Well I've started again

[Blammer]

I've started back testing my 20ga slug gun.

I received a new sizing die from fishawk so I can size some slugs to fit nicely into my shotcups. It works beautifully! Before my boolits were either undersized, not good, or oversized, wouldn't fit. Not anymore!

I also learned a few things in the mean time. Specifically, that the wad column under the slug needs to be hard!

Here is one of my more successful 3 shot groups. Yes it's only 25 yds, but it's a start. If it won't group at 25 yds, there is no hope farther out.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/File0095.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/File0097.jpg

[Blammer]

With results like these I load up 3 more rounds and give them a second try. One group does not really count, I try to get several groups the same size, the more the better.

[garandsrus]

Blammer,

Which slug are you using?

Thanks,
John

[Blammer]

I'll try to get pics up soon, camera battery died. :(

[725]

That a one inch grid on the target?

[Blammer]

Here is a pic of the 58 cal Minnie sized to .570 and the corresponding wad that has been fired out of the gun.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/DSCN7463.jpg

Each square on the grid is 1/2 an inch, so a cube of 4 is a 1" square.

[Blammer]

Here is a pic of the sized .600 RB's to .570.

the bottom has a bit of a flat on it, which is good IMO.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/DSCN7468.jpg

[2Tite]

After I picked up the checks yesterday I got bored. Rainy day, early spring, you know. Anyhow, I now have a Lee, double cavity mold that casts the 54 cal REAL muzzleloader bullet on one end and a .570, 440 gr, flat base truncated nose slug on the other. It's actually .5695ish. So I missed it by half a hair. I ran about 30 of em and it casts pretty well. It's yours if you want it............JB

[Blammer]

Oh yea!

Thanks!

[turbo1889]

That 20ga. slug gun of yours a rifled barrel? You want some of my hammer head 1-oz. full bore solids to try out of it?

http://forums.handloads.com/uploads/turbo1889/2009-03-01_173219_20ga_Solid_450gr_Slug.JPG

[Blammer]

Yes it is fully rifled.

and yes I would LOVE some samples to try!

Is it a mould?

[turbo1889]

Yes, it's a custom cut mold 0.625" diameter with WW alloy slightly smaller with pure lead. Drops just a hair over an ounce with WW and closer to 1-1/16oz. with pure lead. I'll do you up two batches of 25 one out of WW and the other out of pure lead. How do you want them lubed? Lee Alox, Lee Alox & Rolled in Talic Powder, Johnson Paste Wax, or Turtle Car Wax?

PM me your shipping info.

[Blammer]

Wow! thank you a bunch!

PM incoming!

[Blammer]

How do they shoot for you?

What is your load combo?

[Blammer]

Ok here is some more info.

I recently had a local cast boolit forum member (2tite is his handle) graceously gift me with a mould!

This was totally unexpected and greatly appreciated! He took a 54 cal Lee REAL mould, 2C and made one cavity a .570 dia boolit while leaving the original Lee REAL nose.

They wt 440gr. I cast up some and then loaded and shot some. Here are the results and details.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/DSCN7483.jpg

I then ran them through a sizer that fishhawk made for me to true them up at .570 dia.

The boolits dropped at .5705 and were maybe 1/2 thous out on one spot so the sizer trued them nicely. Thanks steve!

I then loaded them in a Fed Hull, W209 Primer, SR 4756 22gr, one Obturator gas seal, 4 1/8 nitro cards, the shot cup that was trimmed off from a 'trap commander' wad and the bullet inside, and then star crimped.

Here are 2 shots at 25 yds!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/DSCN7485.jpg

[garandsrus]

Blammer,

Have you shot any more of the new slugs? They look like they would work well out of a slug gun.

Was the target still at 25 yds?

John

[Blammer]

garandsrus, new slugs, as in factory stuff? no, I can't really affort $12 for 5 shots.

[725]

This looks like a great project to dulicate. Please keep the post going with additional results. How do they group at other ranges?

[shotman]

your 20ga rifled barrel is 1 in 24 twist that is fast for a round ball that dont get much to stableize it. dont use the crimp. cut top off shell about 1/8 in longer than load. and drip some bee wax around top of ball/slug. That does 2 things no crimp and can reused hull 10 times and you get a lubed ball/ slug going down barrel. if this post these are mine If you use a magaizine the shell will ride the one in front , if single or ou dont matter if ball is above case.

[Blammer]

as soon as I get to a real range I'll shoot more an post results.

[turbo1889]

Okay, I've got some of my full bore slugs all packed ready to ship to, Blammer, and will be putting them in the mail on the way to work tomorrow. Inquiry has been made as to how I am loading them and others have been PM-ing me asking where I got the mold. So I guess I'll just post it all here instead of doing up a whole batch of PM's.

Loading:

I have personally found that the best slug powder for the 20ga. especially for heavier than normal solid slugs happens to be Alliant Steel. Some of the IMR powders do darn nice as well but the local shop always has Steel in stock and the IMR powder numbers that work just as well for extra heavy weight slugs in the 20ga. (and to some extent the 12ga. as well) I usually have to mail order and pay haz. mat fees. In addition when loading slugs using Steel you can use Blue Dot data as a starting point because Steel loads when compared to Blue Dot loads, and all other components except for powder and primer are the same, the Steel load always take just a little bit more powder. In addition as clearly spelled out by the manufacture of these two powders Steel is just slightly slower burning, slightly more stable burning, and significantly more pressure spike resistant compared to Blue Dot. In addition I have found it doesn't seem to have the cold weather issues Blue Dot is infamous for.

