Questions on Lee 1 oz cast slug.

[44 WCF]

I clicked wrong button and bought a Lee 1 oz slug mould. I has a machined center post. My question is do these cast a hollow base slug with relatively thin wall skirt and how are these loaded in a case,

[pacomdiver]

they have a strip across the middle all the way thru the hollow base. you put them in a regular wad and fold crimp them. I use a lot of them. the mold comes with a load chart also to get you started

[44 WCF]

Thanks very much. I'll never use it but now least know how they are used

[pacomdiver]

mine shoot pretty accurate out of my smoothbore Mossberg 500 and I load them in the red aa12 wads without changing the setup on my mec loaders

[duckey]

Semi hollow base with a tapered partition. Load em up in plastic hulls with a wad cup. The walls are not to thin. Check out some images on the net for the Lee Drive Key Slug,

[longbow]

I bought a Lee 1 oz. slug mould a couple of years ago. I have not used it much as I have several home made slug moulds and a number of round ball moulds.

As already stated, they are easy to load into standard shotcups and while mine didn't give stellar accuracy at 50 yards (about 4" to 6" groups) they shot better than many hollow base slugs I have tried. I have the Lyman Foster slug mould as well and have had trouble getting groups under 8" at 50 yards and most are larger so the Lee slug was certainly better than that.

The mould comes with load data and you can also use regular equal weight birdshot load data as well though the velocity will be less than dedicated slug recipes.

You can also use factory 1 oz. to 1 1/8 oz. shells by opening the crimp, dumping the shot and replacing with Lee slug. You may have to add some card wads to space the slug correctly but it is doable without shotshell reloading gear... for a few anyway.

Longbow

[rbuck351]

I bought one not long ago and find it works fairly well. I used the supplied data but haven't checked it for vel yet. Judging from recoil, it's moving pretty fast. All I have for sights is the std shotgun bead and a smooth bore barrel. Accuracy is as good as the sights which is better than I thought it would be. I think about 100yds is as far as I would be comfortable shooting a deer sized critter. I had to use a fine file on the base plug to get it to release the slug.

[OnHoPr]

As stated above "Semi hollow base with a tapered partition." It is a very solid slug compared to the actual Foster style. The Drive Key really prevents a lot of set back issues as well as not flattening like a pancake when minor brush is encountered as well as deeper driving into game. I think the tapered sides hinder its performance across the board. A IMO concerning factor is the way your individual guns forcing cone or lead is designed in how well it will perform in the accuracy department. You really don't need to push it that fast to be effective. Any where in the 1200 to 1600 fps range should do fine out to a !00 yds if you can get the to shoot well enough.

[savage308]

I love them and shoot thousands(I know you don't believe it but I do) I have the 1oz and 7/8 and shoot more of the 7/8. I have done the remove shot from cheap Walmart win shells and replace with the slug and they shoot great for me. I have also loaded many hundreds in cheddite hulls with a fed so wad and carefully load the slug into the wad so that the ridge in the bottom of the slug lines up with the center support post of the fed so wad and they release great and I have better luck than most.

[44 WCF]

That is Amazing,, I sure appreciate your taking time to share. These have to deliver enormous close range knock down

[rsrocket1]

Some 50 yard groups with different loads. You can see that the charge can make a difference in groupings.
This is through my 26" Remington 1100 with an IC choke, vent rib with a single bead sight. Not great, but certainly fun to shoot.
The one on the lower left was with a Claybuster Lightning wad, 18.6g Red Dot in a Remington Gun Club hull.
Average MV = 1217 fps.

[44 WCF]

RsRocket1 ,,bet it's a hoot and sure wish I wouk have known bout these when we used
shoot 3 gun cowboy. We used heavy poppers that 38 spec and 7/8 oz target loads wouldn't knock over. These have to have some whack. Thanks for sharing

[rsrocket1]

At first, I was using slug load data but they were really hot loads and beating up my shoulder even though I was shooting them out of a gas gun (Rem 1100). Then used 1 oz plain shot loads and seeking 1200 fps and they now feel like regular target loads. Very manageable and fun to shoot.

[44 WCF]

I've never fired a slug from a shotgun. Are the barrels all smooth bore, how do you impart spin to the slug

[Blood Trail]

I've never fired a slug from a shotgun. Are the barrels all smooth bore, how do you impart spin to the slug

Not all slug barrels are smooth. I have a rifled Mossberg 835 that shoots 3 inch groups with Remington accutips all day.

I load the Lee slug in PT1205 and PT1215 wads. I recently loaded up some in Nobel wads. The wads cat if the lans and grooves of the riffling and impart a spin in a rifled barrel.

[44 WCF]

It has been very informative thread. Thanks to all

[OnHoPr]

i have shot numerous very good groups with them in my gun. A couple were in the 5 shot one ragged hole @ 50 yds and about an inch. But, they where not consistently repeatable. The next same test group would throw 3 in a real good group, but with 2 flyers at 4 to 6". No matter what load I did that showed promise, 2" groups @ 50 or less, if I repeated the with more of the same test load I would get flyers. Henseforth, depending on the gun, l presume the forcing cone characteristics like I mentioned above. They wads would be inconsistent and all tore up in some shot cases. This site has about six months of reading in the archives about reloading the Lee slug. A number with success and a quite a few with dismal results. But, it also depended on the shooter and his/her expectations. Mine were 3 or 4" at 100 yds where as where somebody hunting in the thicker stuff was satisfied with 5 or 6" @ 50 yds like for hogs at close range.

[rsrocket1]

In a smooth bore, there is no spin. The slug travels like a Revolutionary War Brown Bess ball with a slightly lighter projectile (1 oz vs 1.2 oz) but with a slightly higher muzzle velocity (12-1500 fps vs 1000 fps). It can be accurate to 50-75 yards but can still lethal at 200 yards. I've found pretty good accuracy with a snug fitting wad shooting it through an open choke barrel using 1 ounce standard shot loads at standard shot velocities (1200 fps).

[Hogtamer]

Reading OHHOPR reply reminded me of the ultimately frustrating thing about these slugs: consistency. A lot of folks have devoted a lot of time and resources, scores of combinations of powder and wads, and come up with a great load. Then it seems the wheels come off. Now, the logical answer can only be slight differences in wad pressure and crimp. I've produced loads that with witnesses that were amzing at 100 yds and then SOMETHING changes! Same gun, same loads, same meathead cast them (me). One thing I have not tried however is loading them in 3" hulls, so that's the next project for me with a batch I got from the aforementioned poster. I now have a 3" smoothbore. There's just something compelling about the potential to move from buckshot to slugs out of a smoothbore as conditions dictate (think hogs in the edge of a field @ 75 yds that run at the shot of a slug into thick palmetto where 20 yds and in is realistic). Yep, back to work on that and I'll keep you posted.

[BNE]

Great thread. Thanks