Reloading 12 ga. Slugs

[EricW]

I now have two 12 ga shotgun reloaders. I'd like to set one up for slugs. Anybody done it before? Any advice?

Thanks!

E

[Intel6]

As I said in the Wolf slug thread not only do I load my own slugs I also make my own. Nothing like going out and shooting 50-75 slugs at one time and having it cost less than my regular reloads with 7.5 shot.

I am working on a short post about it but haven't finished it yet.

Lots of different way of doing it, what are you interested in knowing?

Neal in AZ

[warpspeed]

Eric,

Check out Ballistic Products. Just about everything one could possibly need/want/use for shotgun reloading.

[EricW]

What I'm curious about is:

How do you seat the slug and get the nice roll crimp?

What's the best slug to use? Rifled? Vanilla? Sabot?

Do I need to use once-fired slug shells, or do I cut down the crimp on regular hulls? Whats the correct path?

How should I set the crimping station? Is there any trick there?

Thanks!

[Intel6]

As I said, there are a few different ways of loading slugs. Two big difference are the projectile and the crimp.

PROJECTILES

You can go to the link Warpspeed posted and find ready made slugs, there are a few people on the net making custom slugs or you can cast your own. Some of the store bought ones have their base wads attached or are loaded in a hull with a series of feld and cardboard wads. The ones that you cast yourself are made to load with standard hulls and use regular plastic wads that you use for loading shotshells. The wads are sort of like a sabot but not really.

CRIMP

Two ways to go here also. There are roll crimpers available that use a drill to heat up the case mouth by friction and turn it back into itself like the factory slugs. The self cast slugs are made to be loaded in a regular hull (AA, STS, etc) and use a 8 point crimp.

I was looking for a cheap way to shoot lots of big chunks of lead from my shotgun and I wanted to load them as cheap and as fast as possible. I decided to go with the moulds from Lyman and Lee and cast my own so I would have an endless supply(or as long as the 10+ 5 gal buckets, and growing, of wheel weights in my garage lasts) of slugs for experimenting.

I also didn't want to mess with the roll crimping as it seemend to slow down the process. Not sure if roll crimping is better then a regular crimp? I have never seen anyone give any proof either way. I would guess that the roll crimp gives a bit more bullet pull/resistence to the slug to get the propellant gasses going but the folded crimp seems to work well.

I decided on the regular fold crimp because I could load slugs as fast as I load my shotshells on my progressive loader. The other thing was that because I am using the same hulls and wads I am using for my shot loads I didn't have to buy a bunch of new stuff. I basically got the mould, cast up some slugs and had everything else I needed already. The other thing is that there is no need to adjust your shotshell press with the folded crimp and you can load slugs and shot loads one right after the other.

Well that should get you thinking enough to ask some more questions,

Neal in AZ

[BillL223]

I load the Lyman 525 gr slug in my smoothbore Benelli. This uses standard wads and crimp. I use Win F114 wads in AA hulls and enough Universal Clays to get 1250 fps. I buy the cast slugs from Pete Wilbur at BulletsRus.

[EvilPJ]

Thanks for the info Neal. I have been thinking same kind of approach.

Could one do this just by taking some cheap shotgun ammo, opening it and swapping the shot with same weight slug? I don't reload shotshells so I was thinking that in my case I would just need a press to do crimping.

How accurate are your reloads? And do you reload them closer to reduced recoil slugs or full power ones?

PJ

[Bronco]

I've played with slugs for several years, started with 7/8 oz. foster in the winchester gray wads, very low recoil but lacked the accuracy I was after. Went up to the 1oz. not a lot better. Ended up with the 1 1/8 oz. round ball in the pink winchester wads for 1 oz. loads over 19.5 grs of Clays. Very accurate low recoil and running about 1050 fps. I'm casting these with soft lead and crimp the heck out of them.

Now for the disclaimer and the rest of the story. I now shoot Wolf slugs, buy them by the case and spend the time of casting and fume smelling shooting. Also the home stoked loads worked in my SX 2 and M1S90 don't know if they will work in yours. Used a Hornady 166 I think, very easy to make specialty loads with and just dropped the slug in the wad and seated them together more by feel than by setting. A hull with a thinner or lighter plastic seemed to work the best. Played with the roll crimp some I didn't care for it but might work for others. Good luck!

[Intel6]

Well I just spent 25 min typing up a response and when I hit the add reply button the page stalled. When I hit the back button it was gone and I don't have the time right now to type it all over again. I will be happy to answer any specific questions. I am intending to write up an article with pics explaining the whole process but I have a bit more testing to do before I do it. When I do I will post it here.

EvilPJ,

As far as replacing shot with a slug, it is not that easy so the answer is NO. You usually end up trashing a factory shell trying to get the crimp open and then you would need a loader to put a proper crimp on the hull. With shotshells there are two different things to factor in when you are loading them. Not only do you have to have the appropriate charge of powder for the specific weight projectile yo also have to match up the internal volume of the hull, the mass of the powder, wad and projectile. They have to add up correctly so when they are inserted into the hull there is just enough room so you can apply the proper crimp. If the load colum is too short the crimp is not level but pushed in. If the load colum is to long the crimp will not be applied correctly and the crimp will not hold.

Neal in AZ

[EvilPJ]

Thanks Neal.

Loading slugs seems to be lot of work. I may get to it if I find enough time. Better shoot factory stuff until then.

PJ

[sargenv]

I also didn't want to mess with the roll crimping as it seemend to slow down the process. Not sure if roll crimping is better then a regular crimp? I have never seen anyone give any proof either way. I would guess that the roll crimp gives a bit more bullet pull/resistence to the slug to get the propellant gasses going but the folded crimp seems to work well

I actually did some research about this (data obtained from Ballistic Products) and in their research (pressure transducers, special equipment, et al) it was determined that a roll crimp actually creates less pressure on a given load than fold crimps do. Therefore you can put more powder in the load, gaining more velocity, and still maintaining a reasonable pressure. I have done some 1 ounce round ball loading with various components, but figured S&B slugs at $1.75/5 was the way to go since they are cheaper and do a good job.

When I was doing the roll crimp loading, I was actually loading steel shot for waterfowl hunting and got pretty good results. however I found a different hull/load combination that gives just as good results, so I stopped using the roll crimp method.

Vince