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What are those bulk skeet shells good for?

Remember if you are going to buy a slug mold and cast them, you absolutely must acquire almost 100% pure soft lead. Using recycled wheel weight lead (which is a harder alloy and and different density which shrinks differently as it cools and releases from the center pin) can spell a lot of aggravation and frustration.

Pure or almost pure soft lead drops very quickly and cleanly from your mold.
 
This is one reason why so many have been having success with the 100-ct bulk packs of ammo for a shot source. Those brands use chilled shot which is much closer to pure lead than premium brands who add higher antimony and other things to the alloy mix in order to increase the hardness of the shot for less deformation.

I cast a LOT of wheel weight lead for metallic cartridges but from my clip-on wheel weight cache I always separate out the stick-on lead weights 'cuz they are almost pure lead. Those go for slug making. They also make much better cast bullets for black powder. It is very difficult to ram a wheel-weight bullet down a musket bore.
 
So be advised, if you shop Rotometals for instance, you will find that they sell a Lyman #2 bullet alloy which is pretty darned hard alloy meant for high-velocity handgun bullets. This Lyman #2 would be the suck for trying to cast with a Lee Slug Mold.

Rotometals also lists pure lead. That is what you would want to acquire.

Thanks guys for letting me bore you some more.
 
You're not boring.

You're a walking, talking, reloading encyclopedia :cool:
 
Or I could be making up all this stuff as I go along and trying to sound convincing. ;)
 
The recycled wheel weights I use are for motorcycles and I've had no issues with slugs dropping from the mold. Once I got the heat setting right I breezed right thru them. Pretty sure they are close to being pure lead. Sucks most suppliers are going to zinc to "save" the environment.
 
I've crimped up about 30 or so slugs.
I ended up using one 20ga overshot card, the one 20ga felt wad under the slug.
The card measures about .040" and the wad is 1/8", of course that compresses down a bit.
But it seems to star crimp really nice.
The forcast for tomorrow is looking good, so I'm headed to the range to try 'em out.
I'll be shooting them out of my JM, using the IC choke. Or would MOD be a better choice?
 
I'm partial to IC for slugs.

Good luck. Let us know how they do for you.
 
I think a few choke makers (carlsons comes to mind) don't recommend slugs in anything tighter than IC.
 
Remember if you are going to buy a slug mold and cast them, you absolutely must acquire almost 100% pure soft lead. Using recycled wheel weight lead (which is a harder alloy and and different density which shrinks differently as it cools and releases from the center pin) can spell a lot of aggravation and frustration.

Pure or almost pure soft lead drops very quickly and cleanly from your mold.
really plays a part in reloading them from scratch because the weight lighter and size is smaller as the hardness goes up, skewing the data a little ......at least they cant get heavier.
 
Range report.
The slugs I loaded up performed flawlessly.
Fed, fired & ejected without a single issue.
The recoil was surprisingly mild as well. In fact, I ran off a box of standard Federal Target Loads and they seemed much stouter.
However, that may be partially due to the fact the reciprocating components in the gas & recoil system add up to a couple grams less than the factory parts. With a Competition MST, my aluminum pusher assembly, and my twist on the recoil spring plunger.
All in all, I'm happy as can be. The only drawback was that I shot up slugs I had made in just a few minutes.
Again, many, many thanks to all who have posted to this thread and got me motivated to take the plunge.
 
Congrats! Glad to hear they worked out for you.:)


,,,,,now fire up that melting pot!
 
Another question, if I may.
Those of you that are roll crimping, what length are you cutting the hulls to?
I bought a roll crimp tool from BPI, and once I go through all the 20ga overshot cards and felt wads, I would like to attempt roll crimping, instead of re-star crimping.
 
Greg,

My whole hearted congrats! I received my Lee melter and slug mold today. Guess I've made the proverbial plunge! I can't even begin to know your learning curve! Bet the thrill you got was one of those life moments that you never forget?

I also am sure that the guys that made this thread happen are really proud as well!

Way to go!
Doc
 
I've crimped up about 30 or so slugs.
I ended up using one 20ga overshot card, the one 20ga felt wad under the slug.
The card measures about .040" and the wad is 1/8", of course that compresses down a bit.
But it seems to star crimp really nice.
The forcast for tomorrow is looking good, so I'm headed to the range to try 'em out.
I'll be shooting them out of my JM, using the IC choke. Or would MOD be a better choice?

The soft lead Foster slugs you see from RemFedChester have some lands and grooves on their surface that look like they should impart some kind of spin on them while going thru the barrel. Wrong. Those ridges and grooves are to allow the soft slug to compress in diameter as it passes thru any choke. Even old day single shots with full choke barrels would shoot soft Foster slugs like these just fine, because there was room for the slug to smooth thru the choke constriction whenever there was one. Millions of deer could attest that the slug went thru an full choke barrel just fine, and none of those barrels were ruined.

Guys, we are over-thinking this whole slug thing.

If you shoot 100% pure soft FACTORY Foster slug thru any choke it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

If you cast a LEE slug that goes into a plastic wad it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

Thanks fellas!
 
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