Slugs For Cheap

[Squishy 1,149]

Well I was stoked about the new indoor range 5 miles from my house since they allow shotguns and rifles up to .308. Turns out that for shotguns it's slugs only. I've broached the subject of 00 which can be had for cheap but It's clear they won't allow any kind of buckshot. Yeah, I know some indoor ranges do but that doesn't matter, these guys won't.

 

So, I'm trying to figure a way to get slugs for closer to what 00 costs. I thought about taking something like Rio 00 which runs well in my stick mags, removing the shot and sticking a slug back in. It could be a ball instead of a rifled slug. May be more trouble than it's worth.

 

Any ideas for cheap slugs?

[Salmonking 149]

[Goose 95]

Neat video, I made a mistake though. After it was done there was one about shooting a 1911 underwater. If you like watching and listening idiots babble dumb shit go for it lol

[Squishy 1,149]

Interesting, thanks for the vid. I'll have to check a reloading supplier and see if I can just buy a mold. I have a single burner camp type stove so I could use that. I'd have to get the ladle also. This guy is using a pump, wonder if these boys would feed ok in a S-12.

 

When this first vid finished youtube showed other vids about doing this and after watching a few of them it seems that each person who does this has little things they do that some of the others don't so combining it all together should make for a workable system for doing this. One thing, it seems that if you could cast multiple slugs at one time, say 5 instead of one at a time it would speed things up some.

 

Thanks again SK.

 

The one vid by "Manitoba Wolf" basically showed how to do a roll crimp which I'd think might work better in semi autos.

 

Yeah I watched that vid about shooting a 45 under water...these guys need to get a job or something...

Edited September 4, 2012 by Squishy

[mitchskill 6]

a lee lead melter and mold are only 20 and 30 dollars each, i buy federal bulk pack for 20 and empty all the shot and cast into lee drive key 1 oz slugs! 100 slugs for $20 and a little labor! they shoot great to in rifled and smothbore and tear pigs up! super accurate

[Squishy 1,149]

a lee lead melter and mold are only 20 and 30 dollars each, i buy federal bulk pack for 20 and empty all the shot and cast into lee drive key 1 oz slugs! 100 slugs for $20 and a little labor! they shoot great to in rifled and smothbore and tear pigs up! super accurate

 

The thing I'm wondering most about at this point is edge where the crimp part of the shell is cut off and how it feeds. In the one video I mentioned about the guy leaves about 1/8" and then folds it back in and uses something (I forget what exactly) to fold it back in and then a 12mm deep well socket to smooth it out so it ends up being like a factory roll crimp. I don't know if this is really neccessary but I guess I'll find out. You don't have any feed issues the way you do it? I assume not.

[Reguile 7]

Idk if I'd feel comfortable with melting lead in my kitchen like that.. lol and that seems like it'd take awhile.

I hear you can pour melted wax inside and have a slug as well? Or cut the shell to where it's barely attached and the other half becomes the projectile, holding all the BB's together once fired.. Idk how reliable that'd be but it's interesting what people do with these 12 gauge shells.

[Squishy 1,149]

You can do the whole cut shell thing and it will have impact similar to a slug but for my purposes (indoors) this won't work.

[Reguile 7]

^I hear the cut shell had crazy energy dispersement.. I hear the hull splits and the BB's go everywhere when it hits something. Gotta love the 12 gauge, so versatile. Even if alot of the.. 'exotic' rounds are just for fun.

[patriot 7,197]

Cut shell:

 

UNKNOWN pressure from shoving a roughly 9GA projectile down a 12GA barrel.

 

How much is your life worth?

 

This has already been very well-chewed over here.

Search is your friend.

[Squishy 1,149]

Ok, back on topic...I'm looking at the Lee Precision Production Pot IV which will hold up to ten pounds and dispenses straight into the mold, no ladle needed. It seems that slug molds are only available in singles, I looked for multiple cavity, not seeing them. The pot runs about $65 shipped, molds $25. One 100 shell box converted to slugs would pay for the pot and a single mold.

 

Thoughts? Ideas? Spare lead?

[Squishy 1,149]

Another question, 1 oz or 7/8 oz mold? Would the lighter slug be better for going in a shell "powdered" for 7 1/2 shot? The one ounce slug is .615 inches, the 7/8 ounce is .545 inches.

