Diving into slugs now advice?

[tabascoz28]

I know I should start a shotgunworld account but I think there's enough general knowledge here so I'll ask:

I bought a group of 100 random slugs thinking I'd get a variation, turns out there was only one 3/4 oz slug, everything else was 1oz.

The videos I've seen up all show people loading up drive key or lyman slugs which fit inside the wad cup/petals. One person had what looked like one of my slugs with no petals on their wad.

I'm not looking for the fastest round or the most accurate, just enough to hit some targets downrange. I don't want to spend more money for a roll crimp so I'll be folding them like all my other shells.

It seems to me that I'll have to cut those petals down as the slugs barely fit inside gun club hulls and fit perfectly inside federal hulls. Does that sound right?

[theLBC]

federal truball slugs are the most accurate if you can load something like that.

[DueceMcGurk]

FortuneCookie45LC has done some good videos on slug reloading.

[FLIGHT762]

O/P, you know the difference between tapered hulls and straight hulls? Find proper loading data for the hull & wad needed. Not all wads and hulls will work together, as you found out.

You can run into dangerous pressures stuffing a tapered hull with the improper wad.

[donnrcp]

[maxx03]

Try using a federal hull with that slug. It will work if you cut the petals like you said when using a wad.
I personally use a Federal hull with a Lyman Foster slug a BP gas seal and BP hard card underneath the slug then roll crimp. Very accurate out to 100 yds.

[tabascoz28]

Yep, rem gun club hulls with waa12sl and federal with 12s0. I've pretty much settled on just shooting 1oz loads all around but I have a closet full of other wads that I tried for 1.125 and 1.25 loads.

Cutting the pedals seems to work for both, but I noticed that those rem hulls are thick. Probably slugs only in feds from now on. I'll try other hulls with more powder later when I am more comfortable with the recipes and chrono data.

[anyracoon]

Just stick to published loads, other wise you could be very sorry that you didn't!

[tabascoz28]

So I got this from the hodgdon website and it showed 3 available slugs at 1oz each. But I'm not sure what kind of slugs they are. I'm assuming that the Lee Precision is the drive key slug which fits in a wad cup like a sabot and measures about .670 in diameter (researched). The slugs that I got were all rifled slugs measuring .730 +/- in diameter. I am going out to Bass Pros today and I want to pick up a book which honestly I've been trying to avoid to cut expenses. I thought I'd be able to use the online resources but it seems like they all give you some data but missing others. I can't even begin to decipher what is going on with the Slugmaster wad info...

[rsrocket1]

My limited experience (long winded)

That load is going to kick pretty good.
I shoot 1 oz cast Lee slugs at 1200 fps and they are very pleasant shooting.



These slugs fit in shotshells with the right wad in the conventional manner. You need thin petaled wads without a rib in the petal. I use Claybuster Lightning and Windjammer wads with a conventional crimp.





Most slug shooters use slugs for hunting so a couple good wallops to the shoulder are no problem. I'm just blasting so I shoot a box full at a time and after 5-6 shots of 1400 fps

I've only sighted in these loads once at 25 yards because all I have to shoot them in is an I.C. Remington 1100 with a vent rib and a front bead so I could only look down the edge of the rib to get a really accurate bullseye sight. Yes I did shoot these over a chronograph and no I didn't shoot the chrono but I do use wooden skyscreen supports so when the wad takes a hard turn out of the barrel, it's easy to replace.



Most of my blasting is to let my kids shoot 2 liter soda bottles at about 10 yards. Always take your trash home after you're done.



Disclaimer: This worked safely for me, load outside published data at your own risk.

You can use published load data for 3/4 ounce shot loads with 3/4 oz slugs provided you use the published hull, wad, powder and primer. You can do the same with 1 ounce loads and 1 ounce slugs. The wad does virtually all the compressing during the initial part of the powder burn so it's not like a rigid slug causes much higher pressures than a tightly packed volume of shot balls. If the wad base is incompressible, then maybe but even a fiber wad compresses slightly.

I load mostly 3/4 oz shot loads for skeet and trap and the tough part is getting enough pressure for a clean burn without driving the shot too fast and ruining the pattern so I use the fastest powder possible and a hot Fed 209A or CCI 209M primer.

You might want to go over to castboolits for some more wisdom even if you use commercial slugs rather than your own cast slugs.

The good thing about these slug loads is that the cost is the same as reloading shotshells. Same amount of powder, same wad, same primer and same amount of lead. About 15 cents per shot when lead is $1 per pound. I couldn't imagine shooting slugs at $1/shot

Hope that helps

[hermosabeach]

I have never reloaded slugs. My 1st thought is to ask one of the front sight students in your area who is a forum member to grab 200-1000 hulls from the range after a shotgun class has fired a ton of slugs.

[tabascoz28]

Got the Lyman 5th today. Time to turn some paper pages.

[donnrcp]

Enjoy the Lyman manual.


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