Good 12 ga home cast slug

[Petander]

Great job and super post, Bood Trail.

To the OP:

If you are a volume slug shooter or just enjoy quality molds,Mihec makes a wonderful Lyman 525 "pellet" clone.



You get a big pile of quality slugs in no time while enjoying every drop.

I also use both Mihec 12 round ball molds, wad and full bore. My most accurate 75 meter loads are Mihec full bore RB.

I do have half a dozen Svarog / AS molds (12 and 20 gauge) with varying success - non fitting proprietary wads from Svarog got me irritated, they are very good at blaming the customer.

And about half a dozen Lee molds as well, I like their 20 gauge RB:s. And the Lyman single trad 525 12 gauge.

If I was hunting with slugs I'd prefer Zveroboy or Grizzly I guess. Screw on wads are just a bit too much work for range practise - and after a few years, I still have problems gettying the wads centered and straight.

Round Balls and Lyman 525 pellets work nice in cups up to 40 meters, smoothbore. I sometimes re-fill factory trap ammo with those slugs for low recoil practise. But for both accuracy and power, a 12 gauge Mihec full bore Round Ball @ 1500 fps from a rifled 870 barrel is my choice for now. Easy to cast and load, too.

[Huntsman]

Pretty deadly expansion results Blood Trail!!
Thx for sharing.

Petander, what load/seating sequence do you use for the rb? Or do you just drop these in a plastic wad?
Was thinking they would need a bit of stand-off for food crimp or roll crimp.
That’s quite the mould you have there ^

[firefly1957]

When I started reading this forum I was like you. I was looking for a way to avoid the high cost of slugs. I found a great solution. I started getting RIO primed hulls from Ballistic Products. I picked up a Lee Key Drive 7/8oz mold. Use their PT1205 wad with 24.1 grains of red dot and roll crimp (there is a sticky on roll crimping). Great load will make you a 3 gun champ without a huge investment. A few years back one could buy the RIO hulls primed for about a nickle each. Oh, the good old days.
Now, take my advise, leave don't come back. I didn't follow that advise and now have 4 shotshell loaders and 3 shelves in the garage full of bins of wads, hull, OS cards you name it. I have even bought a couple of new shotguns. These guys will lead you astray (but, it has been lots of fun!).

I have found a way to limit the number of shelves I have my shotgun stuff on I made the shelves twelve feet long so I got it all on one shelf!
To be fair I started reloading shotgun in 1971 @ 14 years old .

[murf205]

I have decided to cast my own 12 ga slugs as buying them is taking more money and longer times to receive also I am shooting more slugs tha buckshot. I would like a recommendation for a good slug mold for a Mossberg 500 26" barrel with screw-in choke. I would like a 20" barrel with screw chokes but have not been fast enough to get one. It has 3" chamber but I use 2 3/4" shells.

Warren, get Petander to send you some of his full bore RB groups. They make some of my rifles green with envy!
Blood Trail, that rib cage looks like it was hit with a scud missile.

[725]

I used to have those Lyman molds for both the 12 & 20 ga.'s. Sold 'em. Now I shoot round balls and have better accuracy and awesome terminal effects. I had Jeff Tanner make a RB mold and it was the best thing I've done. Haven't bought one since his son now runs the business, but I would expect quality to be the same. I got an over-sized mold and made it fit tight in the plastic wad. Out of my rifled barrels it's very good.

[warren5421]

If I go to round ball what mold maker would be good to buy?

[longbow]

The only commercial/big box 12 ga. ball mould I am aware of is the Lyman 0.735" RB mould.

Mihec makes a 0.732" RB mould and Ball Moulds in the UK makes whatever size you want.

The Lyman is single cavity, the Mihec is double cavity and the Ball Moulds is single cavity.

These are all full bore balls. 0.732" seems slightly small to me but I haven't heard any complaints so it must work okay. Balls don't have much meat at the equator so not a lot of bearing surface and the 0.735" ball seems to squeeze down easily and the squeeze down produces a good fit with a bit of bearing area.