So long story short for loading my 1-oz solid 20ga. slugs I use a standard load of 25.0gr. of Steel ignited by a magnum primer. Steel requires that a magnum primer be used, I bought myself up a couple 1,000 bricks of the FED-209-A primers when I first started using it for my slug loading and have also on occasion used the CCI-209-M with good results, don't personally know of any other magnum primers besides those two. Anyway I either load with a Fed. S-series wad with the petals cut off (20S1 for 20ga.) and then a nitro card or two followed by the slug and a roll or fold crimp or when loading tapered bottom hulls or short hull I can't make the previous combination fit in I just cut the gas seal bottom portion off some other wad and then put a stack of nitro cards in under the slug to get it set at the proper height for a good crimp. I have loaded lighter charges and heavier charges without issue but the 25.0gr. load is the usual. My general slug loading technique of combining the Fed. S-series wads with nitro cards for both inside the wad slugs and full bore slugs is illustrated best by the picture below:

http://forums.handloads.com/uploads/turbo1889/2007-11-17_222534_Wad-Slug_Loading_Technique.JPG




As far as where I got the mold -- designed & ordered it from Mountain Molds (www.mountainmolds.com) using his online custom mold design program. Many various styles can be made but I would like to point out that if you want to be able to use the slug with a roll crimp you need to leave a ledge on the head of the slug for the roll crimp to sit down against to facilitate both ease of loading and make sure the roll crimp gets pushed out correctly every time. Don't leave a lip and make the nose angle too shallow and instead of rolling the crimp back out it will tear the end of the hull off instead and take it down the barrel with the slug. Make for a heck of a high pressure load, destroys accuracy, makes it so you can't reload the hull again, and could leave your pants soiled. Don't ask me how I know these things. Finally, make sure the nose isn't too long and pokes out the front of the hull. For a single shot it can work that way but for a pump action gun with a tube mag. that's a big no-no.

http://forums.handloads.com/uploads/turbo1889/2008-11-27_211251_Slug_Design_Do___Don't.JPG

[Blammer]

you need some lube on those bullets in the drawing... :)

thanks for the info! That is really neat!

[Blammer]

Thanks Turbo 1889

got the slugs and stuff Yesterday.

I took some of the WW AC Full bore slugs and put lube in both grooves, then loaded them in AA hulls with W209 primer and SR4756, a 20s1 wad with the petals trimmed off and one 1/8 nitro card on top then the slug, and a star crimp.

Here are 4 shots at 25 yds! I LIKE THEM!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Slug%20data/20gafullboreslug.jpg

and this is the FIRST load testing of them!

bore of brl is shiney clean.

what's it gonna cost me to borrow that mould so I can cast up about 400 of them to last me for a while? :)

[big boar]

If the slugs are loaded in wads, why do you need lube?

[briang]

He said he cut the petals off.

[Blammer]

they are not loaded in wads.

If you look at post #21 the white wad with the nitro card and the bullet perched on top... imagine that bullet with lube.

then load that into the hull with powder and primer.

[Dixie Slugs]

Here's some bullets from our Xterminator 20.....James

[Blammer]

James, that pink gas seal in the pic?

Do you find in your testing that those are blown through?

[Dixie Slugs]

Blammer...It looks pink because it is on the colored target. It's just the BPI 20 ga Obt. wad. Those other wads are not what we finally use in the load.....Final load at 34 grs (3.1cc) Alliant Blue Dot- BPI Obt overpowder-.200" nitro-1/2" cork-.200" nitro-rolloed crimp-1425'/" with .625"-500 gr hard cast heat treated-Cheddite 20 ga 3" hull. Pressure tested at Ballistic Reaserch. They tested a 1200'/" load at the John Linebaugh Seminar and wrote the results under the name Stryker. I use the Stryker in a NEF Tracker. Dr Charlie Sharp did a write up on the 34 gr load with this bullet in the TC Encore. The BPI Obt wad (12 or 20) is not as good as the BPI X12X, but both will work if you put a .200"/.250" hard nitro on top of it
Regards, James

[Dixie Slugs]

And....Everbody better listen to what the man said about roll crimp not having a shoulder on the bullet to roll it out! If it does not have a shoulder on the bullet, a taper ogive will overide the crimp...ergo pressure peak.....James

[Blammer]

I"m using the 20ga OBt, then 3, 1/8 nitro cards then slug.

I find that I CONTINUALLY blow the Obt gas seal.

Using 22gr Bluedot and 440gr slug.

Perhaps the cork helps.

[Dixie Slugs]

Put at least a .200" nitro on top of the Obt wad. Or even two .125" (1/8"). That Obt wad isn't much, but it's all that's out there that's easy to get......James

[turbo1889]

Cutting the very bottom gas seal lip off the bottom of a conventional shot wad works better in my testing / opinion than the BPI -- really works good if you take a steel shot wad and cut it's petals off and use that for the gas seal under the nitro cards. Steel wads are made of a tougher plastic than regular wads and usually don't have any cusion section so cutting the petals off leaves an instant gas seal ring-o thing-a-majigy that is as tough as your going to find any where.

[Blood Trail]

Tagged