Very interesting video. This is why I load all of my wads by hand vs with the press. You can feel any resistance that might damage the seal as you push it in. After I get past the resistance, I do finish insertion with my press.
In one of your other vids you say you are using Federal 12S0 and 12S3 wads with Winchester AA hulls. I hope that is not the case here, but I suspect that is your problem. Winchester and Remington hulls are tapered hulls, Federal hulls are straight walled. You don't want to use a straight walled wad in a tapered hull and vice versa. Trying to cram a straight walled wad into a tapered hull can cause the base of the wad to go sideways and migrate powder into the leg portion of the wad. That powder will not ignite. For 3rd party wads like Lightning and Claybuster be sure to note what hulls they are meant for. Sometimes you can cross over, but sometimes you can't and a stuck wad in a shotgun = blown out barrel or bulged barrel on the next shot. Stay safe.
rsrocket1- Thanks for your info on this. I first learned about this before I went into competitive trapshooting - I reloaded some of the cheaper straight wall Federals using my AA12 wads and got inconsistent ignition. Any and all squibs in all guns need to have immediate barrel check before more rounds are fired or disaster as you describe occurs. My solution was to only load AA components in Winchester AA hulls and Power Pistons in Remington STS, etc. The Federal Gold Medals were not often used by other shooters, and I avoided them as well. Today, the cost of shot practically makes reloading shot shotshells impractical for the little money saved. And the inexpensive Remington target ammo actually has premium unibody hulls that I love to use to reload slugs. Slug reloading is very economical because we can cast our own slugs. I would tell shooters that AA components that would take slugs best be used with AA hulls or other injection molded unibody types. And the Federal wads used with straight wall hulls like the Fiocchis, Winchesters, or Remingtons. However, the Lyman Shotshell handbook has a limited number of recipes mixing the wads with the other type of hulls. For the most part, I don't use those but they can work. For instance, you can finger seat a Federal 12S wad into an AA case. The advantage of the Federal wads is their stiffness, lack of bending, and well supported shot cup - might just solve this skirt bending issue. I like them in Fiochhi hulls... Best to ya
plastic-on-plastic contact between edge of the wads and the hull may be making a hydraulic seal, with gas pressure putting a bind on the wad, when you seat. Try seating the wads gradually, slower, by hand, see if you are getting back pressure particularly on the tail end of seating. Those wad cups remind me of plastic bottles that let go under too much gas pressure. Temperature of the plastic may have something to do with it. Perhaps some dry lube is in order; dip the wad into a small pinch of mica? Also, could be the mold release on the plastic, getting torched in firing, turning into tar, causing issue.
Lawrence Page - Always good to hear from Lawrence Page - You've got some real though provoking points there - good grief, shotshell reloading was not supposed to be so complicated according to the Lyman manuals and other publications. After all these years, I think the slug reloading difficulties may be some kind of conspiracy on the part of ammo manufacturers and component makers to keep us from reaching the promised land of slug reloading lol :) :) Happy Holidays, good reloadin' to ya…and I'm going to get some more mica...
It looks like those hulls have a separate plastic base wad that has a skirt that goes part of the way up the side of the hull and they are catching on the lip! That is pretty much the same problem I have experienced in the automotive repair industry with shaped, directional seals being installed where there is a lip they can catch on when installing. That is one the reason I chose to reload with once fired one piece shells that have the base wad a part of the shell like the Remington Gun Club. The other is the possibility of the separate base wad coming loose and obstructing the bore. The Gun Club (tapered wall I feel are less desirable) was my second choice as I could not find any once fired Federal Gold Medal one piece plastic hulls (straight wall is what I would have preferred).
