Getting back into shotgun slugs

[fiver]

that's quite the piece of machining.

you don't have to sort those old AA's they are just different colors of the same thing.
the green STS hull and the gold Nitro are also the same thing in a different color.
[although the green ones do have a lot fewer crimp fold issues for me the first time through]

 

[Rally]

Tomme Boy,
Thanks, they have the .125 16 ga. I'll order some tomorrow.
Your about the same distance as I am from BPI and it took 14 days to get my last order a couple weeks ago. They can't blame it on delivery times because I've been shipping with Speedy, USPS, and UPS all three in the last 3 months with close to correct delivery estimates.
I'm still waiting on a gun stock that I paid for almost a month ago and still haven't received. I actually ordered two at the same time, one was in stock and took three weeks to get, the other is a "cut" item, so I expect it to take longer, but they should charge a customers card when they ship it, not a month ahead of that delivery.

Will,
Looks like you may have had some dirt or lead on the pin of that slug mould that was holding it slightly open to get a fin like that. I did the same thing once and cleaned where the pin and mould meet, and it eliminated the fins.
I also polished the pin with Synthetic two cycle oil and real fine steel wool, and a fine file on the inside of the drive key portion to eliminate some burs. Really helped with release.

 

[Tomme boy]

Fiver, In the past I color coded what I loaded. Green was buckshot and gold was slugs. I had some of the newer HS win hulls but gave up on them. They were shorter and most were split on the first firing. Plus if you loaded them lite the wad would get stuck on the lips of the base wad. Not worth it to mess around with them.

I found a LFRB last night of Federal buckshot hulls. They have a basewad the same as the old Active hulls. There looks like there is no basewad. The base looks like it is about a1/16" thick. Just like the actives. I don't remember where I got these.

 

[fiver]

yeah a lot of guys struggle with those newer AA hulls.
there are a couple of wads that work with them and others that will catch and try to tip sideways.
compound the problem by them changing the lip a couple of times and I can see where it's been an issue.

I know down range makes a wad specifically for the new AA hulls, it has a slight taper at the base.
I normally use the windjammer wad in them, but also use the figure-8 wad in the new grey hulls for my mid range target/grouse loads.


Federal.
man,,, they have changed their hulls so many times in the last couple of years I'm having a hard time keeping up with them.
they had that purple Rio hull with the tall brass that took the Rio primer.
[it seemed like a good hull until you reloaded it and shot it again, then had about a 5-10% fail rate of some sort or other]

their top gun hull with paper base wad, then another one running concurrently that has a plastic base disc.[both with brass wash or not brass wash steel heads]
they also had their regular cheddite type gold medal hull, and the Estate hull which was red and had the same paper base wad as the top gun.
then they had the hull you have which is sort of a modified gold medal hull.
I'm not even gonna go into the 3" hulls they have, or the 2-3/4" hunting hulls you'd pick up here and there.

I'm kinda waiting to see if they do away with the paper base hulls or not, that plastic disc steel head with the brass wash seems like it is where they will be going.
the steel on those heads seems really hard, which can pose problems wearing down equipment, and can even start to swage out the chamber on some guns.

 

[RBHarter]

Never mind that the base wad hight changed with shot charge weight in the steel shot cases and you had a 1 in chance for a tube shoot off ..... Good times . I started shooting the Fiocchi clear low base high brass once I had the load with the CSD 118 for 1-1/6 of 1s or Bs with a meat tray wad it was golden . Alas 4756 is gone .

 

[Rally]

I take great pleasure in putting Federal hulls in the garbage.

Tomme Boy,
I don't think BPI gets their nitro cards from Gun Works. BPI's measure .670 and Gun Works specs theirs at .675. I'll tell you more when I get them, just ordered 4K.

 

[fiver]

@Rally are these for inside a 12ga. wad?

 

[Rally]

Yep, but not all makes. Pretty tight with the Remington and Hornady wads, but work well with the WAA12F114 and Clay Buster copy.

 

[fiver]

yeah they somehow manage to make the wads different thicknesses, and the cups come tapered or ribbed, then throw in the different powder cup shapes and diameters.
it makes life sumthin miserable when your dealing with buck shot too.

I think one of the best and worst things I ever done was to start measuring hulls and wads... LOL.

 

[Rally]

Me too Fiver! These nitro cards have made quite a difference for launching the Lee slugs, and the wads tell the story when recovered.
I own many thousand fiber wads in different gauges, and seem to acquire more every year at garage sales. I played with them a bunch when stationed down in Texas, looking to make spreader loads while shooting doves over stock tanks. I had a used Rem. 1100 12 ga. with a cutts compensator on the end of it, with several choke tubes. Learned a bunch with that gun, and killed a bunch of dove, some were half skun when I hit them, some had single pellet kills. Several multiple bird shots! Amazing what a cloud of #8's will do inside 15 yards! LOL Then I got a Rem. 1100 in .410, had to pay attention when hunting with that one. One half to 11/16 oz of 8's is pretty humbling!
To add: About the buckshot. Half the reason I got the BPI nitro cards in .70 is to try inside the shotcup with the 9 pellet 00. After recovering a few wads, I'm thinking it may help eliminate the wad deformation some also.