[Squishy 1,149]

Ok, well I had no idea how long it would take once you pour the lead into the mold before you could release it and I ran across a vid on youtube where a kid is using the Lee melter to make slugs. Basically it's as fast as you can knock the excess off the mold back into the melter and then release the slug. So once you get it down pat you could easily make 100 slugs in ten minutes or less. All you need is one mold.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqOSWghMekM&feature=share&list=ULIqOSWghMekM

[RED333 1,025]

I use the "open crimp, melt the shoot, pour Lee 1 ozslugs and reload and recrimp"

all the time, they work very well in my S12.

 

Ok, well I had no idea how long it would take once you pour the lead into the mold before you could release it and I ran across a vid on youtube where a kid is using the Lee melter to make slugs. Basically it's as fast as you can knock the excess off the mold back into the melter and then release the slug. So once you get it down pat you could easily make 100 slugs in ten minutes or less. All you need is one mold.

 

I make a lot of slugs, you are not gona make 100 in 10 mins, might get 3 done in 1 min, 30 in 10 mins.

[Squishy 1,149]

Look at the video I posted, this kid cranks them out as fast as he can pour the slug, knock off the excess and open the mold. This is how it works right?

 

Oh and thanks for posting, I knew you'd done this.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Squishy

[Squishy 1,149]

I use the "open crimp, melt the shoot, pour Lee 1 ozslugs and reload and recrimp"

all the time, they work very well in my S12.

So you open the crimp but don't cut it off, how do you get it open and shaped so the slug will slide in? Do you change out the wad?

[AJ Dual 43]

a lee lead melter and mold are only 20 and 30 dollars each, i buy federal bulk pack for 20 and empty all the shot and cast into lee drive key 1 oz slugs! 100 slugs for $20 and a little labor! they shoot great to in rifled and smothbore and tear pigs up! super accurate

 

Yep. This is EXACTLY what I do. And while the Fed bulk-pack hulls are kind of on the cheapie side, they'll hold up to two more reloadings before you should toss them. Buy cheap Rio primers, an 8# can of suitable primer, cheap trap wads, and scrounged up scrap lead, and your slugs cost $.16 or less.

 

Actually makes my Saiga one of the cheapest guns in my collection to shoot other than my .22LR's. Even a bit cheaper than my 9mm carbines. If I don't count my time in the equation. And I tend to feel casting and reloading is more fun than being at work or dealing with the wife or kids when they're in a lousy mood...

 

 

I use the "open crimp, melt the shoot, pour Lee 1 ozslugs and reload and recrimp"

all the time, they work very well in my S12.

So you open the crimp but don't cut it off, how do you get it open and shaped so the slug will slide in? Do you change out the wad?

 

What I do is put on a pair of Mechanix gloves, otherwise your hands will get sore. And holding the Fed bulk-pack #8 shell in one hand, I poke a pointed awl into the center of the crimp, and then sort of bend up in a levering motion against the shot to pry up an edge, then sort of like shucking an oyster, moving a bit and levering, you fold the crimp up. Sounds hard, but you get used to it quick and get a technique going. Dump the shot into an old tupperware bowl or something. Lee slugs are sized specifically to fit into most any wad-cup on purpose, so you leave the wad in there. Should a wad come out for some reason, don't worry, there's a second wad piece under that, which is a circular plate and a post that pushes the first wad, and this is what holds the powder in. I've never had a wad cup come out on accident, but if it does, just slide everything back into the shell. Set the shells aside, having a box or a plastic bin to hold them while you're working is handy...

 

Then, like the video, I melt down all the shot if I'm not using found lead or recycled lead, and reloading from scratch with empty hulls etc. One difference from my technique is I wear HEAVY leather work gloves. Playing with molten lead and nothing but a pair of medical exam gloves is just plain STUPID.

 

 

Also, I just use an old folded up terrycloth towel as my dump pad for the hot slugs. No water needed. It won't burn the towel because the fuzzy texture does not allow enough contact with the hot slug to burn it. There is also no benefit to dumping the slugs into a water bath like some cast bullets for handguns or rifles. The Lee 7/8th oz and 1oz molded slugs ride in a standard shot wad and don't contact the bore or any choke you have, so the hardness doesn't matter. This also frees you up to use most any random alloy crap lead mix you want, as long as it pours decently.

 

You'll want to flux the lead once or twice to clean it up a bit so you get a good smooth pour. This is REALLY smoky/stinky, so it's important to have good ventilation, or do this outside. I like throwing a pea sized chunk of candle wax in, and stir it around, it'll usually start on fire on it's own, if it doesn't, you can touch a lighter flame to the wax-smoke and it'll burn off cleaner. Sawdust also works, but is even smokier. There are ready-made fluxes from ammo/reloading catalogs, I tried the Franklin Arsenal stuff, it fluxes well, but the ashes and dross (the crusty contaminants that float to the top after fluxing) are sticky, and get stuck to the old stainless serving spoon/tablespoon I use as my skimmer.

