Finally, Success with Lee Slugs!!!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Had a good day at the range yesterday !!! Went with my Bro In Law to his gun club in Santa Barbara CA And it was really foggy so we could only shoot at 25 yards cuz we couldn't see the targets at 50.

My main reason for going was to finalize the Zero on the Monkeyberg with the smooth bore barrel with the Carlson's Rifled Choke Tube. I wanted it to perform with what has come to be my standard 3 Gun Slug Load. I was pleasantly surprised by the results!!!

The load I was using was,,, Win AA hull, Lee 1 oz. Slug, 18 gr of Green Dot Powder, WAA 12 Wad with 1/8 card under slug, and powdered Mica on the Wad, Fold Crimp.

The first target was the white paper one which I was using to refine my zero, and that group had 4 shots in essentially one big ragged hole. I moved the rear sight to move the group to the right and the last shot split the vertical line on the target so I moved on to the next target.

That target is the "Shoot n See" target and there is 3 shots thru the same hole with two "flyers" The Red Dot on that target is 1" so that group is about 2" total. I'm keeping the 3 shots thru the same hole as the representation of the accuracy of this Gun/Load Combo.

I shot another group with Lyman Slugs loaded with the same load in STS Hulls and they shot pretty well too, but not quite to the Lee Slugs, but still good enough any conceivable purpose.

One problem that I will take care of in the next iteration will be using a diamond shaped target spots. I was having to cover the bullseye with the Fiber Optic Front Sight Bead and that resulted in a little bigger groups than would have happened with proper and consistent sight alignment to the targets by using a diamond shaped spot that I could sit on top of the front sight and center up more consistently.

I also changed the barrel on the gun to my fully rifled 18" barrel with some slightly more powerful loads that didn't all group in the same county. That will be another project.

Pretty happy with the results. As soon as our range reopens I will extend the distance to 50 yards and see if these loads perform the same.

A good day.

Randy

[longbow]

That's looking pretty good Randy!

I have a bunch of Lee slugs loaded and waiting to be tested but my shooting will all be smoothbore.

I will be interested in seeing your 50 yard groups with the Lee slugs and rifled choke tube.

Longbow

[WRideout]

Good shooting, W.R. I am trying to achieve some kind of accuracy with my 12 ga Winchester, but so far the Lyman one oz. slugs look like I am throwing them by hand. I probably need to try other slug designs, or RB next. I recently acquired a slug barrel with rifle sights, so this should help.

Wayne

[FullTang]

Looking good! I think the key to success (no pun intended) with these Lee slugs is keeping the velocities on the low side, to avoid over-stressing the wad. That seems to be your approach, too. Those Winchester white wads (and the orange equivalent WT12) also give me the best accuracy out of tapered hulls, smooth or rifled. If you get a chance, and you're looking for a straight-walled hull alternative, try the CB3118-12AR (12C1 replacement) wad with a similar load. You might find that's even better, especially with the fully rifled barrel. It all depends on the gun, of course, but I recently picked up a Rossi single shot rifled slug gun, and it likes the WAA12 and the CB3118 as well.

[W.R.Buchanan]

My rifled barrel needs slugs like the STI style Sabots with Insert which fit the bore tighter. It kind annoyed me because I had some loaded in my ammo bag, but just forgot about them, and could have shot some when I was there,, CRS strikes again!!!

Those slugs also work better at lower velocities like 1200-1300fps. I watched a video from Taofledermaus with the STI Slugs and they tried to run them at 1500+ and in every case the insert separated from the Sabot during flight. I have never experienced that at slower but still effective speeds. We need to get Leon to send them some preloaded ammo running at more realistic speeds.

My Lee slugs measure .727 over the wad adn I think the may swell up slightly when fired due to the tapered petals of the wads. IE: Slug being pushed down further in the wad as it accelerates. It wouldn't take much to pickup another .002-003 to make groove dia.

I have to do some more accurate measurements on the ID of the Rifled Choke Tube and see just what the internal dimensions are. I think they are a little tighter than the Rifling in the other barrel.

Randy

[FrankJD]

Purty good stuff, WRB. I've got the 7/8oz mold and will be working up a load soon ... also through a rifled choke.

[longbow]

Randy:

If you want a tighter fit of slug/wad to bore try using a paper tube dropped into the wad before the slug goes in, or cross strips works too. I've used both ways to snug up fit depending on the wad used. Just pick a paper thickness so two times that is how much tighter your fit will be.

If you are using soft lead for the slugs they may swell up some at ignition which should make for a tight bore fit but if the slugs are wheel weights then they won't likely slug up like soft lead.

IIRC Carlson's uses 0.730" groove diameter. I have to wonder why they don't go with a smaller groove diameter like 0.727" or 0.728" so that slugs get a slight swaging when they hit the choke tube. Nominal 12 ga. is 0.729" bore but as you know tolerances vary a lot with shotguns. My single shot Cooey runs 0.733" bore and my Mossberg slugster runs 0.729" bore. I haven't checked my Browning but it has an I/C choke.

