12g slug shape

[larrymc27]

Hello,
Im getting ready to start casting/loading for my shotty. with all the molds and and weights out there It can be a bit overwhelming. I was wanting some feedback on what is best to use. A round ball,a round nose "hollow ball" or the shape i can only describe as an airgun pellet on steroids. Then what weight and charge/length?

Larrymc

[diehard]

Welcome to the forum.

I have all of the molds you mention, and other slugs besides. If plinking or home defense at short range is your objective its hard to beat the Lee mold since they shoot well enough at 30+ yards with just about any recipe. Fine tuning a recipe to your gun (which I'm assuming is a smoothbore) takes some experimentation, but it is very possible. It is hard to beat the recipes Lee includes with their molds. For hunting I'd recommend the Lyman 525 grain sabot (or air gun pellet as you called it). I have been able to achieve better groups at longer yardage ( up to about 80 yards) with these slugs. I have come to prefer Longshot and HS-6 for best results. Also, for me these seem to show a bigger improvement in performance when using a rifled choke tube than any of the others.

I'm sure there are some folks that love the Lyman foster slugs, but for me they have been a trial of patience, since they are a bit undersized for shooting naked on a built up wad column, and generally too big to fit in a plastic shotcup. As always, "your mileage may vary." Roundballs, for up to 50 yards, might surprise you with some great accuracy, but ball size is crucial with these as well. Other folks are much more experienced at the round ball than I am, and I have never used .735 or bore sized balls. However, I have used .690 in a shotcup (dropped at about .687 from the mold) with very good luck---punching just paper of course.

Hopefully you may get a few more responses from the myriad of folks on this forum that shoot a lot of slugs. However, I do suggest you do a search for the many, many threads on Lee and Lyman slugs and roundballs. Tons of great info in those threads from folks that actually shoot them a lot. Turbo, Longbow, and others have posts that should be published, they are so informative.

FWIW...even though I prefer the Lyman 525, I shoot more 7/8 oz Lee slugs than anything else because they are easy to put together and kill paper bad guys pretty effectively.

Good luck.

[mac1911]

im new to slug casting also.
I went with the Lee 1oz 12g slug.
A few reasons
1. Im new to casting, dont know if I will stick with it or not so less investment is good
2. Seem to be more info about the lee molds
3. for my end use (paper targets) did not want to waste a lot of money for a plinker fun round

So far things are going well. I was looking to shoot a lower recoil round been useing Greendot powder with 19.5 grains so far giveing me a middle of the road
decent groups @ 50 yards with less recoil. I am shooting out a smooth bore "dear slug" barrel
Thats all I have. Things to think about. The Lyman(air gun pellet) is recomended for rifled barrels.

[longbow]

I can't comment on the Lee Drive Key slugs or Lyman sabot slug (airgun pellet) as I have not tried those. Many have reported good or at least usable accuracy with them and they are easy to load.

I have tried many, many other slugs in my smoothbore guns and so far have been disappointed with any home cast hollowbase design I have tried to date with the Lyman Foster (round nose hollowbase) being one of the worst for accuracy.

Some factory Foster slug loads have produced very good accuracy for me but I have not been able to achieve the same results with home rolled Fosters.

As Diehard mentions, I find round balls to produce quite good accuracy out to 50 yards or so. I can generally count on 3" to 4" at 50 yards with good loads. Round balls are easy to cast and load. I have had best results with 0.735" naked ball on a hard card wad column and 0.662" in a shotcup. What I think would be an ideal size is 0.678" which should fit most standard shotups well. I find 0.690" a little too large and have not had good results with it though some people do. It depends on fit of ball, shotcup and bore.

Also, I should mention that round balls naked or in shotcups should be checked to ensure that the combination fits though any choke you may have. Hollow base slugs are designed to collapse if they are shot through a choke but a round ball is not choke friendly. A naked round ball or ball in shotcup should be no more than a tight push fit through a choke at the tightest constriction.

I am currently working on attached wad slugs similar to Brennekes or AQ's but home made. Both those factory slugs have produced far better accuracy for me than hollowbase slugs.

There are certainly lots of options but for ease of reloading and load data availability the Lee Drive Key slugs or Lyman airgun pellet are likely the best choices to get started.

It is all fun working up loads and shooting though!

FWIW

Longbow

[turbo1889]

Q1 ~ What barrel are going to shoot your slugs through? Rifled or Smooth Bore? Choke Constriction if Smooth Bore? Ported or Un-ported Barrel if Rifled? Barrel Dimensions (Forcing Cone, Bore Diameter, Choke, etc.)?

