[thumbs]

I have a deerslayerll that has been in the cabinet for years. All of my deer hunting is done with black powder. Anyway

I want get out the ole deer slayer and use it but the slugs are so expensive it's prohibitive. The "shotgun" has a rifled barrel. Is it practical to reload slugs for this gun? I have been lookin around a bit and see that Lee makes a slug mold where the slug can be loaded in a AA hull. I have a Lee shotgun press that I have used for shot for years. Anyway can someone help me with this problem?

thanks for the help

 

[jmortimer]

As much as I like just about everything from Lee Precision, the 525 grain Lyman Slug/mold seems to work real good.

 

[thumbs]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not married to any idea as of now. If somethin works better I'm listening.
I have been loadin for a while both shotshell and pistol ammo but never got into slugs. I really know nothing about reloading slugs.
Can you send me down the right road to learn about loading these things. My "shotgun" is rifled and I have used sabeted slugs in it years ago. Worked pretty well but even then the price was pretty steep.
What mold, hulls and power are you useing? Also how many grains of powder?
thanks agian

 

[Pete D.]

Thumbs: You will find data for the Lyman 525 sabot slug in the Lyman Shotgun reloading manual. There is data available online at the Hodgdon website for the Lee slug and for slugs of the same weight as the Lyman, 1 1/8oz.
Pete

 

[jmortimer]

A good site is Ballistic Products http://www.ballisticproducts.com/ I beleve you can load a .500" caliber bullet in a wad to shoot out of a rifled barrel. This is an area I'm just learning about as well.

 

[thumbs]

thanks guys

I do cast my own black powder balls and bullets. I have a .50 cal bullet mold. I really don't know to much about shotgun stuff but I do know that for the ranges I shoot heavier is better. I am trying to get some info on the Lee slug but as of now I am afraid it may be to light. It would be nice to hear from someone that has used these for a while on deer. My buddies hunt with shotguns but buy their ammo. I do know when hit with my muzzleloader deer stay down. With the shotgun you are more likly to have them get up and run.

 

[Pete D.]

I believe you can load a .500" caliber bullet in a wad to shoot out of a rifled barrel. This is an area I'm just learning about as well.

Cylinder bore on a 12 ga. rifled barrel is nominally 0.730". If you are going to shoot a bullet that is nearly a quarter of an inch smaller, you are going to need a sabot designed for the job.
If you are confident about your .50 MLer, think about the shotgun slug this way: a .50 cal llead round ball weighs 177 grains. Velocity about 18-1900 fps. The Lee 7/8oz slug weighs 382 grains. Velocity about 1500 fps; the one ounce slug weighs 437 grains. Velocity about 1450 fps.
Pete

 

[Huntdaddy1]

Can slugs be loaded using a little LEE Loader Shotshell kit ? HD1

 

[walkeast]

thumbs,I have been loading the Lyman 525grain sabot in AA hulls with 45+gr of blue dot powder and a Win WT12 wad and I am confident that this is going to be my new hunting round as I am getting .5-1" groups C toC and I am confident that the oversized wad cutter pellet shape will flatten my animals just as well as it has for so many others!
it costs more then the Lee but I think it is worth every cent!

 

[thumbs]

Thanks guys. For better or worse I got the Lee mold. There was a good reason for it. There isn't a Lyman anywhere around here. I really wanted to see how reloading slugs would go. How hard is it to get them right and what kind of accuracy could I expect. I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon at Cabelas trying to get a reciepe that would work with what they had. Tried everything nothing worked. If they had the wads they didn't have the powder. If they had the wads and powder I didn't have the hulls. I really didn't want to buy new slugs haveing a ton of AA hulls in the shop.
I figured for 20 bucks it would be worth the try. If it gets to the point I would rather have the Lyman I 'll order one. I'm not saying the Lyman isn't worth every penny but it would cost me near 100 bucks for the mold and the handles and I couldn't get one anyway locally. I had to go to a local shop to find the powder. They didn't have anything else just the powder.
I was suprised how hard it was to find stuff locally. Years ago I could have gotten all this stuff in about a half hour. Times are a changin.

Now before I try to reinvent the wheel any hints here? With BP I usually just carbon the mold up with a few matches and start a run. Is there anything else I should do?

thanks guys

 

[walkeast]

same same thumbs, degrease carbon then dip the corner in the pot til no lead sticks ....then I run a few duds to get it up to temp....I have had much better results with hard cast vs. soft and I water quench them out of the mold this hardens them even more! ....I have loaded them (lee 1oz drive key) with the same loads and components that i liked for 1oz of shot and regular fold crimped them.....best I got was about 5-6" @50 yards with the smoothies I used at the time.
I bought the Lyman because I have had good luck with them in a smoothie and so far great results out of the rifled barrel as they are made for rifled barrels as aposed to the Lee drive key that is made for the smoothie....I did load them made out of soft lead as I was not the one casting the Lee and this could have been the cause for the bad grouping?!?! ....best of luck on your journy and do a search on here and the web for results loading the drive key slug ....most of all have a blast lol
Jonathan

 

[thumbs]

I may get the Lyman in the spring. I thought I read the Lee was for rifled barrels?

Anyway I see that Lee says to lube the mold before you use it. Of course I don't have any bullet lube. What are you guys usin? I bought some High Temp silicone this evening. I read that never seize, wd40, candle wax and bees wax works well. What is your exp?

One other thing. I have a mec jr 12 gauge loader. Do you guys just push the slug in the shot cup with your finger the crimp with the loader?

 

[walkeast]

I have not used any lube in my molds...45cal RB 50calRB 45-70 and the Lyman sabot slug mold...I just carbon the heck out of them with a bic lighter after degreasing them and away I go so far so good but should I be useing lube?
Jonathan

 

[thumbs]

The instructions say to luge the Spur Bushing, "V" ribs and the locating cross pin. Not sure how necessary it is but they seem pretty emphatic about it.

 

[Pete D.]

I just thumb seat the slugs. I use a roll crimp tool to finish the shell.
Pete

 

[walkeast]

I use a small dowel to seat the Lyman sabot firmly into the wad and I then inspect the pettels of the wad to make sur that I can see all of the tips around the slug so I know that there is not one that is folded over and wedged into the slug i then fold crimp...but soon I will be trying the roll crimp out...(thanks Pete)
and I think that the roll crimp will be more uniform as to the releasing of the projectile?!?! we will see
Jonathan

 

[thumbs]

I was just doin some fast readin on the roll crimp. Seems you have to use new hulls for the crimping. Is this true or can you just trim the length of a used folded hull?

 

[walkeast]

Thums i was just going to ask the same thing lol to funny!

 

[thumbs]

I did a search and found a few sites that sell the roll crimp. It sounds to me like you need new hulls. I guess the crimped ones already have a "memory".

When you guys put the slug in the wad do you lube the slug at all to make it easier for the two to seperate, or is it not necessary? Do the slugs seem to seperate pretty well. I will be using Lee slugs.

 

[walkeast]

hmm I wonder if used roll crimp hulls work...ie store bought slugs...lots of them in the garbage just before our two shotgun ML seasons at the club??