WW for slugs?

[Ferdinand]

I'm interested in casting 12 gauge slugs - Lee 1 oz probably. I have ~200 lbs of ingots from clip-on WW and just a few ingots from stick-ons, plus about a 20 lb hunk of really soft lead. Will straight WW work OK for slugs, or is it too hard? I have good access to WW, but soft lead isn't as readily available, so I'd like to use as much of that WW as possible.

Thanks in advance.

[EMC45]

That's what I use in my Lee 1oz. mold.

[sargenv]

You can use it... but there are ppl here that would likely trade you nearly pure for clip on.. I use berm lead for my slug loadings since hard lead isn't generally what I want for a slug.. I just want something that will punch paper and I tend to use the cheapest available lead for slugs since you use so much of it and since it is usually contained in a shotcup, hardness isn't needed for any kind of leading problem.. It'll work though..

[dogbert41]

It's what I use too.

[turbo1889]

The problem with using hard clip on WW alloy with the Lee slug mold is that the slug can stick to the keyed hollow base pin like it was glued on and can be really hard to knock loose when the lead hardens because hard WW alloy doesn't shrink like soft nearly pure lead does.

I personally gave up on trying to cast hard lead with the Lee slug mold for this reason. You may be able to get it to work if you use a spray on mold release agent on the keyed hollow base pin.

Hard alloy slugs shoot fine and use them all they time from other slug molds including the Lyman 525 wad-slug. It is the “drive-key” feature of the Lee slug combined with hard alloy that can result in an ease of casting issue that motivates the “soft lead only” recommendation – it’s not anything of a ballistic or load performance nature, except for of course that hard alloy slugs will be better penetrators on game but as a trade off won’t expand or mushroom like a soft lead slug, but as a boolit caster you are probably already aware of that terminal performance differences between hard and soft alloy cast boolits.

[Cowboy T]

Would smoking the drive key a bit extra help in the stickiness? The lead's still going to shrink a little bit, and WW's are only BHN 11 or so--not all that hard compared to, say, Linotype.

[Ferdinand]

Thanks for the replies. I was concerned about cip-on WW being too hard, even though I don't plan to shoot these through anything tighter than an IC choke. I noticed that Lee makes a mold for .690 round balls. I used to buy those from BPI and had my best results with them in terms of accuracy. Anyone have any observations on .690 ball vs. the Lee 1 oz?

[Ferdinand]

I scored some clean and smelted soft lead recovered from phone cable sheath this morning - over 100 lbs. That should support my slug casting for a while and I can save my ww for .357 Mag.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
You should Search here Round ball.
But simply.. Round ball will out penetrate any hollow slug. And far easier to cast.
I have used WW round ball on all sorts of items and from wood posts to flesh it works fine at about 1500 fps. On harder items it starts to shatter.
I actually prefer a 50-50 mix. it stays firm but will not shatter on steel so bone is no challenge. A hollow slug will not penetrate some tough materials like 24 foot crocodile neck armor.. Round Ball will slice on through.

[mac1911]

I have not had any issues with any sticking of slugs in my lee,,,,,for S&Gs I even cast some from Zinc wheel weights.....the temp of the Zinc and mould have to stay pretty high and I drop them quicly out of the mould. They do not fill well and wrinkle a bit but it worked. They come in a bit lighter than 1oz. for fun blasting they worked fine.