 

And trust me, you probably don't want a multi-cavity shotgun slug mold if such a thing even existed. (I've never seen one in catalogs) With 1oz of hot lead, that's more than enough at a time, IMO. You heat the mold up with a propane torch, set it on a stove hot-plate, or, you can just cast a bunch of "wrinklies" or "klinkers" about 10 times before the mold has absorbed enough heat, bad slugs from this first dozen or so castings just go right back into the pot. (be gentle, you don't want them to splash). Some say to just dip the mold into the lead to absorb enough heat to get up to working temp, but when I tried that, it all stuck to the outside, was messy, and I'll never try it that way again...

 

You'll need that heavy junk screwdriver to use the handle as your tapper, I just use a hardwood dowel scrounged from a chair I was throwing away (seen above) as mine. You tap the sprue plate to cut off the blob in the top of the fill hole back into the melt pot, or just knock them off into a pile. I like the latter way better because I just gently dump them in with that old stainless steel serving spoon I mentioned above.

 

Now that I have my slugs, and assuming I'm just re-stuffing them back into otherwise still loaded Federal bulk hulls, I put the Mechanix gloves back on, take a medium small Sears Craftsman screwdriver, and just shove the handle end into the crimp area as a sort of expander into the open crimps of the holes, (looking through the screwdrivers it should be easy to figure out which one is the right size) It straightens and stretches the crimp edge out just a bit, and the petal folds the rest of the way open just enough to slip the slug into the shot wad cup where it'll sit nicely.

 

 

Sometimes a petal of the cheapo Federal target wad/cup will get stuck under the edge of the slug and not allow you to slip it in all the way. I just tug the whole shot cup up past the crimp with some flat nose pliers, then drop the slug into it, and push them both down together.

 

To load complete shells, or just close the crimps on my "Moscow Match" Federal slugs, I use a Lee Load-ALL II which is relatively cheap. Under $60 most any gun/reloading place online... When just re-stuffing Federal bulk pack, all you have to use are the last two stations, one pre-forms the crimp, the second closes it completely. There is no need for a roll crimp with a slug, the star crimp that shot loads typically use is just fine too. The roll crimp AFAIK is mainly for marketing so hunters can see the nose of the slug sticking out there...

 

Also, as long as the length is okay, and the rim around the edge of the shell where the crimp starts isn't gnarly it should feed fine in you Saiga, or any other 12ga that can safely shoot slugs, it doesn't really matter if the crimp inside is "pretty" or not. Sometimes they'll be perfect, and others they'll be a bit crooked.

 

Also, it's a good idea to put some wide tape on the boxes of Fed Bulk and write "1oz slug, reload (date)" or some such thing on them. Otherwise Range officers might freak you're just blasting away with #8 shot when it's supposed to be slug-only.

Edited September 5, 2012 by AJ Dual

[Squishy 1,149]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to do this post, very helpful. I'm going to print this thread to PDF and save it. I want to address a few things specifically.

 

"Lee slugs are sized specifically to fit into most any wad-cup on purpose, so you leave the wad in there."

 

One thing I did see in one video is that some cups have 4 pieces of plastic that run vertically from the bottom of the cup to the top. They're not that wide but it would cause the cup to bulge out too much. I guess each candidate for shot to slug can be checked to see if the cups are like this and if they are cups/wads can be obtained that will work.

 

With regard to gloves, I'd already decided to use these heavy canvas/leather work gloves I have and yes, if that kid had gotten some molten lead on his hands the thin surgical gloves would have provided no protection.

 

No benefit to dumping the cast slug into water, ok. This is something I was wondering about.

 

"This is REALLY smoky/stinky, so it's important to have good ventilation, or do this outside."

so"

 

Yes, I saw this in the vids I've watched. I don't really have a good spot out doors so what I thought of doing is making a plywood box open on one side with enough room to put the Lee melter in and make a hole in the top. I have a few 120mm computer fans the go to hell Deltas that really move a lot of air. I have a power supply with a Molex plug so I can put this over the hole and use some dryer vent hose or something similar and run it to the nearest window. This way I can do this thing rain or shine.

 

"And trust me, you probably don't want a multi-cavity shotgun slug mold if such a thing even existed."

