What are those bulk skeet shells good for?

[Malagamarksman]

,,,,,,i did some more reading and decided to remeasure my lee slugs. i used a micrometer and got a measurement of .680-.0675

i think my made in china caliper is "made in china".

sorry about that.

If you are getting them down to .675" you should not need to cut the cup off the plaswad. Pour them a bit hotter and make sure the mould is up to temperature. Then they will be more consistent in diameter.

Then it's a matter of trial and error as to which brand of shotshell has plaswads that accept the Lee slugs. Not all brands of shotshell are compatible.

Oh BTW bin that caliper hahahaha.

 

[old mossy]

thank you sir.

what is that shot cup for? does it really effect the shot? reading around some people say you need it,some say no. :?

caliper is gone.

 

[Malagamarksman]

No problem sir.

As I understand it the plaswad shot cup is to hold the payload of lead shot together as it flies through the barrel. Factory slugs don't have a shot cup, so I presume they are not needed with slugs ?

The Lee slug is designed to fit inside a shotshell shot cup so that the plaswad engages the rifling of a rifled 12g barrel.

But I have found that they work superbly out of a smooth bore too. I have posted pictures of 25 metre groups here in this thread. A friend has a rifled model 500. He gets great results at 200 metres.

Another friend of mine here has an old Foster slug mould which mikes out at around (I can't remember exactly) .720". He has to remove the shot cup and roll crimp to finish.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,looks like i'm going to trim the petals off the shot cup wad.

again thank you all for your help.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,another proby question,,,,,,,
does the temp of the melted lead or the mold effect the weight of the finished slug?
i was tried one today and when i put it on the diggy scale it was .069. i'm using a lee 1oz mold.

 

[John A.]

no it doesn't effect the weight.

I weighed some of my first ones, and they were at 1.0 ounces on the dot.

But Lee does have two different molds that look the same to my eyes. The smaller is 7/8 ounce.

If you roll them around on a table, do the slugs want to come to rest on the tip of their nose? That is one of the tell tell signs of the 7/8 slugs is they are like a badmitton shuttlecock (nose heavy).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG_WzJrydcA[/youtube]

 

[old mossy]

i ordered the lee 1oz and thats what it says on the box.

i hope to get a chance tomorrow to make some more.

i'll also roll them just to see.

great video.

thank you John

 

[old mossy]

,,,,,,,can you say DUH,,,,,i had the digital scale in the wrong mode. slugs are 1oz on the money.
still working on the correct heat.

anyone tell me what do you clean the mold cavity with?

 

[old mossy]

well i still have the "wrinkles"in the slug.
i got a hot plate.(great idea nitesite). heated up the mold for about 45 seconds with a propane torch.
another thing i noticed is i'm not getting the "suck in" when mold is full as i see on a few videos.
thank you in advance for the help.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,finally got the correct heat on the mold. just did a dozen all look good,measure good and weigh good.

thank's guys for all the help and info on casting slugs.

now to get the correct hull length for the roll crimp. (any hints?)

 

[John A.]

Good deal mossy. I went through the same learning curve with the temp of the lead.

I trim my hulls at the very base of the factory star crimp.

The area where it begins to bend (from lack of better description)

You could try one like that, and see how that works for you.

And while it is on my mind, I have also been using a clear plastic overshot cards over my slugs as well because without them, they were a touch loose after running the roll crimper over them. You could feel and hear them rattle around when you shook them.

Here are the overshot cards I am using.

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/12ga-C ... nfo/COS12/

They sit on top of the slug, and the roll crimp tightens down over them instead of the slug itself which eliminates the arguably sloppy tolerances from my hand trimming and the likes.

I may could possibly trim a touch more off of my hulls and that may eliminate the need for the overshot cards on mine, but I have all of my stuff setup for this technique, so that's why I am not screwing with anything at this time because if it ain't broke...

 

[old mossy]

Good deal mossy. I went through the same learning curve with the temp of the lead.

I trim my hulls at the very base of the factory star crimp.

The area where it begins to bend (from lack of better description)

You could try one like that, and see how that works for you.

