Lee 1 oz Key Drive...but let's make it more difficult.

[armoredman]

I was given some 1 oz Lee Key Drive slugs and I would like to use them appropriately. I understand the Lee Key Drive slug can be, problematic, as the Leftists say, in ordinary shotgun rifled barrels or rifled choke tubes, but I don't have that option.



Now we further restrict that to right barrel only, because it has IC, and the left barrel is Modified Choke. Smoothbore, no add on choke tubes.


[Billy Mays Voice] But wait, there's more! [/Billy Mays Voice]

I don't load normal shotgun shells. I do not have a MEC loader and lack the dies that might fit in my Lee Challenger set up. So I use BRASS shells.



And just to throw an additional monkey wrench...I load them with black powder. Olde Eysnford 3F or home made 65% 3F.

I am willing to bet some experienced shotgun loaders just threw up their hands, "Well, looks like you got troubles, laddie!"
Yeah, not really - this is an experiment. Lacking any real understanding of HOW w Key Drive works, I did load up some shells just like my shot loads, with the bare slug dropped on top of a fiber wad. AFTER that, I was told I have to have a wad that grips the slug for it to actually work in a smoothbore. I don't know, I haven't fired any of these loads, but with what I know now, they might be good at 5 yards, great for front door defense.
I've been loading pistol and rifle for 20 years, casting about 15 years, so I know enough to get out of my own way, but with shotgun? I know enough just to load these brass MagTech shells for Cowboy Action.



Any thoughts from those who know?

[FullTang]

Lee slugs are sabot slugs, and they're usually about 0.685 in diameter; if they're soft (mostly) lead, they have no problem squeezing through a modified choke. In fact, that sometimes aids with accuracy. A lot of BP guys seem to believe that plastic wads will be incinerated by black powder, gunk up their pristine barrels, and can never be used. I'm not sure I believe this, but one workaround is to only use the shot cup from a conventional plastic wad, then put nitro cards under it to protect from the 10 million degree gas generated by the BP. You could always lube the wad with something like Crisco, or any kind of non-petroleum based lube (which might actually damage the plastic over time). The only hard part in any of this is the possibility that the slugs in shot cups might be too tight to fit into the brass shells, though the lube would help here.

[rbuck351]

The only way I know to find out is to shoot some. I suspect they will work ok well beyond 5 yds.

[W.R.Buchanan]

You are making the way too complicated. Just buy a 12 ga Lee Classic Loader off Ebay (plenty there today and several under $50) and you will have all the tools you need to load plastic hulls with slugs. Brass hulls too.

As stated in Post #2 Lee Slugs need to be loaded in a wad that increases the Dia. to closer to the Bore Dia. or else accuracy will be non extant.

See the post above "Fold Crimp vs. Roll Crimp and why?".

Randy

[243winxb]

Slug needs the wad. As said above.

[armoredman]

You are making the way too complicated. Just buy a 12 ga Lee Classic Loader off Ebay (plenty there today and several under $50) and you will have all the tools you need to load plastic hulls with slugs. Brass hulls too.

As stated in Post #2 Lee Slugs need to be loaded in a wad that increases the Dia. to closer to the Bore Dia. or else accuracy will be non extant.

See the post above "Fold Crimp vs. Roll Crimp and why?".

Randy

Going with what I have on hand. Thank you for the suggestion.

[armoredman]

Well, ya'll were right.

This is at 10 yards with 80 grains of Olde Eysnford 3F.



This is the last one...moved the target back to 25 yards, still on target.



I guess I'll just make more of these.

[troy_mclure]

Nice. What's the recoil like on that load?

[armoredman]

A wee bit stiff. Not horrible.

[trapper9260]

If the recoil is too much , add a recoil pad . It will take care of the problem. I had it done on my muzzle loaders when I found out what I needed to shoot out of it and had problem with the recoil . Talked with my friend the gunsmith and he fixed the problem . Just to give a idea of how to take care of if there is a recoil issues .

[armoredman]

I never said it was too bad, where did you get that? I also have a recoil pad on the shotgun, came factory with it. I don't mind the push from black powder - my SON is the one who is recoil averse.

[GooseGestapo]

I’ve made card stock wads (shot cups) by cutting a template in the form of an X, the width the same as bore diameter. Petals to match the length of the slug.
Thickness of the card stock to bring diameter to .730” bore size.
You pre-fold the petals to form a cup. Insert with a wad seater.
Or, you can cut a wrapper/sleeve…
Also have used Teflon and masking tape…
Good results to 20-25yds…
Also suggest filling base void wi RTV silicon sealer. Allow a little overfill and a card wad under slug. Has the same effect as the Federal “power-ball” to obturate the slug to the bore.
It seems the brisance of the BP is already doing it!

[Moleman-]

I've tried the Lee slugs with WAA12 wads and they shot decent groups at 100yds out of a couple different rifled slug barrels if the wad didn't stick to the slug causing a flyer. . A shot card under the slug helped with flyers but the groups opened up quite a bit. I tried filling the cavity but those also didn't shoot as well as with the drive key exposed minus the flyers from the wads sticking to them. Was going to make a new mold bottom with a Y or an X in it vs the bar to see if that helped, but about that time MI opened up my hunting zone to straight walled cartridges and I haven't hunted with a slug gun since.

[armoredman]

I’ve made card stock wads (shot cups) by cutting a template in the form of an X, the width the same as bore diameter. Petals to match the length of the slug.
Thickness of the card stock to bring diameter to .730” bore size.
You pre-fold the petals to form a cup. Insert with a wad seater.
Or, you can cut a wrapper/sleeve…
Also have used Teflon and masking tape…
Good results to 20-25yds…
Also suggest filling base void wi RTV silicon sealer. Allow a little overfill and a card wad under slug. Has the same effect as the Federal “power-ball” to obturate the slug to the bore.
It seems the brisance of the BP is already doing it!

Interesting ideas, sir.

[Hamish]

re: Recoil.

Add another fibre wad and cut the powder a corresponding amount. Bet you and your son will like it. And don’t be afraid to shoot that slug through the left barrel, I shot a ton of those slugs through a full choke H&R single barrel long ago, long before we “knew” that was a no-no.

[rsrocket1]

Sorry, I made it too simple. I use Claybuster wads. I started with 8 petal Windjammer wads. They have much thinner petals than Rem/Win/Fed 4 petal wads. I used 24g Unique for 1358 fps out of my 1100 IC gun. They are pretty punishing. I also tried 18.5g Red Dot for 1217 fps using the taller Lightning wad. I settled "skeet/trap target loads" at 1185 fps using 18g Titegroup. I can shoot these all day long without fatigue

What the wad/slugs look like in a Gun Club hull:



Complete stack with powder:



All set to go using my Mec9000GN:



Test shots. This is with just a vent rib shotgun:



Punishing 2 liter soda bottles: