps. - 4 3/8"

1,200 fps. - 4 1/4"

1,300 fps. - 3 1/2"

1,400 fps. - 2 7/8"

1,500 fps. - 2.0"

1,600 fps. - 1 3/8"

1,700 fps. 1 1/16"

1,800 fps. - 7 7/8"

1,900 fps. - 11 3/4"

2,000 fps. - 19 1/8"

All wads used were the Federal 12S4 brown wad.

All wads had a 1/8" nitro card in the base.

I tested slugs that were open base, and slugs that had the base filled with hot melt glue.

Regardless of velocity, the hollow base slugs were very erratic in the accuracy department.

All slugs with the hot melt glue in the base, were very consistent in both accuracy and velocity.

The 6" rifled choke tube I used was very detrimental to accuracy. Very disappointing!

Best accuracy came from the use of a factory modified choke tube. Improved cylinder was not good at all, at least with this particular 34" barrel.

[megasupermagnum]

What did the wads look like at 1700 fps and 1800 fps?

[ASSASSIN]

What did the wads look like at 1700 fps and 1800 fps?

They looked good. Pretty much identical to the 1,300 fps. and 1,400 fps. wads.

I was very much surprised that the wads from the highest velocity loads were not destroyed, but both the gas seals and the petals all remained in tact.

[megasupermagnum]

And you are sure you are using a normal shotgun powder like Bluedot, Longshot, 800x, etc.? I've never seen a wad that wouldn't shear if pushed hard enough, and I've never seen one get even close to 2000 fps.

[ASSASSIN]

My regular Remington barrel starts to shear petals and destroy gas seals at around 1,400 to 1,500 fps..

My Winchester barrels starts to destroy the wads at 1,300 fps..

My Hastings Wadlock barrel is easiest on all wads and slugs, and produces the highest velocity of all barrels tested.

[ASSASSIN]

123 yards / 12 ga. Diablo slug / 1,600 fps
/ fully processed / deer chili / all other meat bagged and tagged and put in freezer.

292129

292131

292133

292134

[Hogtamer]

Good man, beans in the chile! Better man than me with a bead sight.

[ASSASSIN]

Good man, beans in the chile! Better man than me with a bead sight.

You gotta have beans!

I "had" a red dot sight on my shotgun, but the high velocity loads I was working with totally destroyed it!