Interesting problem FC.. Makes me wonder if seating the wad with the slug fitted, cants everything over enough to do the damage to the obturation cup.. Perhaps seating the wad by itself and then fitting the slug afterwards would help keep things straighter and trouble free :-)
joehunt1980 - that's a great point. I'm going to try that immediately…the idea is that the wad seating stem on the press will be pressing closer to the wad base instead of from farther out. Also will give us more sensitivity seating the wad…Great thinking there…I'm standing up and applauding you for coming up with that.
shootnsay-Thanks again for your sub and for becoming a poster. I used to shoot lots of rimfire - near a bulk box at a time. Used loaders for my mags and Speed D Loaders for tube feds. But since 22s became hard to find and horribly expensive when it was found (can you believe that some were paying $200 for a box of 500 for a while, and then sitting on it as the prices dropped??), I stopped shooting 22s and developed 38 Spl 105 Lee SWCs 4.1 Promo at 5 cents a shot and 45 ACP 200 Lee SWCs 5.2 Promo for my Ruger BHs at 5.3 cents a shot - shoot those for my 22 substitutes. I like my 22 rifles and pistols, but find I don't take 'em out anymore - not even when friends go to the range with me - I've got 5 boxes of 22 bulk left and I'm sitting on 'em until supplies return (?). And I find that 22 guns are not as interesting as they used to be...Happy Holidays...
Your homework pays off. I'm wondering if something during the primer punch out or seating is causing nicks in the inside of your hulls for skirts to catch on. I've gotten skirts like that if the wad guide fingers don't nest inside the crimp opening when seating. A corner of crimp can kind of poke between the fingers and catch the skirt. I started feeling for the resistence there: ...Those problems decreased when I started holding the slug up against the drop tube so that the fingers were firmly within the wad guide well before the wad starts to go through.
GunFun ZS- Some real possibilities you bring up there, anything we can do to keep that obturator from catching on the way in is going to help us. Note the factories have none of these issues as they use new components with no old crimps to deal with...Best Regards...
gman77gas-Ha,haa,har LOL :) However, I do recall shooting 400+ rounds of 1 1/8 oz 3 dram shells A DAY in trap competitions (100 singles, 100 handicap, 50 pair of doubles, + warm up and practice traps - no wonder some shot semiautos so they would be fresher for the shootoffs - and shootoffs=even more shells). Used to buy 16 pounds of powder to start the trapshooting seasons, wads by the 5000, and shot 300 pounds at a time. I think the nerve in my shoulder going bad - causes tremors today shooting almost anything - had something to do with all the recoil pulses there over the years - one of the reasons I retired from all competitions, but don't tell anybody. Best Regards...
Do you use Mica Wad Slick? I use it for my .410 shells and it helps the wads slide in very smoothly. I use a No. 2 pencil to insert the .410 wads and I can feel the difference between using the Wad Slick and when I forgot. They just slide in better, and I would guess they slide out better too when you fire the shell.
WhiskeyHotel1969-Thanks for the tip and great comment. Been loading shotshells for 35 years, can't even tell you how many trap loads I've done (loaded a case of shells every reloading session with my Dillon), and lots of slugs - never realized that the wad could do tricks like that - now, I'm seating each wad by itself and doing the final seating with a dowel so I can feel it going in…HNY
I am From Europe (Serbia)... What is that "pencil"? Some kind of graphite I suppose... To make it slick? Any other "lube" would interfer with powder...
Similar thing they do, when granulate Black Powder .. covering it with graphite... It is good for "slipering"...it is also a part of some greases for metal rotating parts, to diminish friction...almost like Teflon does...
Maybe it's better to seat the wad by hand or maybe try to clean the inside of the shell out a little so the wad wont get hung up and it'll slide in straight.
Prepare2Survive - Sounds workable, and you can bet I'm going to be checking the inside of the hulls with my finger after I've reprimed the hulls for any nicks that will be catching the base of the wads...Thanks for the comment...
+Prepare2Survive -- Our best bet is to use those opaque white hulls so we can see through them a bit, then seat the wad separately or by hand. We might try dusting the obturator lip portion of the wad with mica (not talcum which will increase the friction) as well. But no matter what we do, we cannot match the performance of factory slugs with their proprietary slug/wad/case all designed from ground up to work together in barrels to give accuracy and power. What we have are jerryrigged slugs going into trap wads never designed for slugs or 1500 fps in the first place. Best Regards, FC
bill84345- definitely noticeable - I should have shown you how I could shake the extra powder back out that defect on video - there was a fair amount in there where it did not belong...But other wads caught and went in crooked without the powder signature so we can't depend on that to find these problems...
