12ga tungsten carbide slugs?

IDPACONVERT

IDPACONVERT

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Just wondering if anyone has tried these for reloding?
I've come across some, and was wondering what the load data wold be, I'll post some more information on the slugs later.
Thank you
Bill
 
I work for a carbide manufacturer, I work with carbide everyday so I am interested to hear the range report. I'd also like to see what they look like do you have any pictures?
 
saskcop said:
Will those compress like lead slugs when going down the barrel? Will they require a rifled slug barrel to shoot?
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There is no compression with the carbide. It will smooth out a rifle barrel first shot. The ones I've seen are homemade plastic with carbide inserts.
 
Wouldn't they be decidedly too brittle? Very long for the weight too. Anyway, you load for the weight not the metal used to make 'em.
 
if they are big enough that you can't use a sabot you will destroy your barrel IMO, regardless of if it is smooth or not. Tungsten carbide is, as you know, incredibly hard. Might be too brittle but I doubt it - I think, however, if you shot it at steel plate, you'd be likely to end up with a hole in it and a whole bunch of shrapnel behind the plate. Could be fun! But use an old barrel or put it in a sabot - even an old barrel may not work well, as if the slug digs in and grabs the barrel metal, you'll get a pressure spike and could end up wearing your barrel/gun as a piercing (skull piercing even?)
 
Is it just the extra weight over lead you are after? I see a pile of disadvantages and only one possible advantage to these over lead slugs.

They also wont shoot through steel. Dropping a face mill with carbide inserts onto a steel plate chips or shatters them all. They are highly engineered with specific geometry on their cutting face to be able to cut while taking a specific depth of cut at a specific angle. Slamming them into a steel plate where they can't use their geometry to cut will just shatter them. You might get some spalling out the back of a mild steel plate but lead slugs will do that anyway (I've done it). Remember that tungsten carbide is formed by powder metallurgy; that is it is a powder that has been compressed into a solid so it isn't anywhere near as strong as a true solid. A piece of solid tungsten might be different but tungsten carbide isn't the same.
 
Honestly, the easiest way to make armor piercing ammo that I've found was to insert tungsten rods into hollow point bullets that have been drilled out a but. Sheerly for amusement's sake, but it did a heck of a better job at piercing mild steel plate and did a better job on ar500.

Basically took a 40 grain blitz king, and carefully used a Dremel to drill out the centre. I then used my loading press to carefully press in a piece of tungsten rod. Surely it wasn't accurate or precisely done, but I could hit a 4x4 plate at fifty years and most of the time a 6x6 plate at a hundred.

Went straight through 3/8" plate at 100 yards, and 1/2" at 50, didn't bring enough to try out a lot of various situations though. The ar500 took a good sized chunk out, but didn't penetrate even at about 30 yards (1/2" ar500). But I was impressed with the damage that these little guys did to that plate.

I think someone with a mini lathe could do a better job of cutting the hole straight. I found the best way was to cut it quickly, then when I pressed in the rod of the same diameter as the drill bit I pushed it in just a fair further than the hole depth. They stuck pretty good in the bullet. Tested a couple lower velocity loads to make sure there were no issues, then loaded them up to about 3700-3800 fps if I recall correctly, could have been 3900, but pretty sure I didn't break 4k. It was surprisingly impressive.

You can get up to 1/4" tungsten rods from most welding supply stores for use as tig welding electrodes. I tried 3/32 and 1/8 inch rods. The larger were hard to drill properly and I probably ruined over half of the bullets I tried drilling. The 3/32 and 1/16 were easier but the 1/16 wasn't that effective. I bet a 1/4" rod in a 308 caliber projectile would be devastating.
 
Inserting tungsten rods into hollow points does not make an armoUr piercing bullet. Especially in a 40 grain bullet. AP work with a combination of hard and velocity. A tiny bit of tungsten will do nothing. Any jacketed rifle bullet will go through 3/8" of mild steel without much fuss.
Tungsten rods are not the same thing as tungsten-carbide either.
 
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