 

I said this before I had a concept of how long it takes to be able to release the slug after being poured. After seeing this kid in the video above, I know a single mold will be just fine.

 

As for reloading I'm going to wait and see how this first thing goes and then decide if I want to go all the way.

 

One thing I had thought about doing is find a steel pipe with an ID roughly the same size as a shotgun barrel so a shell can be inserted in one end. The length of the pipe would be cut so that only the very end of the shell sticks out. This would allow a razor knife of some sort to be run around pipe cutting the crimp off so the whole fiddling with the crimp thing would be unnecessary. This would allow a clean, even cut so when the slug is stuffed back in the shell would feed ok. I think for slugs this might simplify and speed up the process. I've also been looking at 00 and 000 buckshot molds as it seems using the cheap birdshot as a base anything I'd ever want to shoot at the range could be made. Of course with buckshot you'd need the crimp.

 

One thing I am wondering about is, if a shell is manufactured for say 7 1/2 shot can you assume the powder will be sufficient for slugs and/or 00/000? I'm sure veteran reloaders would know about this but I'm not sure.

 

Thank again for the great input AJ.

[Groovy Mike 36]

a lee lead melter and mold are only 20 and 30 dollars each, i buy federal bulk pack for 20 and empty all the shot and cast into lee drive key 1 oz slugs! 100 slugs for $20 and a little labor! they shoot great to in rifled and smothbore and tear pigs up! super accurate

 

Please do not destroy expensive lead shot to make slugs! Use scrap lead at ~ 50 cents per pound from any salvage yard!

 

Tell you what - send ME your lead shot and I'll send you back equal weight in slugs!

 

Anybody use a 69 cal round ball mold?

Edited September 6, 2012 by Groovy Mike

[RED333 1,025]

Mike, I have a bunch of store bought 69 ball ammo, they do work well.

Squishy, stay away from the REM bulk, the hull is taperd and you cant get a slug

to fit, I save those for 8 pellets of "00", and use WIN and FED for slug.

[King Cash 104]

Another question, 1 oz or 7/8 oz mold? Would the lighter slug be better for going in a shell "powdered" for 7 1/2 shot? The one ounce slug is .615 inches, the 7/8 ounce is .545 inches.

 

I read AJ's post about casting slugs from bird shot a while ago and followerd in his steps (I have all of the materials but haven't started casting yet)

 

Anyways, I bought the 7/8 slug mold because of your reasoning above but that was just a guess..can someone answer that?

[Squishy 1,149]

G-Mike, when you say "don't destroy expensive shot" are you talking about the shot that came out of the shell in the first place? I figured one good thing about this is there would be no need to obtain lead of any kind, just use the small pellets to make one big one. If a shell contains 1 1/8oz of small shot and it's melted to create either a 7/8oz or 1oz slugs you'd actually end up with lead left over.

 

Red, the cheap stuff I've used most is Winchester Universal U127 and this is what I'd intended to use for slugs.

 

King Cash, wow, my logic made sense to someone else.... Remember that in this thing my purpose in this initially at least is to have something cheap to run at the indoor range that only allows slugs. So it's not like I'm hunting with them or anything else that is important.

 

Btw, as they told me steel slugs are ok, I went today and dumped a few 10 round mags of DDupleks Monolit28.

Seeing how this stops the show just doesn't get old...

[filthygovemploye 64]

I use the "open crimp, melt the shoot, pour Lee 1 ozslugs and reload and recrimp"

all the time, they work very well in my S12.

 

Ok, well I had no idea how long it would take once you pour the lead into the mold before you could release it and I ran across a vid on youtube where a kid is using the Lee melter to make slugs. Basically it's as fast as you can knock the excess off the mold back into the melter and then release the slug. So once you get it down pat you could easily make 100 slugs in ten minutes or less. All you need is one mold.

 

I make a lot of slugs, you are not gona make 100 in 10 mins, might get 3 done in 1 min, 30 in 10 mins.

 

got pics??

[Squishy 1,149]

got pics??

 

Not sure who you're asking or what you're asking for "pics" of.

[Squishy 1,149]

Lee melting pot and slug mold are on the way.

[Syndicate 812]

wouldn't you want rifled slugs?

I don't have a rifled shotgun barrel myself.

 

Last time I tried shooting non-rifled slugs out of a smooth bore, it didn't do all that much damage to a melon at 20 feet.