Anyway, looks like you have found a good combination!

Looking forward to your next range report!

Longbow

[lar45]

You didn't happen to get any velocities on those GreenDot loads did you?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Lars: no I didn't, but they should be around 1200fps +/-

The whole point of this load was to be the cheapest possible way to shoot slugs there is, that actually delivered acceptable accuracy. It is essentially a trap load with the slug substituted for shot.

The Rifled Choke Tube made the thing accurate to an acceptable degree. Otherwise the gun is a Monkey Wards Bargain Basement Mossberg 500 Pump Gun, that I paid $300 for. I cut the 28" bbl down to 18.5" and had it threaded for Rem Chokes. installed the Magpul Furniture and Williams Sights. I've got about $450-500 total in the gun now. So anyone could do this and be confident they'd be getting a functional Tactical/Hunting Shotgun for a lot less than most current alternatives. M500's are hard to beat as a starting point for a gun like this. I use this gun for my 3 gun shoots. I also shot birdshot thru the Rifled Tube but if there were no slug shots in the stage I'd sub in a I/C or Mod Choke Tube depending on the distance to targets.

Randy

[megasupermagnum]

That's not bad accuracy at all, but you didn't get that good with a .680" to .690" round ball?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Mega: I shot .662 Round Balls but never this tight. Looking to build a heavy duty "Slingshot Rifle" to shoot the .662 balls. That should make and impression on whatever it hits?

It should be noted in all three groups shown above that there were 3 shots thru the same hole on every one! That's what I'm all swelled up about!

Not to mention doing it with a Cheap Shotgun.

Now all we need is for Cal Trans to fix the road that goes up to our range. Now they are talkin' Labor Day? Bet that doesn't happen either. We are working on an alternate plan for access to the range. Hopefully that will come to fruition soon? Here's a pic of one of the big problems.

Randy

[megasupermagnum]

My range isn't looking much better right now, more of a lake than anything. Last year I did a lot of work with the Lyman 525 in rifled barrels. I'm thinking of doing more work with smoothbores this year. I'll definitely try the Lyman 525 more, but I think you have encouraged me to break out the Lee again which will hopefully be better with what I've learned in shooting the Lyman's.

[longbow]

Pshaw! What's wrong with that? There's most of one lane open there!No sense of adventure?

"Not to mention doing it with a Cheap Shotgun." You forgot to include "and with a rifled choke tube and Lee slugs!" That is pretty impressive!

You should try cloth patching the 0.662" RB's into the shot cups and see how they do through a rifled choked tube. They'd need to be a pretty snug fit both to grip the rifling and to transfer the spin without skidding but you are right, a 0.662" RB would sure leave a mark especially if hard cast!

"Looking to build a heavy duty "Slingshot Rifle" to shoot the .662 balls. That should make and impression on whatever it hits?" My eyes and brain played tricks on me and I first read "singleshot"! I wondered why. DOH! Gotta learn to read! Have you been watching Jorg Sprave on the Slingshot Channel?

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yes, YouTube is full of just such devices and some are pretty impressive. Although I haven't seen any "Large Caliber" ones. Most of these are being made in places where they either can't have guns or can't afford them, and some of the ingenuity is interesting because they are being made with little more than a 4" Grinder and a couple of hand tools.

Joerg Sprave is undoubtedly one of the most enthusiastic people on the internet. I found him about 10 years ago and he is as wound up now as he was back then!

Randy

[centershot]

To Randy & longbow, You guys are incorrect about the .662" RB's. I've used them for a couple years to put Bambi in the freezer and I can say, positively, they do not leave a mark of any kind. They do, however, leave a pretty impressive hole! LOL!

[W.R.Buchanan]

LB Please note: I am above that cut out in the road. We got lots of adventure dodging the dump trucks that were continuously hauling dirt on the Sunday we were there!

We drove around it in the Jeep and took a bunch of pics. I should have drive farther up because there is a bunch more damage just a mile further up the road.

It is about 15 miles to our range from my house but it takes right at 30 minutes to get there due to the windiness of the road.

Randy

[Retumbo]

I have always had decent groupings with the Lee 1oz

Here is a target at 70 yards, duct tape is 2" wide

[longbow]

Rifled gun I am assuming?

Components?

Longbow

[Petander]

The whole point of this load was to be the cheapest possible way to shoot slugs there is, that actually delivered acceptable accuracy. It is essentially a trap load with the slug substituted for shot.



Randy

Howdy! Good shooting!

I'm doing the same by using actual factory trap ammo. One gets accurate ,mild recoil practise ammo for a good price.

Today's 20 gauge RB loading pictured here: