I get the emails from Ballistic Products when they produce a new "Load of the Week". One of the recent ones was for the Lyman 20ga sabot slug. Since I had never tried it and hearing all the bad press it has gotten in the past I figured I would try it. Let me fast forward and say the load was a failure. After five rounds there was a light wash of lead in the barrel and groups were about 6" at 25 yards. But, since I now had the mold and some additional slugs cast I pulled out my Lyman 5th Edition Shotgun reloading manual. I initially tried the Universal load in the Cheddite hull and WAA-20 wad. The group was better, but not great. I then dug through my powder stash and found I had some SR-4756 and Bluedot, but no Titewad or enough HS-7 to matter. So I loaded 5 Cheddites with the SR-4756 and Federal 20S1 wads. The result was as follows:
The recoil of the Universal and Cheddite load will get your attention, but not what I was looking for. Next I loaded three loads using Federal 3" cases with Universal, SR-4756, and Bluedot.
Universal with WAA20 and 28ga 1/8" fiber wad seemed to be the best. The sabots(wads) are in good shape
SR-4756 with the PC-20 wad was the slowest and lowest pressure. Had a "different" sound. I only managed to find three of the sabots. All of them showed signs of extreme distress. Not a good load.
Bluedot with the Federal 20S1 and 28ga 1/8" fiber came in second. But not as good grouping as the Universal load. Also, a lot more recoil. The sabots showed a little distress, but are still in one piece. I have found a really accurate and consistent sabot slug load has to have sabots that stay together and do their job of spinning the slug and protecting the slug as it transits the barrel. Having seen how 105mm sabot rounds function in an M60 tank gives a good lesson on what works. I will load some more of the Universal in Federal cases and try them at 50 yards. I may even scope the 870 to see how well I can make it shoot.
Bill