FortuneCookie45LC I'm thinking from my manufacturing days that pressing the wad only in as slow as possible would reduce the defect problem if all but eliminate it. each person would have to decide it the additional time would be worth less defects
bill84345 You are spot on about that one - I've loaded the Lee slugs for years without picking up on this possible problem. It might be something that only happens to the Lyman 525 slug, but now that we know about it, we can definitely take steps to avoid it. I am now loading all my slug wads separately and seating each one feeling for even powder compression using the thick end of a big Sharpie pen (fits the 12 gauge hull perfectly). -then loading the slug in a separate step - there should be no more overpowder wad crinkles...Best Regards...
Hey man I recently casted slugs and loaded some test rounds. Used blue dot gun club hulls and down range wads. I did 38/39/40/41 grains each one left my barrel FULL of powder what I do wrong.
Robert Sload-Good to hear from you, and sorry to hear of your squib loads - I hate when that happens - really makes a mess of the action as well- sometimes fouls up the magazine tube in pumps and semis. Happens when 1) using the cheap straight wall shotshell hulls (this may not be your problem with the good gun club hulls) 2) slower burning powders (like BD) with air space between powder and wad 3) bad primers (no doubt you are using good 209 primers) 4) worn out hulls-bad crimps. Since you are getting squibs across the board, problem is probably 2) - I recommend you try seating the wad only past the old crimp and then doing final seating with a thick dowel to feel the wad seat and compress the powder charge a bit. Then seat the slug separately. Apply a good crimp. Squibs are from ill or non ignition of the powder charge. You might try a different hull also like the Win AA. I'd tell you to use a hotter primer, but the Lee reloading recipes don't call for them…I've used Unique, Herco, Blue Dot loads starting at less than published data without problems, but did get squibs with AA#5 in the past - changing hulls solved the problem (but AA#5 did not shoot well for me so I used AA#5 in the 45 acp). Currently, I only have Unique and not much of that left. Made the mistake of not stocking up on Herco and BD - but some Herco is on the way...Best Regards…please let me know how it goes...
i reloaded 150 slugs last night and even though i used the same components and measures every time i noticed in some that my shot colum was lower resulting in a bad crimp. im going to cut one open and see whats going on.
grizzskoalcope- Hope all your wads are flat and straight. I cut open 6 of mine to make that video. Got another video coming out - did the research on RUclips first to see if anyone else had done that - don't want to repeat the work of others if possible - should be interesting for slug shooters…Best to ya...
blogobre - That is light duty being done though, plus a cheapie knife - the job was done without any real problem - but if I do any more of this, I'll just use my plastic mallet...Thanks for the recommendation... FC
spraynpray-AA hulls are great to use, and I have much more of these than Remingtons from my trapshooting competition days. I've found that there is perhaps a 1-2% lower case capacity with the AAs compared with the Remington Unibodies though. No matter how long we've been doing this stuff, we keep finding things that surprise us and expands our body of knowledge...please stay tuned to the next development of the backward loaded Lyman 525 slug...
+Myles Nicholas -- The Lee and Lyman slugs are diametered to be used with those common trap wads. If we don't use them, they will shoot poorly because of the "rattle down the barrel" effect. We'd love to have those factory slugs and wads if they would sell them to us. We'd also love to be able to cast slugs and buy those specially fitted post wads if that was available. None are = mystery... Best to ya, FC
+FortuneCookie45LC You're right I should have realised. They have you cornered. So even using brass shells with waxed shot might be the cheapest option.
+Myles Nicholas -- I've tried the wax slugs and when they work, they work OK - accuracy is really a matter of conjecture past 50 feet. Yes, they are cheap, but the factories would not touch them because they are not dependable nor reliable ammo. Heaven help anything that gets centerpunched by one that isn't a squib load though. Best Regards, FC
I'm not sure if you have been to this forum but there is some great information in regards to what you have been experiencing. castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?150140-VdoMemorie-Blazing-Sabot! I myself have been looking to get into reloading slugs, but have been put off by the inconsistencies that yourself and others are having to deal with. In comparison to factory slugs.
