Rifled Slug Mold

[OutHuntn84]

Hey guys did some search'n on the site and didn't find anything on this. I have scowered the internet and can't find anything on it. So now I'm asking yall!

Is there such a beast as a mold that casts RIFLED Hollow Based 1oz slugs for a 12gauge, just like the ones I buy at the store to shoot through my smoothbore shotgun.

If there is not can one be made? How do the manufactures make theres? Pros- Cons? Ect.Ect.Ect

Thanks in advance for the help guys, keep up the good work

[Hardcast416taylor]

OutHuntn84, I hate to be the one to burst your balloon, but the rifling marks on a lead slug mean nothing as far as accuracy. They were/are a manfacturing "gimmick" to make the public believe these grooves will make the slug fly more accurately. In a smooth bore barrel due to the fact they are soft lead not saboted, they will not start rotating to make a more accurate projectile for the lack of a rifled barrel. Lyman makes a slug mold, minus the "rifling" grooves as does LEE which again does not have the rifling marks. People will argue with me on this about how accurate they are out of Gran`pa`s long Tom shotgun. But the fact remains there is nothing to effect rotational spin to stabilize them in flight. And being soft lead will foul a rifled slug barrel by themselvesRobert

[docone31]

I had held off on answering this one.
Hardcast, you are correct.
I saw a write up years ago, on rifled slugs, and smooth sided slugs. The rifled slugs performed worse than the smooth sided slugs. There was a case where a wad card helped with one.
I would get the Lee and rock and roll.

[Storydude]

Hey guys did some search'n on the site and didn't find anything on this. I have scowered the internet and can't find anything on it. So now I'm asking yall!

Is there such a beast as a mold that casts RIFLED Hollow Based 1oz slugs for a 12gauge, just like the ones I buy at the store to shoot through my smoothbore shotgun.

If there is not can one be made? How do the manufactures make theres? Pros- Cons? Ect.Ect.Ect

Thanks in advance for the help guys, keep up the good work

Yep, there was, and I sold one not too long ago here.

Oh and the "rifling" on a Foster style slug is not for directional stability..It's to allow for Swaging down with safety through a full or Improved choke.

[beagle]

Yeah, thaink that's what the rifling was for and it was swaged on after casting as well as I recall from the old days./beagle

[turbo1889]

Yes, the only useful purpose of rifling on slugs is to allow the slugs to more easily swage down if they are fired in a gun with tight choke constriction. They do not impart any spin while in Supersonic or Transonic flight due to the fact that any torque wind-vane effect that could possibly be produced by the twisted rifling grooves is prevented by the super-sonic shock wave forming a cone off the slugs nose. Now in strictly technical terms twisted deep groove rifling on a slug traveling at sub-sonic (basically 1,000 fps and less) is capable of imparting a slow lazy spin to the slug, however, in practical terms the spin is too slow of an RPM to do much for stability and is produced at too low of velocity to be generally practical.

Now, as far as how commercial rifled slugs are produced; they are swaged not cast. To cast lead you melt it and pore it into a mold and let it harden end then remove it from the mold. When you swage lead you have a very strong die usually of tool steel that solid lead is rammed and pressed into usually via hydraulic rams for commercial operations. Obviously this takes incredible pressures usually in the 10,000+ PSI range. Due to the nature of swaging where the lead is rammed in and extracted in a lengthwise direction rather then a two piece separation mold longitudinal rifling grooves are much easier to produce via swaging then molding.

It is possible to accomplish such an operation at home with your own press and die set-up. Due to the leverage and effort required basically any slug larger then 28ga. will require a hydraulic press set-up because trying to do it with hand leverage is impractical (Think, standing on a 6 foot cheater bar on your reloading press - not going to work). Some guys use a hydraulic bottle jack in a steel frame mount. I personally have designed a 410 slug swaging die that produces a slug with straight rifling grooves that allow the slug to be fired in even a full choke gun without any danger of damaging the choke. The rifling is straight because there is no reason to complicate things by adding twist that doesn't do anything; straight rifling is KISS design and works like it is suppose to for safety in choked guns. You can check out my project at this link if you wish:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=41865

Now it is also theoretically possible to produce molds that will drop slugs that have straight rifling grooves as well. It, however, presents an extra and complex machining step though. Basically a hollow base slug mold is made via regular mold production methods and then each half of the slug mold is centered and clamped below a milling machine head a small diameter ball end mill cutter is used to cut rifling grooves at the parting line of the mold and in the depth of the cavity to bring the mold out to full bore diameter. Conceivably, provided that the diameter of the ball end cutter was at least as much as the amount the main body of the mold was under bore size either 4, 6, or 8 evenly spaced rifling grooves could be cut and still allow a two part mold to open and drop the slugs. If the diameter of the ball end cutter was less then the amount that the main body was under bore size then only 4 rifling grooves could be cut. Obviously two such additional detailed and tedious machining operations would add significant expense to the mold. It's probably a heck of a lot easier and simpler to just buy an IC choke tube for when your shooting slugs and have a full bore diameter mold cut.

[OutHuntn84]

Yep, there was, and I sold one not too long ago here.

Oh really yea great! Thanks for tell'n me
But now I know they do exist! If you dont mind, why did you sell it?

Thanks turbo for the detailed info on the manufacturing end of making rifled slugs. I'll check your project out asap.
Thanks to all for the information. Its given me alot to think about. Still interested in getting one like storydude was talking about for strictly pig headed purposes. I'm just getting into the art of slug shooting, so keep the knowledge coming.

[Storydude]

Never really used it and couldn't get reloaded slugs to pattern good enough for my tastes.( I have both Lee 12G slugs)

I now just reload Buckshot for to blast TV's and stoves with

[Bloodman14]

If anyone comes across a 12 g. rifled barrel, say 20 inches long, for a Winchester 1300 5 shot, let me know. Mods, please move thread, if necessary.

[HORNET]

You might want to check out some of the threads down in the "Casting for Shotguns" forum. It's down the main forums index page a ways. I recall Hubel458 doing some painful sounding research projects with heavy slugs.

[DODGEM250]

I know this thread is old, but, has anyone ever actually cast a rifled slug from an aftermarket mold ? I'd love to see a photo of one.