Question on Cast Slugs

[Hanzy4200]

It should be fine. Typically the challenge with shot shells are filling all the empty space. If you desire a short shell, it's not overly hard. Super short, you will need special wads like the BPI short wads.

[Vettepilot]

Ok guys. Everything I know about the Russian slug wads...

First, I'm thinking my concern about the step on the wads is irrelevant. I'm going to just load them so that the step is up against the slug, but not try to seat it inside the slug cavity. They seem to shoot fine that way, and from what I can tell that is how most people are doing it.

I was told that the Russians were having problems keeping their wad making machines running due to lack of parts, or something. Someone on a forum told me that. Svarog told me they were doing a slight revision to the wads. They said that it was a minor change.

So when I suddenly found the wads on E-bay, I quickly ordered 300, thinking they were the revised wads. They were not from Svarog, as I had ordered before, but instead from a Russian source calling themselves "BulletMold" on Ebay. They were quite expensive, at 33 cents a wad including shipping. This was far more than I had paid Svarog before. (About 2 years ago?)

I received the wads recently, and they are quite different from the ones I had previously gotten from Svarog. They are the same style, and will work, but they are definitely different.

Subsequently, Svarog told me they now had the wads available again, but only from their website. So I went to the website, and ordered 600 more. These cost me about 18 cents a piece, with shipping. There's a remark on the website that only one form of shipping is available now, due to Covid. The cost to ship 600 wads was 86 bucks!! Again, with shipping that amount, (600), cost me 18 cents a piece.

Here is the website listing, with pic: https://en.svaroghunt.ru/product-pag...bilizator-puli

Now the question is, which wad is which??? I don't know if the red wads shown on the website are what I will actually receive, or if the ones coming are going to be like the 300 I bought from "BulletMold" that are so different. The ones from BulletMold do not have the same "step" on the wad that I had been worrying about. But in other ways, I somewhat prefer the original wads from Svarog; they seem stronger in the obturation cup area. However, the cushion zone, might be a bit stronger/more stable with these from "BulletMold".

Anyway, we won't know more for sure until this next order comes in from Svarog themselves. I'll let ya know!

Below are pictures showing the original Svarog "Special Tail Wad", and the new one from 'BulletMold". I had a hard time trying to photo the details and differences, but there they are.

At any rate, I have about 1000 of the original wads left, 300 of the ones from BulletMold, and 600 more coming straight from Svarog of a style/revision that remains to be seen. Almost 2000 wads for these style Russian slugs will keep me busy for a good long time...

EDIT TO ADD: Someone will notice; the slug is a reject, but the only one I had handy for the pics.

Vettepilot

Ok, last update on these wads.

I just got the Russian wads straight from Svarog in. As it turns out, these are the red "Special Tail Wads" as shown on the Svarog website. It looks like they have indeed been revised, and the revision is apparently in that step area where the wad inserts into the cavity of the slug.

As compared to the original, white Svarog wads, these have a slightly smaller id on the post section of the wad, and that step portion of the post that was all but impossible to seat up into the slug, has been reduced in OD by .020"! It will now seat up fully into the slug cavity without problems!

That is the only differences I can see/measure on the wads, so I guess that is the "revision" Svarog told me about. (That, and painting them red!)

These are, as stated, very much like the original Svarog wads, and highly unlike the wads I got from "BulletMold" via E-bay. Which ones work better? Well, these red ones will work great for me, because they solve the wad seating problem/question I had. Then, regarding the completely different "BulletMold" wads?? It doesn't matter how well they might work/shoot, because at 33 cents each, I won't be buying any more!!

I'll stick with these red, Svarog wads!

There you have it. Russian wad adventures--> done!

Vettepilot

[Petander]

That's good news about the new red wads. Thank you VP.

I have some coming, hoping for an improvement in fit.

[Vettepilot]

You're welcome. It's been a somewhat long road, but hopefully these posts will clear some things up for others. With the language barrier, it' a bit tough to figure out the Russian situation sometimes, but I'm happy now! I really like the Russian slugs.

Vettepilot