ReloadAholic- Thanks for your fine post…You've already done your homework. If I may, I'd like to encourage you to do your own slugs. Everyone wants to start with Lee slugs (and I have shot LOTS of 'em), but the Lymans do edge 'em out just a mite (broke down and got the 525 mold after 30 years). 1) castboolits if a tremendous resource. I would think that the ideal would be to have a live forum videoed with a good moderator and agenda of subjectmatter to be discussed with techs from the ammo companies also in the mix. The NRA should do something like that in one of the national meetings…or perhaps they've already done that. 2) I do not want to dissuade anyone on reloading their own shotgun slugs - it is TREMENDOUS fun and great practice to shoot our own slugs out to 25 yards. But the limitations are that our reload slugs will not match much less exceed the performance and accuracy of factory slugs. We are using jerryrigged slug/wad/barrel combos that will give us reduced recoil loads good for 8" at 100 yards at best. But for 12 cents a shot (and no tax) over $1.50-$3.00 a shot (plus tax), I'll take it every time.
ReloadAholic-just went over and checked out the castboolits forum. Had not seen that one before. Yes, there are small outfits making slug/sabot combos (that's what I call 'em) including BPI, of course, but if I'm going to be paying more for the components, might as well buy factory as I would only use factory for serious purposes only ($$). I say, more power to 'em, and if others do the beta testing and they are like fine Egg Nog - I'll get there eventually. For now, I'm happy blasting away with my Lee and Lymans 3 boxes of shells per range session along with big bore pistols - Hot Lead is the name of the Game...
Very interesting video. This is why I load all of my wads by hand vs with the press. You can feel any resistance that might damage the seal as you push it in. After I get past the resistance, I do finish insertion with my press.
In one of your other vids you say you are using Federal 12S0 and 12S3 wads with Winchester AA hulls. I hope that is not the case here, but I suspect that is your problem. Winchester and Remington hulls are tapered hulls, Federal hulls are straight walled. You don't want to use a straight walled wad in a tapered hull and vice versa. Trying to cram a straight walled wad into a tapered hull can cause the base of the wad to go sideways and migrate powder into the leg portion of the wad. That powder will not ignite. For 3rd party wads like Lightning and Claybuster be sure to note what hulls they are meant for. Sometimes you can cross over, but sometimes you can't and a stuck wad in a shotgun = blown out barrel or bulged barrel on the next shot.
Stay safe.
rsrocket1- Thanks for your info on this. I first learned about this before I went into competitive trapshooting - I reloaded some of the cheaper straight wall Federals using my AA12 wads and got inconsistent ignition. Any and all squibs in all guns need to have immediate barrel check before more rounds are fired or disaster as you describe occurs. My solution was to only load AA components in Winchester AA hulls and Power Pistons in Remington STS, etc. The Federal Gold Medals were not often used by other shooters, and I avoided them as well. Today, the cost of shot practically makes reloading shot shotshells impractical for the little money saved. And the inexpensive Remington target ammo actually has premium unibody hulls that I love to use to reload slugs. Slug reloading is very economical because we can cast our own slugs. I would tell shooters that AA components that would take slugs best be used with AA hulls or other injection molded unibody types. And the Federal wads used with straight wall hulls like the Fiocchis, Winchesters, or Remingtons. However, the Lyman Shotshell handbook has a limited number of recipes mixing the wads with the other type of hulls. For the most part, I don't use those but they can work. For instance, you can finger seat a Federal 12S wad into an AA case. The advantage of the Federal wads is their stiffness, lack of bending, and well supported shot cup - might just solve this skirt bending issue. I like them in Fiochhi hulls... Best to ya
plastic-on-plastic contact between edge of the wads and the hull may be making a hydraulic seal, with gas pressure putting a bind on the wad, when you seat.
Try seating the wads gradually, slower, by hand, see if you are getting back pressure particularly on the tail end of seating.
Those wad cups remind me of plastic bottles that let go under too much gas pressure.
Temperature of the plastic may have something to do with it.
Perhaps some dry lube is in order; dip the wad into a small pinch of mica?
Also, could be the mold release on the plastic, getting torched in firing, turning into tar, causing issue.