Mihec also makes a 0.678" ball mould for RB's that will fit into shotcups. These work well for smoothbore but you need a pretty tight fit for rifled gun, I think, so wad selection and/or paper patching to proper fit may be required. I have a Lyman 0.678" RB mould that fits well in some wads but is a slight rattle fit in others. Loose fit can be taken care of by paper patching. I shoot mine from smoothbore so no experience with rifled choke or rifled barrel.

Now that I mention RB's in shotcups... also 0.662" RB's fit well into steel shot wads like CSD wads and can be cloth patched into standard trap wads. I have had excellent results using 0.662" RB's cloth patched into Winchester wads in smoothbore. If a good tight fit they should work well in rifled gun but there again, I haven't tried them in rifled gun or rifled choke tube. I have been told that 0.662" RB's loaded into CSD wads shoot well from rifled guns. No personal experience though.

Longbow

[Misery-Whip]

I like the 1 Oz lee, but I can't get more than a few hundred casts from a mold before it dies. I see mp molds makes a 2 cavity Lyman design. I'm gonna invest in one when I have a chance to make some empties.

[megasupermagnum]

I like the 1 Oz lee, but I can't get more than a few hundred casts from a mold before it dies. I see mp molds makes a 2 cavity Lyman design. I'm gonna invest in one when I have a chance to make some empties.

Why? What happens to the mold? I have about 500 slugs from my Lee 7/8 oz and its as good as it was new, probably better.

[Retumbo]

I like the 1 Oz lee, but I can't get more than a few hundred casts from a mold before it dies. I see mp molds makes a 2 cavity Lyman design. I'm gonna invest in one when I have a chance to make some empties.

Why? What happens to the mold? I have about 500 slugs from my Lee 7/8 oz and its as good as it was new, probably better.

Same here, must be around 5-600 slugs and still almost new

[Misery-Whip]

Lee used to use a rivet to hold the hollow base section of mold. In time would loosen and gall mating surface in mold blocks.

Now they use a screw but once it galls there ain't much to fix it.

Then The fill hole in the aluminum cavity will swage out from cutting the sprue and develop a burr and leave a nose on a slug not symetrical. The sprue plate won't sit flat either.


Lee uses soft aluminum for the high machinability. If they used a harder alloy I would be a happier camper.

Yes the directions say to use pure lead but I was using 30-1, my softest alloy I can find.

[FullTang]

Lee used to use a rivet to hold the hollow base section of mold. In time would loosen and gall mating surface in mold blocks.

Now they use a screw but once it galls there ain't much to fix it.

Then The fill hole in the aluminum cavity will swage out from cutting the sprue and develop a burr and leave a nose on a slug not symetrical. The sprue plate won't sit flat either.


Lee uses soft aluminum for the high machinability. If they used a harder alloy I would be a happier camper.

Yes the directions say to use pure lead but I was using 30-1, my softest alloy I can find.

My first thought when it was mentioned that Lee slug molds aren't very durable was "nonsense, I've cast thousands of rounds through my 7/8 and 1 ounce molds." Then I remembered that my 7/8 (more frequently used) did indeed have a problem with the core pin loosening up. I fixed that by drilling it out and screwing it on many years ago. Then the fill hole developed burrs, just as you mentioned. I fixed that by drilling the hole out a bit wider, which means the upper lip is rather thick. This gives the slugs a "nipple effect" which doesn't seem to hurt accuracy (might even help!) These mods were all done a while ago, and that mold has been trouble-free ever since. I also gave the core pin a little smoothing and polishing, so the slugs just drop free now---they could be sticky at times when I first got it. For whatever reason, I've never had any trouble with my 1 oz mold, and never made any mods to it. But I do like the 7/8 slug for its lower recoil and less use of lead---very economical compared to all the alternatives.

One point for newer slug casters is that the RBs are much easier and faster to cast; if you had a multi-cavity RB mold, you could churn out big, big balls at an incredible rate.

[DanishM1Garand]

Lyman 525 grain airgun pellets are a great slug. That shape has proven itself time and again in Taofledermaus videos.

Lyman Foster slug 1 ounce mold was designed for a rifling tool that everyone I've seen for sale goes for crazy prices. I had no luck at all with the Lyman Foster slug mold.