Reloading w / theLyman 12 ga slug

[Carlos]

Just bought a dozen 12 ga reloader slugs - the ones that look like huge air-gun pellets? I have the Lyman shotgun book with their reloading data, but, QUESTION: What load do other 3 gunners favor w/ this slug?? What is the lightest/softest load that will reliably operate a Win Super X2 / 22" barrel? How about accuracy and choke tips? Will be using a MEC 650 reloader and I have on hand lots of AA and SPS hulls, WAA12 wads, some red, green and blue dot, as well as straight Clays powder.

At a .85 cents to a buck a pop for factory slugs, I am looking to the Lyman slug for a reasonable low recoil practice and match ammo.  Suggestions??

[Nik Habicht]

Slightly off the topic I know, but http://www.ammoman.com has Federal 2.75 inch slugs for $109.- for 250.  Cuts your cost to about 43 cents each.

[Patrick Sweeney]

Pin shooters at Second Chance had just started to use these on the steel plates on the back range.  We cast ours out of wheelweights, and launched them with a standard skeet or trap load.

What we found was that each gun was incredibly sensitive to what powder, wad, hull it liked.  I loaded mine in the new Remington green hulls (the slick, shiny ones) so I could keep them separated from my birdshot loaded in AA hulls.

Basically, if a load will cycle your gun with a one ounce load, that load will probably cycle with the slug loaded.  But you'll have to experiment like crazy to find the accurate load for your gun. If you're using a smoothbore, it is even more difficult.  But when you find that load, you'll be shooting tack-driving, skeet-load-recoil slugs.  Life will be nice then.

[Carlos]

Thanks Patrick!! That's good advice to start from since I will be using a friend's MEC 650 and he will want to try some in his 1100 - what works in the winchester might not fly in the remington.  Will have to see if there is a recipe using Clays int he Lyman shotgun manual - that powder seems to burn MUCH cleaner than the old Red dot and cleaner too than the reformulated red dot. Looking for a clean powder to keep both gas guns running. Hope Clays is not too fast for  slugs!

Was thinking of flying out to do that Mystery Mountain 3 gun  in Mesa AZ - if the Lymans will take some work to get them to function right, maybe I had better order up some factory slugs.  BTW, to load the Lymans, I will be using either the shiny remington hulls (these have proven nearly indestructable so far with 1 1/8 OZ light steel loads) or the lowbrass red plastic AAs.

BTW, it warmed my heart to hear of another crazy sole or two out there who has used a 12 gauge on pins! We used to shoot pins at Deep Run near Westminster MD until the range was shut down by antigun lawsuit. Buckshot would take 'em off the table but the slugs REALLY sent those pins flying (and any part of the wood table that got in the way!). Shot pins w/ rifles @ 50 yards out there too - that was a hoot!

I used mostly the Sellier and Bellot 00 buck on pins and sometimes tried out the old remington 1 OZ slugger slugs - the Federal 1.25 OZ slugs kicked like hell in our pump guns. With buckshot, best times for 5 pins was just under 3 seconds. Lots of folks liked the Estate cartridge loads or the high dollar low recoil tactical buck.  Sure miss those days.

Anyway, will let you know what we discover after loading up a few of the Lyman slugs.  Thanks, D.