Lawrence Page - Always good to hear from Lawrence Page - You've got some real though provoking points there - good grief, shotshell reloading was not supposed to be so complicated according to the Lyman manuals and other publications. After all these years, I think the slug reloading difficulties may be some kind of conspiracy on the part of ammo manufacturers and component makers to keep us from reaching the promised land of slug reloading lol :) :) Happy Holidays, good reloadin' to ya…and I'm going to get some more mica...
It looks like those hulls have a separate plastic base wad that has a skirt that goes part of the way up the side of the hull and they are catching on the lip!
That is pretty much the same problem I have experienced in the automotive repair industry with shaped, directional seals being installed where there is a lip they can catch on when installing.
That is one the reason I chose to reload with once fired one piece shells that have the base wad a part of the shell like the Remington Gun Club.
The other is the possibility of the separate base wad coming loose and obstructing the bore.
The Gun Club (tapered wall I feel are less desirable) was my second choice as I could not find any once fired Federal Gold Medal one piece plastic hulls (straight wall is what I would have preferred).
Interesting problem FC..
Makes me wonder if seating the wad with the slug fitted, cants everything over enough to do the damage to the obturation cup.. Perhaps seating the wad by itself and then fitting the slug afterwards would help keep things straighter and trouble free :-)
joehunt1980 - that's a great point. I'm going to try that immediately…the idea is that the wad seating stem on the press will be pressing closer to the wad base instead of from farther out. Also will give us more sensitivity seating the wad…Great thinking there…I'm standing up and applauding you for coming up with that.
Great reviews and great channel, Sir. I recently discovered it and subscribed. Do you ever shoot rimfire? Love the casting and reloading videos!
shootnsay-Thanks again for your sub and for becoming a poster. I used to shoot lots of rimfire - near a bulk box at a time. Used loaders for my mags and Speed D Loaders for tube feds. But since 22s became hard to find and horribly expensive when it was found (can you believe that some were paying $200 for a box of 500 for a while, and then sitting on it as the prices dropped??), I stopped shooting 22s and developed 38 Spl 105 Lee SWCs 4.1 Promo at 5 cents a shot and 45 ACP 200 Lee SWCs 5.2 Promo for my Ruger BHs at 5.3 cents a shot - shoot those for my 22 substitutes. I like my 22 rifles and pistols, but find I don't take 'em out anymore - not even when friends go to the range with me - I've got 5 boxes of 22 bulk left and I'm sitting on 'em until supplies return (?). And I find that 22 guns are not as interesting as they used to be...Happy Holidays...
Very interesting video, nice work!
theroyalgrapefruit- always great to see that grapefruit avatar of yours!!
Your homework pays off. I'm wondering if something during the primer punch out or seating is causing nicks in the inside of your hulls for skirts to catch on. I've gotten skirts like that if the wad guide fingers don't nest inside the crimp opening when seating. A corner of crimp can kind of poke between the fingers and catch the skirt. I started feeling for the resistence there: ...Those problems decreased when I started holding the slug up against the drop tube so that the fingers were firmly within the wad guide well before the wad starts to go through.
GunFun ZS- Some real possibilities you bring up there, anything we can do to keep that obturator from catching on the way in is going to help us. Note the factories have none of these issues as they use new components with no old crimps to deal with...Best Regards...
Wonder if you need to tap the powder level before you press down the slug
Shooting all those slugs thru out the years how many shoulders did you have replaced? : )
gman77gas-Ha,haa,har LOL :) However, I do recall shooting 400+ rounds of 1 1/8 oz 3 dram shells A DAY in trap competitions (100 singles, 100 handicap, 50 pair of doubles, + warm up and practice traps - no wonder some shot semiautos so they would be fresher for the shootoffs - and shootoffs=even more shells). Used to buy 16 pounds of powder to start the trapshooting seasons, wads by the 5000, and shot 300 pounds at a time. I think the nerve in my shoulder going bad - causes tremors today shooting almost anything - had something to do with all the recoil pulses there over the years - one of the reasons I retired from all competitions, but don't tell anybody. Best Regards...
Do you use Mica Wad Slick? I use it for my .410 shells and it helps the wads slide in very smoothly. I use a No. 2 pencil to insert the .410 wads and I can feel the difference between using the Wad Slick and when I forgot. They just slide in better, and I would guess they slide out better too when you fire the shell.
