Cast your own 12 gauge slugs

[hawaii five-0 0]

I got a 1oz slug mold from Lee precision for $27.00.Had a pile of free lead,so I went to town casting slugs.My local trap range lets me have all the hulls I want for free,so all I gotta buy is powder,wads,and primers.For around 16-18 cents a pop I'm pushing slugs at 1690 fps.What fun....

[mgconnor13 206]

That's cool. I might need to invest in a slug mold too.

[hawaii five-0 0]

Lyman makes a couple molds as well.

[gunfun 3,931]

wow. That is exactly what i want to do. will you share a good starting recipe for a tightwad who just got his first reloading setup?

[redneckradtech 3]

I was going to use wheel weight lead for casting. Lee mould warned not to use it. Do you have any problem with moulding with salvage lead?

[HillBilly2 9]

I was going to use wheel weight lead for casting. Lee mould warned not to use it. Do you have any problem with moulding with salvage lead?

 

There's nothing wrong with using salvage lead, but wheel weights are not lead, they are an alloy of lead and antimony. This alloy is much harder than pure lead, which brings up one set of issues. Antimony has an unusual characteristic of being one of the few substances that expand when it transitions from liquid to solid. Water is another. Pure lead will shrink when it cools. Antimony alloy's and even straight wheel weights are often used for hard cast pistol bullets, the antimony helps fill out the mold when casting, and they are sized afterwards. If you were to use ww for slugs, they would be much harder than lead and larger than lead. It might work, it might give all sorts of problems, thus any mold maker will warn against it to avoid liability issues.

 

Another complication is that the barrel bore size varies a lot from different manufacturers and even from gun to gun. The standard for 12 gauge bore is .729. I have seen 12 gauge guns with bore diameters of .718 to .740. A load that might work fine in one gun might split the barrel on another.

 

My advice is to save the ww for pistol bullets, or use them to make shot. http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=15776 Or you could trade them for pure lead with someone who casts a lot of hard bullets.

Edited October 24, 2009 by HillBilly2

[waltham_41 52]

Should be able to buy pure lead from any metal yard.

[nsa400 11]

WW work fine for my slugs. I shoot them out of my S-12,and mossberg 590. I just need better hulls for hotter load.

[VanKiller 322]

I used to have fine results casting a 12 ga slug that looked like a big air pellet for a .177 rifle. I cast it hard from WW and it worked real well on thin/medium skinned varmits.

[esquimaut 0]

I cast slugs in LEE mold, and to my mind it is easiest and cheapest way for home reloaders. Moreover if you have some free lead. I have to buy lead from the local scrapyard, $1 for 1kg. Reloading really is a separate hobby - fun and useful! But dont forger a gasmask when casting.

[RobRez 1,895]

Make your own mold with the face of Jesus or the virgin Mary in it!

[vbrtrmn 167]

Here's a video on youtube about casting your own slugs .. redneck style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g06a6RWC4A

[Otto Kelly 0]

Make your own mold with the face of Jesus or the virgin Mary in it!

 

 

You ProTestant Heretic You,

 

God, bless you.

 

ok

[ted22 0]

Hawaii,

Do you have load data? I made a ton of slugs... Using 17.5 gn IMR 700x w AA12 hulls... Haven't even gotten a chance to shoot it yet. (gun wouldn't cycle last time, so had to add a fourth hole, long, long story)...

[SLUG36 1]

check out Lee's parts web site. they have the molds for $17

[thumbs1 1]

I found the lee molded slugs to shoot very accurately. In fact they shoot better than any slugs I have bought

[Deadeye 325]

Are there any molds that make more than 1 at a time? or how would I make one

[FORKLIFT352 63]

I got a lee and when you are all set up I can

bash out about 100 of them in about 30 min.

 

[ewoketeer 35]

Recently, I looked up the Lyman site and foung what looked like a 12 gauge sized airgun pellet.FWIW

[netpackrat 566]

I use the Lee mold with wheel weight lead... The reason Lee recommends using pure lead alloy is because it is easier to get the slugs to separate from the mold, especially where the rear is hollow and the fingers for the "drive key" go. With WW alloy, you have to get the mold extra hot before casting or the slug will stick. Otherwise you'll have to either beat on the mold repeatedly to get the slug to drop free, or if that fails, grab it with a pliers and pull it off (and then toss back in the melt pile due to plier marks). Enough of that, and eventually the aluminum tail portion of the mold will pull out of the steel tab that holds it. You can put it back in and then peen the nub to hold it in place again, which will work for a while until it happens again. Eventually after too much of this, you won't have enough of the nub left to do that, which is almost where my mold is now so I'll probably have to replace it after casting many hundreds of slugs.

 

The other reason mold makers will usually recommend pure lead for slugs, is because it is softer it will obturate more and make a better seal with the bore upon firing. That doesn't apply with the Lee slugs since they are undersize for the bore, and are designed to be loaded into a regular shot cup, which acts as a sabot of sorts. I don't think the issue raised above about variances in bore size is a problem either because of this; the shot cup is soft plastic and will deform to fit if you get a slightly undersize bore. I have fired many of these slugs through my 19" Saiga with no issues whatsoever. I get a little less velocity out of them from the Saiga than I did with the same loads out of my 20" 870, and my buddy's 590A1 that we also tested them with.