 

[Tomme boy]

They get them from circlefly not Gunworks. I found a couple bags of 20 ga cards I had ordered from BP a long time ago and they had a circlefly sticker on one of them. One bag had the bp logo the other was circlefly. I have never ordered from anywhere other than bp. I got all my steel shot stuff from them too.

Ran into a little problem tonite seating primers in the Federal buckshot hulls. The primer was sticking out of the base more than I like. Ended up seating the primer then putting a washer for a #10 bolt on the top of the primer seater to seat it the rest of the way.

The bp order came today. It showed shipped late last night. But the tracking # was no good. But it was on my door steps today. I not like the roll crimp tool that I ordered. I ruined a couple hulls trying to get it to work. It is the single pin one bp makes. I thought I got the 2 or 3 pin one but must not have looked close enough. Oh well.

Drove around to 4 places today looking for #4 wood screws to attach the slug to the brush wad. I loaded up about 15 shells to get the gun sighted in and get an idea at least how they work. I did a few mexican match loads with the Lee 1oz slug just for the heck of it. 1 1/8oz danarms #7.5 shot I dumped the shot then slid the slug in the wad and gave it a small roll crimp. I did this before and got a 6" group at 50yds with my smooth bore deer barrel. I want to see if they improve with the rifled barrel.

The win hulls were extremely tight loading them 24.5gr herco, x12x gas seal, short brushwad attached to the slug, then fold crimped 5 then roll crimped 5.

I then loaded the federal hulls with the same 24.5 herco, x12x seal, 3/8" fiberwad, 1/8" nitro card then the brushwad and slug. These fit really nice and have a nice fold crimp.

Going to see if the old lady wants to go to the farm and shoot tomorrow. I need to bring my wood stove up to the shooting shack anyway. Got tired of the kerosene heater always going out and filling the shack up with unburned fuel oil.

 

[fiver]

you'll probably see a difference between the roll and fold crimped shells.
your gonna have 15-1600 psi different pressures with them.


might wanna try a felt wad under that buckshot, I know it makes a difference in my steel shot loads, and it made a big difference in some 1-1/4oz. #5 shot loads I loaded in steel shot wads.

that high speed experiment turned out to be too much of a good thing...LOL.... more than a one foot lead at 40-45yds. was too much.
but it'd sure dump a duck or pheasant, unless they were any closer than about that same 40 yds, then it just produced feather rain poofs,, and a round of laughter and several mincemeat type jokes from the BIL's.

 

[Tomme boy]

Buckshot? This is a buckshot hull. I have 20ga and 16ga felt wads but not 12. Put it where?

 

[fiver]

under the shot, it's just a release aid.
for a slug in a wad I'd use a card it helps square things up.

 

[Tomme boy]

That's what I thought you meant. This slug is a full bore slug so not needed.

I was thinking about getting some 3/8" hard felt to make the attached wad like the old brenneke slugs were made. Kind of pricey though. Looks like I might just order some 3/8 or 1/2" hard cards. I don't think the fiber wads I have would hold up to the flight.

 

[fiver]

didn't the brenneke's have a gas seal attached to the base?

 

[Tomme boy]

They had a 1/8" nitro, 3/8" felt, then another 1/8" nitro. Guessing 3/8". I have only had recovered ones from mining the birms. Last ones I bought had a plastic cola[sable post and cup tailwad.

 

[Rally]

cast e few of the Lee 7/8 oz slugs yesterday. Intended to do more but one of my moulds’ spruce plate retaining screws stripped out. Turned the pots off and fixed the problem. Ran a 1/4 x20 screw all the way through it and peened the bottom so it shouldn’t be a problem again. Not much metal around the hardware on these slug moulds.

 

[hrpenley]

View attachment 18984View attachment 18985
cast e few of the Lee 7/8 oz slugs yesterday. Intended to do more but one of my moulds’ spruce plate retaining screws stripped out. Turned the pots off and fixed the problem. Ran a 1/4 x20 screw all the way through it and peened the bottom so it shouldn’t be a problem again. Not much metal around the hardware on these slug moulds.

I love those for target shooting with the AR12, not much kick, accurate enough and plenty of bang for bottles, cans, bricks and anything else we put in front of them....... oh ya and paper targets too....

 

[Tomme boy]

Hand was feeling pretty good today so I cast up about 50 or so of the slugs today. Started off was not getting good fill out and was getting some more inclusions. So I dropped in some wax a couple times and got a little lead oxides to come out of the lead.

So started again and was not getting the fill out I wanted. Dropped in some pewter. Did not weigh it. I use those SS condiment cups from walmart. I fill them to about 1/8" off the bottom. That was what I threw in. MAN! What a difference. All the frosting that was in spots all over the slugs was gone. And as shiny as could be. Whatever the lead is @CWLONGSHOT would have to chime in It was what he sent me but it is really soft.

Thing is, they weigh 450gr so just a couple less than before. They must be getting filled out really well. I weighed 10 and the lightest was 449.7gr and the heaviest was 450.3gr. Thats pretty good considering the removable pin.