[Marc 147]

a lee lead melter and mold are only 20 and 30 dollars each, i buy federal bulk pack for 20 and empty all the shot and cast into lee drive key 1 oz slugs! 100 slugs for $20 and a little labor! they shoot great to in rifled and smothbore and tear pigs up! super accurate

 

Yep. This is EXACTLY what I do. And while the Fed bulk-pack hulls are kind of on the cheapie side, they'll hold up to two more reloadings before you should toss them. Buy cheap Rio primers, an 8# can of suitable primer, cheap trap wads, and scrounged up scrap lead, and your slugs cost $.16 or less.

 

Actually makes my Saiga one of the cheapest guns in my collection to shoot other than my .22LR's. Even a bit cheaper than my 9mm carbines. If I don't count my time in the equation. And I tend to feel casting and reloading is more fun than being at work or dealing with the wife or kids when they're in a lousy mood...

 

 

I use the "open crimp, melt the shoot, pour Lee 1 ozslugs and reload and recrimp"

all the time, they work very well in my S12.

So you open the crimp but don't cut it off, how do you get it open and shaped so the slug will slide in? Do you change out the wad?

 

What I do is put on a pair of Mechanix gloves, otherwise your hands will get sore. And holding the Fed bulk-pack #8 shell in one hand, I poke a pointed awl into the center of the crimp, and then sort of bend up in a levering motion against the shot to pry up an edge, then sort of like shucking an oyster, moving a bit and levering, you fold the crimp up. Sounds hard, but you get used to it quick and get a technique going. Dump the shot into an old tupperware bowl or something. Lee slugs are sized specifically to fit into most any wad-cup on purpose, so you leave the wad in there. Should a wad come out for some reason, don't worry, there's a second wad piece under that, which is a circular plate and a post that pushes the first wad, and this is what holds the powder in. I've never had a wad cup come out on accident, but if it does, just slide everything back into the shell. Set the shells aside, having a box or a plastic bin to hold them while you're working is handy...

 

Then, like the video, I melt down all the shot if I'm not using found lead or recycled lead, and reloading from scratch with empty hulls etc. One difference from my technique is I wear HEAVY leather work gloves. Playing with molten lead and nothing but a pair of medical exam gloves is just plain STUPID.

 

 

Also, I just use an old folded up terrycloth towel as my dump pad for the hot slugs. No water needed. It won't burn the towel because the fuzzy texture does not allow enough contact with the hot slug to burn it. There is also no benefit to dumping the slugs into a water bath like some cast bullets for handguns or rifles. The Lee 7/8th oz and 1oz molded slugs ride in a standard shot wad and don't contact the bore or any choke you have, so the hardness doesn't matter. This also frees you up to use most any random alloy crap lead mix you want, as long as it pours decently.

 

You'll want to flux the lead once or twice to clean it up a bit so you get a good smooth pour. This is REALLY smoky/stinky, so it's important to have good ventilation, or do this outside. I like throwing a pea sized chunk of candle wax in, and stir it around, it'll usually start on fire on it's own, if it doesn't, you can touch a lighter flame to the wax-smoke and it'll burn off cleaner. Sawdust also works, but is even smokier. There are ready-made fluxes from ammo/reloading catalogs, I tried the Franklin Arsenal stuff, it fluxes well, but the ashes and dross (the crusty contaminants that float to the top after fluxing) are sticky, and get stuck to the old stainless serving spoon/tablespoon I use as my skimmer.

 

And trust me, you probably don't want a multi-cavity shotgun slug mold if such a thing even existed. (I've never seen one in catalogs) With 1oz of hot lead, that's more than enough at a time, IMO. You heat the mold up with a propane torch, set it on a stove hot-plate, or, you can just cast a bunch of "wrinklies" or "klinkers" about 10 times before the mold has absorbed enough heat, bad slugs from this first dozen or so castings just go right back into the pot. (be gentle, you don't want them to splash). Some say to just dip the mold into the lead to absorb enough heat to get up to working temp, but when I tried that, it all stuck to the outside, was messy, and I'll never try it that way again...

 

You'll need that heavy junk screwdriver to use the handle as your tapper, I just use a hardwood dowel scrounged from a chair I was throwing away (seen above) as mine. You tap the sprue plate to cut off the blob in the top of the fill hole back into the melt pot, or just knock them off into a pile. I like the latter way better because I just gently dump them in with that old stainless steel serving spoon I mentioned above.

