20 Gauge Slug Loading with 58Cal Bullets

[Sliver Shooter]

I have a 20 gauge Remington 870 with a rifled barrel and scope, that I use for deer hunting here in southern Minnesota. Till this year my choice of ammo has been Remington AccuTip 2 3/4" slugs. It is a really accurate load in my gun. Of coarse this year, with all the goings on in this country, if you can find these cartridges, they are very expensive. I decided to roll my own and have been looking at information that talks about using a 58 cal. muzzleloader boolit, some nitro cards and a plastic wad. I think it's recommended to load into 3" casings to have the room to crimp. Has anyone been loading anything like this? My boolit is a 315gr hollow base minni type. I have some Winchester AA wads but I'm not sure if they can be used or what would be the wad to use. I'm trying to get to where I don't have to rely on availability and over pricing, to be able to get out and shoot or hunt.

[trapper9260]

What someone in the past told me to do for load slugs for my 10 ga is take the weight of the slug and put it in ounces and take the data for that weight that is close and work on the load after. That is what I done it works. Just a idea to try .

[centershot]

In 20 gauge the Trap Commander is an excellent wad for loading your homemade sabots. Use one or two 1/8" 28 gauge nitro cards to adjust for nose projection out of the wad. Also, you may need an additional 28 ga. card placed into the gas seal, depending on powder charge. If it's a heavy load, definitely use the card to reinforce the gas seal.

Attachment 291155

[Taylor]

I played with that idea. Savage 220.Used Longshot.

[hondamikek]

How many grains of Longshot did you use? Haven’t tried those slugs with that powder yet but I know 18.0-18.5gn of Win 572 powder does great on em!

[RogerDat]

I used BlueDot for 20 gauge round ball loads and it was decent performer. Not tested extensively but at 50 yards a patty pan squash was doomed.

The 28 gauge cards was what I used also in mine, with commander wad. There is a member who did an extensive thread on slug and round ball loads. Lots of great info. Have to search for it since I can't recall his handle.

[RogerDat]

The member I was thinking of has left and before leaving wiped out many of his posts. Thing I recall was different powders made a large difference in how high the wad sat in the hull. Had a photo of translucent hulls with different powders and same wad to show how different powders could really effect the wad stack needed to arrive at a good crimp height.

That and he recommended Fiocchi hulls for load development, because they tended to show overpressure signs easier than more robust hulls. Not sure I like having a recipe for a hull that requires different primer or a primer pocket sizing tool but it did get me going.

I used a socket just under bore size and some electrical tape to get a snug but not tight plug that I could push through barrel with about 10# of force. This I measured to get ball size that would fit. My bore was a tad tight for the 58 round ball I used in muzzle loader. Ended up with a little smaller size. But that was round ball, less give than a Minnie with hollow base.

Recall reading that some folks filled base with hot glue to avoid wad getting stuck up the bullet base.

[Sliver Shooter]

I looked for Trap Commander wads but there seems to be a stock shortage. Is there others that work well for a 58 cal slug

[Taylor]

22 grains

[Petander]

I tried this Lee Minie ~576 ~ 450 grainer in a 20 smoothbore 870 for a while.

Always keyholing. I ran out of ideas.

[barkerwc4362]

The key to accuracy with sabots is using a projectile large enough in diameter so that the rifling tightly grips the wad and projectile. This will ensure that the projectile (sabot) is spun by the rifling and is stabilized. I use a Remington 870 20 gauge Magnum Express with a 20” rifled slug barrel. My accuracy requirement is to have a 5 shot group that would all stay within an area only slightly larger than the 10 ring on an SR-1 at 50 yards. After much experimentation I purchased a Lee 58-440 REAL mould. It casts a slug that is at least .592” out of my WW alloy. Some have suggested this bullet is too large to be used in a wad. Not so! This mould and its slugs are just what my 870 needed. I create a gas sealing portion by removing the petals from the wads, then adding a 20 gauge fiber wad of the appropriate thickness, followed by the shot cup from the wad as a true sabot, and finally using a 28 gauge wad under the slug. I realize this method uses two wads for each slugs, but I no longer see the gas seal portion of the wads showing distortion I saw with putting a gas seal and a wad stack under the wad. The wads I ended using after experimentation are the WAA-20 and the BPI TC-20. I have two loads that meet my accuracy requirement. One is based upon a TC-20 wad, and consists of the TC-20 with the pedals removed, a 20 ga 3/8” fiber wad, a TC-20 shot cup, a 28 ga 1/8” fiber wad, and then a Lee 58-440 REAL. This is used in a new Cheddite 3” hull, Cheddite 209 primer, and 25.0 gr SR-4756 (in a once fired hull use ¼” in place of the 3/8”, I don’t know why, it just won’t fit otherwise) This also works with a Fiocchi 3” hull, Fiocchi 616 primer, and 24.0 gr Longshot. The other is based upon a WAA-20 wad, and consists of the WAA-20 with the pedals removed, a 20 ga 1/4” fiber wad, a WAA-20 shot cup, a 28 ga 1/4” fiber wad, and then a Lee 58-440 REAL. This is used in a Federal 3” hull, Winchester 209 primer, and 20.5 gr Longshot. The Longshot loads are the most accurate and consistent.

Bill

[centershot]

^^^^ I have also found this to be true, nothing good happens until there is sufficient compression of the "sabot" to grip the projectile tightly enough to impart spin. In my 12 gauge loads the assembled sabot is 0.012" overbore. Yes, I was nervous about that at first but it worked out quite well, 2" groups @ 50 yards. Nothing smaller in diameter would group inside 10-12 ".

[Jim22]

I think we have gotten off the OP's question. He's asking if anyone has used .58 cal round balls in a 20 gauge. I am interested in this as well. I remember when ammo makers offerred round, 'punkin ball' loads. Seems like a reasonable idea in these times of limited ammo.

How does a .58 cal ball fit a 20 ga barrel? Does it need a shot cup? Is it too big? What size .58 balls should you use?

Jim

[centershot]

I'm using the Lee .575" RB mould with AA20 and AA20F1 wads. They work OK as far as accuracy, not as well as Remington Sluggers. The Sluggers group 3-1/2" @ 50 yds. whereas the RB's are running 5-6" groups. The RB's are loaded over Unique in Fiocchi hulls. I have a couple of bags of the Trap Commnader wads but haven't used them yet. My gun is an old '70's vintage Ithaca Deerslayer. I've been told that Ithaca bored the Deerslayer barrels smaller than the regular shotgun barrels so that might explain the snug fit of the "RB sabot" projectile. It's not world class accuracy but certainly usable for short range deer thumpin'! Starting in the spring I'll begin a serious work-up for a RB load for this gun.

ETA - Yes, a 58 cal projectile needs a wad! In this case the bore is (supposedly) 0.620" ant the ball is 0.575", so 0.045" undersize. Given that the wad petals are in the neighborhood of 0.025" thickness this should give you a diameter of 0.625" or thereabouts. It should be a reasonable fit for most 20's, depending on the choke constriction.