Lyman 20 gauge sabot slug

[ihunts2much]

Looks like I missed the boat on getting one of the awesome slug molds from Russia for my 20 gauge slug gun. Anyone have any experience with the lyman sabot slug?

[MarkP]

Yes -- Kind of funny I just found a jar of 20 ga slugs and wads that had been buried in drawer for 6 of 7 yrs yesterday afternoon when cleaning out a drawer in my dining room and saw this post.

I was working with the Lyman slug in a Rem 870 Thumbhole Slug (rifled). The 870 has a factory pinned bbl. I was originally working on a load for my daughter to hunt deer in IA when Iowa was shotgun only.

I could not get it to shoot as well as the 12 ga version does in a rifled 11-87 & 870. IIRC about 4" to 5" at 75 yds. To be fair I did not have alot of time invested trying various wads and powder combinations as I got sidetracked testing other molds and we ended up hunting with a 243 in Nebraska. I purchased varoius wads from BPI and started messing with roundballs and LEE black powder bullets. LEE REAL bullet mold, LEE Target Minie, LEE 0.501 - 44O FN. See pictures below:
I did not try any factory loaded sabot rounds so I do not have a baseline for this particular slug gun but did try some of the Foster type Federal Tru-Balls or something like that. The Tru-Balls shot a little better than the Lyman sabot slugs did. I know the Federals are for a smooth bore.

The LEE 58 cal Target Minnie was probably the most consistent in the rifled 870 at 75 yds but too much recoil for a young shooter.

I did try the Lyman in a Rem 1100 smooth bore rifle sighted 21" or 18" bbl lucky to hit 36" a cardboard sheet at 75 yds. Where round balls out of the same gun where hitting a sheet of 8-1/2 x 11" paper stapled tot he larger cardboard sheet.

The Lyman sabot slug would definitely work at reasonable ranges and was fun to shoot. They cast nicely I did not fine the mold to be very finicky. I preheat the slug mold on a hot plate and heat hollow base pin with a small propane torch if it tends to stick.

I saw a (15) pack of Federal 20 ga slugs at Wal-Mart the other day $23. These were not Sabot type so I can only image how much a 5 pack of sabot slugs are now if you can find them.

[ihunts2much]

Thanks for the reply. I haven't come across anyone reporting better than mediocre accuracy with this bullet. I want to get away from buying sabots for my wife's 20ga. They are getting really expensive, and hard to find. Can't find the same brand on the shelf twice, and with the limits the retailers put on ammo sales, can't buy enough to stock up. It's an endless cycle of wasting money testing groups and sighting in. Now that the Russian molds are off the table for the foreseeable future, I'm leaning towards trying some slightly over bore diameter roundballs in her 20ga.

[Wilderness]

I had been thinking of both Lyman and Russian sabot slug for 20 ga smoothbore. Previous reading indicated lukewarm results with Lyman sabot in 20 ga. This thread is therefore of intense interest.

My gun is an SKB 600 O/U choked modified and full, with 3" chambers, gun weight 6 1/2 lbs. Previous experience with 2 3/4" cased slugs included groups of about 4" at 50 m with Winchester (may not be the same as current production), but with pronounced crossfiring. Genuine Brenneke slugs with cup overpowder wads, and lower velocity than US slugs, shot 3" or 4" and to point of aim. Brenneke slugs with card overpowder wads went through sideways. The 3" chambers are an issue, and 3" cartridges as rare as the proverbial where I live.

Most recent experience is with Federal Forster type slugs - 330 gns at 1600 fps. Again, they crossfire, but bottom barrel is sort of useable shot with a flat rib and 4" holdunder at 50 m. Three shot group a couple of days ago was 10". It was going to be five, but recoil on the bench, even with cushion between self and gun, was explosive. With that sort of recoil, I would also be worried about double discharges. So I'm still looking for a suitable slug load.

This gun is very good with SSG buckshot (.27"), and recoil is modest. Load in Fiocchi type 2 3/4" case, is 24 or 25 gns Blue Dot, Winchester primer, Remington SP wad, with 14 pellets (1 oz) of SSG stacked in twos. Either barrel will put the lot on a full sized pig at 25 meters, with near complete penetration. I consider this a 30 meter load, hence the need for a decent slug load to cover the ones that are just too far away.