 

Now that I have my slugs, and assuming I'm just re-stuffing them back into otherwise still loaded Federal bulk hulls, I put the Mechanix gloves back on, take a medium small Sears Craftsman screwdriver, and just shove the handle end into the crimp area as a sort of expander into the open crimps of the holes, (looking through the screwdrivers it should be easy to figure out which one is the right size) It straightens and stretches the crimp edge out just a bit, and the petal folds the rest of the way open just enough to slip the slug into the shot wad cup where it'll sit nicely.

 

 

Sometimes a petal of the cheapo Federal target wad/cup will get stuck under the edge of the slug and not allow you to slip it in all the way. I just tug the whole shot cup up past the crimp with some flat nose pliers, then drop the slug into it, and push them both down together.

 

To load complete shells, or just close the crimps on my "Moscow Match" Federal slugs, I use a Lee Load-ALL II which is relatively cheap. Under $60 most any gun/reloading place online... When just re-stuffing Federal bulk pack, all you have to use are the last two stations, one pre-forms the crimp, the second closes it completely. There is no need for a roll crimp with a slug, the star crimp that shot loads typically use is just fine too. The roll crimp AFAIK is mainly for marketing so hunters can see the nose of the slug sticking out there...

 

Also, as long as the length is okay, and the rim around the edge of the shell where the crimp starts isn't gnarly it should feed fine in you Saiga, or any other 12ga that can safely shoot slugs, it doesn't really matter if the crimp inside is "pretty" or not. Sometimes they'll be perfect, and others they'll be a bit crooked.

 

Also, it's a good idea to put some wide tape on the boxes of Fed Bulk and write "1oz slug, reload (date)" or some such thing on them. Otherwise Range officers might freak you're just blasting away with #8 shot when it's supposed to be slug-only.

 

Star crimps have to have a flat, hard surface (shot) to press against in order to form a tight enough crimp to stay closed. The star crimp came about when plastic hulls became the norm because it is much faster in mass production to star crimp.

 

Roll crimps don't need a flat surface to press against, thus why they are used on commercial slug loads (because there isn't a flat surface); to use a roll crimp with shot you only have to add an over-shot card. Roll crimps are slower to produce in mass, however, they are easier to "get right" for the home reloader then a star crimp can be.

 

With roll crimps you also get a greater payload capacity for a given shell length because as long the edge is rolled over it will hold the over-shot card in and not much length down the side of the hull is used up by the crimp. Whereas with a star crimp you have to leave half a hulls diameter in length down the side free to be folded over.

[Marc 147]

wouldn't you want rifled slugs?

I don't have a rifled shotgun barrel myself.

 

Last time I tried shooting non-rifled slugs out of a smooth bore, it didn't do all that much damage to a melon at 20 feet.

 

The "rifling" on a rifled slug doesn't have a thing to do with stabilizing the slug in flight, what it does is allow room for the lead to be easily swegged into should the slug be fired through a tight constriction choke.

 

The non-rifled slugs you fired where most likely saboted slugs intended for a rifled shotgun, shooting saboted slugs from a smooth bore shotgun gives worse then musket accuracy because the slug is longer then it is wide with no stabilizing force. Foster and Brenneke type "rifled" slugs are both drag stabilized.

[Marc 147]

One thing I am wondering about is, if a shell is manufactured for say 7 1/2 shot can you assume the powder will be sufficient for slugs and/or 00/000? I'm sure veteran reloaders would know about this but I'm not sure.

 

What matters is the weight of the payload; a payload that weights 1 1/8th oz will have the same powder charge regardless if its #12 shot, #7 1/2 shot, 0000 buckshot or a slug.

 

As a side note: If you load buckshot in your pulled down walmart cheapie shotshells and you use a buffer, make sure you include the weight of the buffer as part of your payload.

[Syndicate 812]

wouldn't you want rifled slugs?

I don't have a rifled shotgun barrel myself.

 

Last time I tried shooting non-rifled slugs out of a smooth bore, it didn't do all that much damage to a melon at 20 feet.

 

The "rifling" on a rifled slug doesn't have a thing to do with stabilizing the slug in flight, what it does is allow room for the lead to be easily swegged into should the slug be fired through a tight constriction choke.

 

The non-rifled slugs you fired where most likely saboted slugs intended for a rifled shotgun, shooting saboted slugs from a smooth bore shotgun gives worse then musket accuracy because the slug is longer then it is wide with no stabilizing force. Foster and Brenneke type "rifled" slugs are both drag stabilized.

 

oh wow, thanks man!

I seriously feel like I know nothing right now, but in a good way.

So my qualms about buying slugs that are not foster type due to lack of accuracy are not founded in anything factual.

well Bring on the reloadin!