And while it is on my mind, I have also been using a clear plastic overshot cards over my slugs as well because without them, they were a touch loose after running the roll crimper over them. You could feel and hear them rattle around when you shook them.

Here are the overshot cards I am using.

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/12ga-C ... nfo/COS12/

They sit on top of the slug, and the roll crimp tightens down over them instead of the slug itself which eliminates the arguably sloppy tolerances from my hand trimming and the likes.

I may could possibly trim a touch more off of my hulls and that may eliminate the need for the overshot cards on mine, but I have all of my stuff setup for this technique, so that's why I am not screwing with anything at this time because if it ain't broke...

i wound up trimming first at the crimp "bend" and adjusted lower and lower until i got as close as i could to eliminating the "rattle". for this batch i wound up putting 2 drops of candle wax.
since i bought 100 rounds of remington gun club,i will finish them out with some shot cards. thanks for the tip. (i wound up trimming the petals off the shotwad to fit in the hull)
i also made a few 3/4" pvc jigs for the trimming. great idea they work great.
i'm sure different brand shells will need a different lengh for the trimming.

one other thing i just realized,,,,my 7+1 500 now holds 8+1 lee slugs.
John thank you and all the people that helped again for this thread and all the help and hints.

p.s. this is habit forming.

 

[Malagamarksman]

Glad to hear you have got the temperature right. Thing is I have an Exactaroll roll crimp tool and I find cutting off the star crimp and roll crimping to be a lot of work for no benefit.

I have a Lee Load-all press and I just re-star crimp the opened up shells. A lot quicker, less work and they feed superbly through my shotgun's actions. They shoot very accurately too.

If you don't have one I would recommend buying the Lee press for this caper.

Just remember to mark them with a permanent marker so you can readily I.D them.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,,i was looking at the Lee 2 loader,,,,maybe an early Christmas present.......

thank you for your help learning about the lee slugs.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,one other thing i forgot to mention,,,,,,i bought the nylon roll crimper from Slugs R Us. works great with a slow speed hand drill.,,,,,,,,and only $11.95
http://slugsrus.com/store/handload.html

 

[John A.]

i wound up trimming first at the crimp "bend" and adjusted lower and lower until i got as close as i could to eliminating the "rattle". for this batch i wound up putting 2 drops of candle wax.
since i bought 100 rounds of remington gun club,i will finish them out with some shot cards. thanks for the tip. (i wound up trimming the petals off the shotwad to fit in the hull)
i also made a few 3/4" pvc jigs for the trimming. great idea they work great.
i'm sure different brand shells will need a different lengh for the trimming.

one other thing i just realized,,,,my 7+1 500 now holds 8+1 lee slugs.
John thank you and all the people that helped again for this thread and all the help and hints.

p.s. this is habit forming.

I'm sure you're right about the hulls needing trimmed at different lengths for different brands due to the wad they use. And maybe different even between lot numbers depending on what components they used.

And you're welcome for what little help I could provide. But I agree that it's habit forming. Just wait until you go out and shoot a few of them. That's when you really get hooked.

You gained an extra round, and the recoil with the low brass is next to nothing. They're like shooting a little 410 or something but still delivering a 437 gr bullet.

And the ones I have shot have been pretty accurate too. At least within the 50 yards or so I usually would use a shotgun.

I'm proud of you sir.

 

[old mossy]

,,,i can't wait till i can get to the range and try them out.

i couldn't have and wouldn't have if it wasen't for the good people here on MO.
thank you. (see the old man smiling).

 

[TheJackal]

one other thing i just realized,,,,my 7+1 500 now holds 8+1 lee slugs.

The method I've settled on using for converting slugs is allowing me to make the shells relatively short.

Short enough that I can fit 10+1 in my 590A1, and they cycle 100% reliably.

I'll get you guys some pictures in a day or so.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,sounds good,,,,,pics pics.

 

[TheJackal]

Would've uploaded sooner, but life happened . . ya'll know how it is. .

Anyway, picture dump inbound!

Comparisons are made to 2-3/4" "Snap Caps" and 2-3/4" Federal 00 Buck

Most of my roll crimps could use some improvement, I didn't work out that it's a "low speed" tool AND that it desires a generous amount of lubrication until the very end of this initial batch.