WhiskeyHotel1969-Thanks for the tip and great comment. Been loading shotshells for 35 years, can't even tell you how many trap loads I've done (loaded a case of shells every reloading session with my Dillon), and lots of slugs - never realized that the wad could do tricks like that - now, I'm seating each wad by itself and doing the final seating with a dowel so I can feel it going in…HNY
I am From Europe (Serbia)... What is that "pencil"? Some kind of graphite I suppose... To make it slick? Any other "lube" would interfer with powder...
Similar thing they do, when granulate Black Powder .. covering it with graphite... It is good for "slipering"...it is also a part of some greases for metal rotating parts, to diminish friction...almost like Teflon does...
Good point lawrence... You might be on to something there.
+magvat -- Thanks for the comment... plus I answer to almost anything - like Kermit, or Yogi, or Christopher, or Arnold... Happy Holidays to ya, FC
Maybe it's better to seat the wad by hand or maybe try to clean the inside of the shell out a little so the wad wont get hung up and it'll slide in straight.
Prepare2Survive - Sounds workable, and you can bet I'm going to be checking the inside of the hulls with my finger after I've reprimed the hulls for any nicks that will be catching the base of the wads...Thanks for the comment...
+Prepare2Survive -- Our best bet is to use those opaque white hulls so we can see through them a bit, then seat the wad separately or by hand. We might try dusting the obturator lip portion of the wad with mica (not talcum which will increase the friction) as well. But no matter what we do, we cannot match the performance of factory slugs with their proprietary slug/wad/case all designed from ground up to work together in barrels to give accuracy and power. What we have are jerryrigged slugs going into trap wads never designed for slugs or 1500 fps in the first place. Best Regards, FC
As you said shaking will detect it, my question is how noticeable is the loose powder
bill84345- definitely noticeable - I should have shown you how I could shake the extra powder back out that defect on video - there was a fair amount in there where it did not belong...But other wads caught and went in crooked without the powder signature so we can't depend on that to find these problems...
FortuneCookie45LC I'm thinking from my manufacturing days that pressing the wad only in as slow as possible would reduce the defect problem if all but eliminate it. each person would have to decide it the additional time would be worth less defects
bill84345 You are spot on about that one - I've loaded the Lee slugs for years without picking up on this possible problem. It might be something that only happens to the Lyman 525 slug, but now that we know about it, we can definitely take steps to avoid it. I am now loading all my slug wads separately and seating each one feeling for even powder compression using the thick end of a big Sharpie pen (fits the 12 gauge hull perfectly). -then loading the slug in a separate step - there should be no more overpowder wad crinkles...Best Regards...
Hey man I recently casted slugs and loaded some test rounds. Used blue dot gun club hulls and down range wads. I did 38/39/40/41 grains each one left my barrel FULL of powder what I do wrong.
Robert Sload-Good to hear from you, and sorry to hear of your squib loads - I hate when that happens - really makes a mess of the action as well- sometimes fouls up the magazine tube in pumps and semis. Happens when 1) using the cheap straight wall shotshell hulls (this may not be your problem with the good gun club hulls) 2) slower burning powders (like BD) with air space between powder and wad 3) bad primers (no doubt you are using good 209 primers) 4) worn out hulls-bad crimps. Since you are getting squibs across the board, problem is probably 2) - I recommend you try seating the wad only past the old crimp and then doing final seating with a thick dowel to feel the wad seat and compress the powder charge a bit. Then seat the slug separately. Apply a good crimp. Squibs are from ill or non ignition of the powder charge. You might try a different hull also like the Win AA. I'd tell you to use a hotter primer, but the Lee reloading recipes don't call for them…I've used Unique, Herco, Blue Dot loads starting at less than published data without problems, but did get squibs with AA#5 in the past - changing hulls solved the problem (but AA#5 did not shoot well for me so I used AA#5 in the 45 acp). Currently, I only have Unique and not much of that left. Made the mistake of not stocking up on Herco and BD - but some Herco is on the way...Best Regards…please let me know how it goes...