Q2 ~ What is your goal or end use for the slugs? Paper Punching or Hunting? Short, Mid., or Long Range? Lighter, Faster, and at Least Getting Close to Something Aerodynamic or Big, Burly, with Massive Nock Down but a Little on the Slow Side (Greyhound or Bulldog type slug)?

Without some more info in those areas the only recommendation I am willing to make is the RCBS 0.678" RB mold or equivalent 68-cal RB mold used as a wad-slug inside a Federal "S" series wad with an 18ga. or 20ga. hard nitro card under the ball inside the wad cup and shot buffer packed around the ball. That combination is the only one I've found that will shoot good from almost any shotgun out there - period. And by varying the hardness of the alloy used to cast the ball and how energetically it is loaded can accomplish almost any desired end result. With specific knowledge of the gun the load is going to be fired from and what the desired end result is I can make recommendations for other combinations that may be superior but that is the only load recommendation I can make as a blind shot in the dark.

[Ohio Rusty]

I like to cast my round ball from pure lead. A ball in 12 (.690) gauge has alot of OOMPH down range, and they will expand bigger if soft. I also cast .735 RB for the Wife's flintlock blunderbuss .....
Ohio Rusty ><>

[missionary5155]

Greetings and WELCOME Larrymc27 !
As stated above we need more input on the barrel and intended purpose.
If the target is going to be under that 50 yards or so distance Round Ball will harvest any known critter on the planet. 12 bore launched RB was used a long time in Africa.. It was considered minimal for big elephant but fellers who shot from 30 yards and less claimed it was sufficient.
RB is easy to cast and when made of air cooled WW will take care of matters real fast. There is no pig or deer or bear to big for a well placed RB at 1500 fps.

[larrymc27]

Thank you for all the input.

I should have stated that I will be useing a Rem. 22" rifled slug barrel on a Rem .870. 2-3/4, and 3" prolly with green dot powder .... Round mainly for hunting and silly-wet shooting with friends for braggin rights. dont think they can top 150-200yds

My questions for you guys.
Q1. do I use a sabot/shot wad?
Q2. Is 150-200yds doable?
Q3. Hunting at less than 100yds what is the best recepie?


Larrymc

[turbo1889]

A1. For what you’re trying to do with your set-up the Lyman 525gr. and/or Lee 1oz. wad-slugs should work okay for you. True sabots from the "Collet Cup Sabots" (CCS) company and possibly BPI's new hard blue plastic sabot are contenders. The CCS units are a proven design but they aren’t cheap with an asking price of $1 each per sabot (not loaded ammo; plastic sabot only) plus shipping. The BPI sabots are much more reasonably priced but are an unproven design and therefore I cannot recommend them at this time since I haven't yet worked with them myself (it's on the "too do" list along with a couple hundred other things). If you do try them, oversize diameter boolits at 0.510" or larger are probably going to be the name of the game to get decent accuracy.

A2. With the setup you are using 100 yards is going to be about your maximum effective range unless you get really lucky and find a load that your gun loves and your gun is "tighter" then most. Reason I say this is because you are using a "switch barrel" pump gun. They aren’t known for long range accuracy like a bolt action or break action slug gun that is built like a rifle with solid mounted and properly floated barrel. Granted you will certainly be able to build loads that will go out to 200 yards and beyond if you put a little elevation on the barrel it’s just that you probably won't have enough accuracy at that range to do anything useful with them.

A3. Assuming your going after deer size game. My "first thing to try" recommendation would be a Lyman wad-slug in a Federal brand name 12S4 wad with an 18ga. 1/8" thick hard nitro card under the slug inside the wad on top of a heavy charge of powder. With the burn rate of the powder being no faster then IMR-4756 and no slower burning then Blue Dot. Most guns will shoot either soft or hard alloy cast slugs more accurately so try both. Bigger game like elk you should probably use hard cast slugs whether they give the better accuracy or not in your gun. The next thing I would recommend trying would be a full-bore 0.735" RB slug which will most likely be just as accurate if not more so then the Lyman 525gr. wad-slug and would be better for larger game but will also give you a more rainbow shaped flight path which will require more point of impact compensation over range which I get the feeling you would find less then desirable since you appear to want to maximize your effective range.

As far as the green dot powder - okay for "plinking" loads with your buddies but for true hunting loads you’re going to want something slower burning to bring the muzzle velocity and energy up. As I stated IMR 4756 is pretty much the fastest burning stuff you want to use for heavy hunting loads and with your 22" barrel length going to a powder slower burning then blue dot won't gain you much so those two powders and those in the range between them are what you should look at for hunting loads.

[larrymc27]

NIce.. thanks for the reply