MiHec 12ga .678" & .732" Round Balls ~ Any Field Results?

[Hogtamer]

I loaded and shot a bunch of Uncle D's 12 and 20 ga plastic base full bore slugs. 1 1/16 vs 3/4 oz slugs. You gotta have a lot more punch to move the heavier slug past brickbat velocity to 100 yds. I loaded the 3/4 oz slug to 1700 fps and shot out of a lighter gun and there is a lot less recoil vs 1 1/16 @ 1500 fps. Somebody with a sharper pencil could quantify that I'm sure. And like I said, the years are creeping up on me, 65 next month Lord willing. As for steel shot wads yes they make much better savots but are longer and very tapered. I worked up a 2-ball load in 3" 12 ga that worked great with some steel wads, 1 1/2 oz, balls 2-4" apart at 50 yds. But I had to put a couple 28 ga cards in the bottom as .600 ball would bulge wad near bottom. Patched the top ball with shot-wad thin petals for a good fit. Great results but HEAVY recoil. A heavy gun mitigates that to some extent but then you have to lug it around. The hubel sabots worked really well just needed the right size lead to fit and still hoping to get some more. Those savots are very thick amd will take a .575 projectile of the right height. As for the .678 they are great at 50 yds, good at 75 and will kill anything in the lower 48 at least. This last batch used a different but similar wad and the Steel powder charge I used wasn't quite hefty enough. They are a great fit in several wads I have and while I didn't shoot them out of smoothbore I'm sure would be at least as good as the Lees to 50 yds.

[ihunts2much]

I would like to get the .678 balls velocity up with factory slugs. Longshot data starts at 1 1/8 oz, and this ball barely tops an ounce. Steel powder has some impressive speed in 1 oz data, but all the recipes are with steel shot wads. Is there any data for this powder in a 1 oz lead load I can adapt to the lead ball?

[longbow]

Well, so far I have to say that the round ball loads out of rifled gun aren't seeming as accurate as I would have expected. That may be the ball in shotcup issue with small bearing area and slippage or petal damage.

Those 0.735" RB's I shot from the borrowed Remington rifled gun gave pretty impressive accuracy at 50 yards. I wish I had more to try at 100 yards but I doubt I could have taken much more recoil that day anyway.

I am currently contemplating buying a rifled gun and may just do it. Then I can test my bore size slugs based on turbo's design, the Nessler balls, more 0.735" RB's and 0.678" RB's in shotcups. I have to think that using a shotcup in a rifled gun is introducing another component and source of error where a bore size ball or slug should be just a large boolit. Any inaccuracy there has to be in the gun (loose pump gun barrels) and/or imbalance in large slugs... and maybe the jump through the forcing cone.

I find that my smoothbore round ball loads seem to do as well as most of the rifled gun results out to 50 yards anyway and that surprises me some.

Hope fully I will be out shooting shortly. I've got lots of slugs cast up:

- 50 Lee 7/8 oz.
- 60 Lee 1 oz.
- 60 or so of my full bore HB slugs based on turbo's design
- 25 or so Nessler balls
- 10 copper skirted 0.678" RB's
- 10 copper skirted TC slugs from a home made mould
- 10 or so TC HB slugs from a home made mould
- 10 or home made Brenneke style slugs

Now to load up and shoot... but maybe not all in one range session!

The Nessler balls and full bore slugs have been knurled up then sized to about 0.001" under bore size so barely a slip fit. The Nessler balls shot okay last time out but nearly as accurately as history says they should shoot... though that was from muzzleloaders.

I will also try the opening up factory rounds, dumping the shot then adding a 0.678" RB to see just how well that works. MikeinPeru says he gets about the same accuracy doing that with 0.680" RB's as I get with my good handloads with RB's and that is 3" to 4" at 50 yards. It is at longer ranges where RB in smoothbore loses out.

In my experience anyway.

Longbow