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Lee 1oz slugs....what wads are you using


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I have been using my own cast Lee 1 oz slugs and found the Winchester 12ga Pink wads work the slugs seats well put I find I need to trim the petals back from the shot cup in order to use a "roll crimper" to finish my reload.Obviously reloading is time consuming but to have to hand cut the plastic petals back is a stage I want to eliminate.

 

any one using a roll crimper and have a plastic wad that works well?

 

thanks for looking

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I'd be interested in hearing this too. I haven't yet bought a Lee mold, but was planning on it shortly. Got the reloading press, powder, primers, about 100# of lead and a melting pot, along with a couple thousand shells. No wads yet. Wasn't sure if I'd be going with a roll crimp or not though.

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I have been using my own cast Lee 1 oz slugs and found the Winchester 12ga Pink wads work the slugs seats well put I find I need to trim the petals back from the shot cup in order to use a "roll crimper" to finish my reload.Obviously reloading is time consuming but to have to hand cut the plastic petals back is a stage I want to eliminate.

 

The Lee slugs are meant to be loaded with a regular star crimp, which is much simpler than fucking around trying to roll crimp. I am using the pink WAA12SL wads with data off the Hodgdon website, in Remington hulls. I use the regular star crimp and have had no issues associated with that.

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the roll crimper has been working well with the slugs, with the exception of this petal issue jamming up the works if I dont trim them

 

update: I was using cheap Federal & Winchester target load hulls, today I tried some Remington Premium SST hulls and straight away I recognized the better quality hulls....the better plastic Remington Premium SST hulls were no problem using the full size Pink wads, just did 100 rnds no problems

 

I can also see that using these premium hulls they wont flatten out if a loaded mag is left in the gun, much stronger rim after its roll crimped, I can squeeze the federal by hand , these Remington STT hulls I cant

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Yeah, when I first started with the Saiga, I bought some Federal ammo, thinking I was going to reload them (and that's what the data I had called for), and found they were total junk. They literally tore in the crimp area when they were fired, and not a one of them was usable. The Remington hulls are outstanding, and have been good for multiple reloads. They're about all that I will buy for new ammo. There is cheaper ammo for sure, but you aren't really saving all that much if the hulls have to be thrown away.

 

If the roll crimp is working for you, then it's working for you. Roll crimped slugs are definitely cool looking, but I'm not really sure if it makes any difference in how it shoots. You may find you are not able to reload the hulls more than once if you are roll crimping. I have hulls currently loaded with slugs, that I have fired slugs through 3 or 4 times using the star crimp.

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  • 2 weeks later...

All the lee data says to star crimp so thats what I've always done. Why are you roll crimping?

 

At least with star crimping, I've been using winchester WAA12 wads for a couple of the lee recipes. I just bought some 12s3 wads to try a couple other recipes but haven't loaded them yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

On this subject of lee slugs, I have tried several of the recipes that came with the mold. Most of the ones I have tried will not hold a crimp. The only one I've tried so far that did, is the Fed gold medal hull, 209 primer, 34 grains of Herco powder, and WAA12 wad. It crimped good, and stayed. Others I follow the exact recipe, and even if I trim the wad, the slug itself starts pushing the crimp open. Its like theres just too much stuff trying to fit in there. I find it odd that these Lee-official recipes would have such a constant issue. Am I overlooking something? suggestions?

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I believe those are max loads that are supposed to be reduced by 10% and worked up.. Lee shotgun data is a lot sloppier than I would be comfortable with.

 

I recently saw a new edition RCBS shotty reloading manual that looked like a good bargain, because it had a lot of data, including many loads that were hotter than Lyman publishes using common components.

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On this subject of lee slugs, I have tried several of the recipes that came with the mold. Most of the ones I have tried will not hold a crimp. The only one I've tried so far that did, is the Fed gold medal hull, 209 primer, 34 grains of Herco powder, and WAA12 wad. It crimped good, and stayed. Others I follow the exact recipe, and even if I trim the wad, the slug itself starts pushing the crimp open. Its like theres just too much stuff trying to fit in there. I find it odd that these Lee-official recipes would have such a constant issue. Am I overlooking something? suggestions?

I had the same issues with the Herco powder I was only loading 26grns just enough to cycle the gun.....I switched to Hodgons TiteWad and you can use less volume of powder for the same results....give that a try

 

edit: earlier in the post I was referring to rolled crimps, this post is referring to standard star crimping that your using

Edited by wasrNwarpaint
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