[truckie]

I have an H&R 20 ga ultra slug gun, It is a real tack driver!
Can 20 ga slugs be handloaded? I have found that a 50 cal. blackpowder bullet and sabot fit perfectly in a 20ga wad and shell. Is this a safe load or a dumb idea? the one I made looks just like a 20 ga factory sabot, I'm not going to shoot it , but I do not see why it would not work . At $12.00 for 5 shots, handloading if avalible my be a good answer. Being I shoot a single shot slug gun the cycle of spent shells would not be a problem . With all the high tech muzzloader bullets avalible we could really make some custom handloads.

 

[MikeG]

Lyman shotshell manual has information on loading slugs. I would start there.

 

[James Gates]

During the past year we have been doing quite a bit of work on slugs for both smoothbore and rifled barrels. Two slugs, which you can cast yourself, have stood out in our tests. The Lyman (Hourglass) and The Lee Key Drive. Both are designed to be used in a plastic shot cup or wad. Alliant and Accurte have good data for both. In my opinion, when both are cast from hard alloy, they are more accurate and deadly than the soft factory offerings. I do suggest , if cast hard, to be shot in chokes not tighter than Improved Cylinder. Both also work well in rifled barrels.

 

[Marshall Stanton]

Simply to add to Mr. Gate's excellent advice, I've done extensive testing with the Lyman hourglass type of slug. Excellent accuracy and terminal performance may be obtained with these slugs, but our testing has shown that the long, slender and rather fragile skirt on this slug fractures and breaks rather easily from full-house loads when the Brinnel hardness of the slug gets much over BHN 16 and this action becomes severe at BHN 21-22! However, we've never seen this skirt failures when the slugs are cast at a BHN 11-13.

Mr. Gates in discussing the issue of the plastic shotcup being forced into the hollow base of this slug suggested using a filler in the hollow skirt to prevent the shotcup from being forced into that void area. This greatly increased the higher velocity loads in terms of accuracy and consistent performance.

God Bless,

Marshall

 

[James Gates]

Marshall is correct in all his statements and it is from his previous advice that we further tested the Lyman slug. We did find that the addition of Ballistic Products buffer in the bases of both slugs help the problem he mentioned. Also the addition of a OxYoke .50 cal Wonder Wad (used in ML's) between the slug (with buffer) and the bottom of the plastic cup helps. The Lee Key drive slug doesnot have this breakup problem. However we still use buffer in the base. Best Regards, James

 

[Gowge]

Slug Your Barrel

I think you'll find the 20ga rifled bore is .620 in the grooves and .615 on the lands. If you take a .58cal blackpowder mini ball type bullet (check out the lightweight Ball-Ets) and slide it inside a regular 20ga shot wad, you'll find it measures right at 0.620". The wads add about 1mm or 0.040" to the diameter of the .58cal mini-ball and should work in the 20ga rifled barrel. The question you gotta' ask, though - do you want to shoot that much weight in a 20? The Ball-Ets are much lighter, BTW...

On the other hand, the new 20ga Remington Premier Core-Lokt Sabots run 1900fps and are supposed to hit inside 2" @ 100 yards and inside 5" @ 200 yards!! They're 260gr bullets.

http://www.remington.com/ammo/shotshell/am_prsabotslug.htm

GOOD LUCK!