Wax Slugs

[Deadeye 325]

Would thies wax slugs be saif to shoot through a full choke barel on my single shot break action h and r.

[patriot 7,197]

They'll kick like a bitch.

[Deadeye 325]

They'll kick like a bitch.

kick harder but still safe to shoot? I dont want to fuck up myself or my gun.

[BB1980 71]

I shot two of the 10 I made with candle wax yesterday out of my 870 with no issues. Made a nice single hole per shot into a water heater. I loaded them through the breech individually though, didn't try to cycle them throughout the tube. As long as you don't add weight to the round, you should be safe (no excess pressure in the barrel). The issue with individual pellets falling out into the trigger and binding it shouldn't be a problem if you stop adding pellets to the shell with a gap of 1/16 to 1/8 left in the shell and top it off with wax. I wouldn't leave them in a shotgun just sitting around or one in the chamber for long due to potential softening of the wax from heat or deforming the round under spring tension.

Edited October 1, 2011 by BB1980

[rs51085 136]

Lol I had to look twice at the the picture that aj dual posted of his casting equipment because i thought it was my setup for a minute! I don't reload the mexican match loads though, I start from scratch. The wad plays a big part in the accuracy of a slug and the wads that come in the fed. Bulk packs are not all that good for slugs. I reload fed. Bulk pack hulls with fed 12s3 wads with green dot powder. This makes a very accurate slug that is low recoil and around 1300 fps. Here's a pic of a shell.

[Parson Julabee Jones 32]

What about pitch? That's the substance made from trees, that is used in polishing optical glass and so forth. You can take a plug (or make a candle out) of pitch and hit it with a hammer, and it will shatter into a million pieces. A wax candle hit with the same hammer, same force, will merely mash the wax into a pulpy and unsightly glob.

 

A bucket of candle wax with a weight set on top, will hold the weight up from now on. A bucket of pitch, with the same weight set on top, will allow the weight to sink to the bottom over the course of time. Both pitch and wax though, can be heated and shot can be introduced, then formed into slugs.

 

I seem to recall that the properties of wax and pitch differ as in the differences between a supercooled liquid, and a heated solid (or something along those lines).

 

Anyhow, my point is, with pitch, the slug would much more closely emulate the grenade effect. If anybody tries, I'd love to hear about. If they don't, well, maybe I will. WARNING: Pitch when hot is really HOT, and will burn to the bone like lead. Pitch is really black, and blackens everything it comes in contact with, but can be cleaned with WD40 and other petrol solvents. Really though, pitch is cool "Hey Bo! Pitch me another pitch slug!!!".

[AJ Dual 43]

That's pretty cool, and it looks like you have a simple setup and recoup your time investment. I am impressed. If only I had time/ money and my own garage to keep all the stuff in.

 

How long does it take you to cast a batch of slugs? or more meaningfull, how much time does it take per shell?

 

I have a Load All II, but I don't have the molding equipment. Plus I live in an apartment, and that kind of thing would be awkward. I don't need lead fumes inside.

 

I was thinking of splitting the difference between these methods: pick apart the shell as you describe, mix the shot with paraffin, pour in, let it cool, and then crimp. I can use an agricultural syringe to suck out any extra wax if I overfill.

 

I figure it would take building more than 23 an hour to make up the $.42 difference between either type and and $.60 sluggers, assuming a base rate of $10/hr. I tried un-crimping a shell, and I don't think I am fast enough to make it worthwhile yet.

 

Yeah, I don't really put a price on my time. I've got two sets of twin girls, ages six and seven, and they overlap for 3 weeks in age each summer too. So a bad tedious hour or two of casting slugs is still better than five minutes of my daughters screaming, fighting, misbehaving, or listening to Mrs. Dual yell at them if I'm not. I've never really timed it per shell. My workbench/reloading area is right in the basement with the laundry, so sometimes I'll sit down for a marathon session of an hour or two, sometimes, I'll just pick open four or five and dump them into the Lee pot (off and cold) every time I go down to flip a load.

 

Although, kind of like those old ladies in costal towns who shuck oysters at the fish packing plant, you can get good at uncrimping them pretty quickly. You get a rythm of stab... bend bend bend bend, dump, toss the hull in the emptied pile etc.

 

Same for stuffing the cast slugs back in. I'll just sit there with a box of the dumped shells, and a box of my cast slugs, and stuff them while watching TV. Then just toss the loaded, but uncrimped shells down on my workbench by the Lee Load-All and crimp 5-10 at a time when I pass through the basement on other errands... At the rate I go, it might take me a week to make 100 "Mexican Match" slugs out of Fed. Bulk... but my total time invested is probably only 4 hours....

 

IMO, lead vapor risk from casting is kind of a misnomer. Lead melts at a little over 600 degrees. It BOILS (hence, making vapor...) at a little over 3000. No electric pot will get over 900 degrees. The lead contamination of an area comes in from the dust, lost shot if you're getting lead that way, and the tiny little drips and spatters that are an inevitable part of the process.

 

If you just had a big board or something you worked on, or had some sort of drop cloth, and vacuumed and wiped everything down in the area religiously, it would likely be fine. The problem you'd have in an apartment is that there is some stinky smoke when you flux the molten lead with sawdust or wax and stir it up. I have an old dryer vent from the previous owners of the house and where they put their washer and dryer over my workbench, and I just stuck a 115ac squirrel cage type blower onto it with a switch.

[Deadeye 325]

Shot some more the other day. I had 2 rip thr brass part way off the shell I dont know if the chepie federal hulls cant take it or what.

[Deadeye 325]

Just made 75 more last night cant wait to go shooting

[gunfun 3,931]

thanks for the info.

[RED333 1,025]

I reload wally bulk with "00". I use a pair of pliers to open the crimp, squeeze just below the crimp.

It will open and you can dump the shot out. use the pliers to open the crimp after you dump the shot.

Push them into the hull and expand it open. I melt the shot and make the "00".

Load 3 pour wax, load 3, pour wax, load 3 pour wax, and crimp with a MEC press my OL got a yard sale for $10.00.

Most of my reloads do not have wax, the ones that do shoot just as good as those that dont, just make 1 big hole.

I did try the cut off crimp and #8 shoot and wax, they would not feed.

Cheep slug mold, Co2 cartage, cut in half, cut off small tip, drive in a field point off an arrow, makes a hollow point.

I dont have to tell to watch the weight of the slug, use at you own risk. I have done it and it works great.

[Deadeye 325]

co2 cartrige nice. I have seen a socket but havent tried it yet. I want to build a mold that makes like 5 or 6 at a time