Not a problem I have with my 40 year old Lee Load all. Might be a bur on your mec was sleeve. Maybe one advantage to a delrin sleeve over metal
Wad sleeve
Ahhh haaa very perceptive never woulda thought of that...
i reloaded 150 slugs last night and even though i used the same components and measures every time i noticed in some that my shot colum was lower resulting in a bad crimp. im going to cut one open and see whats going on.
grizzskoalcope- Hope all your wads are flat and straight. I cut open 6 of mine to make that video. Got another video coming out - did the research on RUclips first to see if anyone else had done that - don't want to repeat the work of others if possible - should be interesting for slug shooters…Best to ya...
Mixing tapered hulls with straight wads is a recipe for failure. Make sure your wads and hulls line up: Tapered with tapered, straight with straight
*cringes at steel hammer on back of knife* You do have plastic/wood mallets yeah?
blogobre - That is light duty being done though, plus a cheapie knife - the job was done without any real problem - but if I do any more of this, I'll just use my plastic mallet...Thanks for the recommendation... FC
Have you ever had any issue with AA hulls? No offense, but I am the official Guy That Doesn't Like Remington.
spraynpray-AA hulls are great to use, and I have much more of these than Remingtons from my trapshooting competition days. I've found that there is perhaps a 1-2% lower case capacity with the AAs compared with the Remington Unibodies though. No matter how long we've been doing this stuff, we keep finding things that surprise us and expands our body of knowledge...please stay tuned to the next development of the backward loaded Lyman 525 slug...
If commercial shells don't use those plastic wads, why do you?
+Myles Nicholas -- The Lee and Lyman slugs are diametered to be used with those common trap wads. If we don't use them, they will shoot poorly because of the "rattle down the barrel" effect. We'd love to have those factory slugs and wads if they would sell them to us. We'd also love to be able to cast slugs and buy those specially fitted post wads if that was available. None are = mystery... Best to ya, FC
+FortuneCookie45LC You're right I should have realised. They have you cornered.
So even using brass shells with waxed shot might be the cheapest option.
+Myles Nicholas -- I've tried the wax slugs and when they work, they work OK - accuracy is really a matter of conjecture past 50 feet. Yes, they are cheap, but the factories would not touch them because they are not dependable nor reliable ammo. Heaven help anything that gets centerpunched by one that isn't a squib load though. Best Regards, FC
👍🏻
I'm not sure if you have been to this forum but there is some great information in regards to what you have been experiencing.
castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?150140-VdoMemorie-Blazing-Sabot!
I myself have been looking to get into reloading slugs, but have been put off by the inconsistencies that yourself and others are having to deal with. In comparison to factory slugs.
ReloadAholic- Thanks for your fine post…You've already done your homework. If I may, I'd like to encourage you to do your own slugs. Everyone wants to start with Lee slugs (and I have shot LOTS of 'em), but the Lymans do edge 'em out just a mite (broke down and got the 525 mold after 30 years). 1) castboolits if a tremendous resource. I would think that the ideal would be to have a live forum videoed with a good moderator and agenda of subjectmatter to be discussed with techs from the ammo companies also in the mix. The NRA should do something like that in one of the national meetings…or perhaps they've already done that. 2) I do not want to dissuade anyone on reloading their own shotgun slugs - it is TREMENDOUS fun and great practice to shoot our own slugs out to 25 yards. But the limitations are that our reload slugs will not match much less exceed the performance and accuracy of factory slugs. We are using jerryrigged slug/wad/barrel combos that will give us reduced recoil loads good for 8" at 100 yards at best. But for 12 cents a shot (and no tax) over $1.50-$3.00 a shot (plus tax), I'll take it every time.
ReloadAholic-just went over and checked out the castboolits forum. Had not seen that one before. Yes, there are small outfits making slug/sabot combos (that's what I call 'em) including BPI, of course, but if I'm going to be paying more for the components, might as well buy factory as I would only use factory for serious purposes only ($$). I say, more power to 'em, and if others do the beta testing and they are like fine Egg Nog - I'll get there eventually. For now, I'm happy blasting away with my Lee and Lymans 3 boxes of shells per range session along with big bore pistols - Hot Lead is the name of the Game...