Converting a Dixie Tri-Ball load into a Bolo Round?

0faustus0

0faustus0

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Converting a Dixie Tri-Ball load into a Bolo Round?

So, I loaded up a reduced recoil Dixie Tri-Ball load for my Tac-14 with no choke (cylinder bore). And I opted for a reduced powder load because …. well, the full Dixie Tri-Ball load is one of the heaviest/stoutest loads I have ever shot out of a shotgun, and I did not want all that recoil with my little Tac-14 …. Just thinking about it .. ouchhhh …. :(

This is a 12ga, 3” load with three .600 round balls (a 2.2 oz payload).

At 30 meters all three balls stayed within a 9” circle, however at 50 meters the group/pattern opened up to around a 11 to 13 inch group. And that is not good enough for hunting at that distance in my books. All three balls penetrated a ½ inch plywood board at 50 meters without any problem.

The gun:

Tac14_Marine_Sept_2020_lowres.jpg




Recovered Wads:

TriBall-Wads.jpg




50 meter group:

Tac14_50m_TriBall_load_lowres.jpg




Load column:

1. 12ga Cheddite 3” hull
2. Powder: 22 grains of Blue Dot
3. Cut wad open down to the base (Orange Precision Reloading Wad, TUPRW123)
4. Split a 20ga .125 Nitro Card in half
5. Place half of a 20ga Nitro card into wad
6. Insert Wad into hull
7. 3x .600 hard cast lead round balls (2.2 oz payload)
8. buffer (vibrate into the balls)
9. .125 Nitro Card as overshot card
10. Roll crimp


So, now I am on a quest to tighten up that group/pattern and without having to make any changes to my barrel. Yes, I know, I could try to get the barrel threaded for chokes … and a tighter choke would give me the results that I am seeking. However, I don’t want to change that choke/barrel … and I have my reasons.

One idea was to convert this round into a bolo round. That should tighten up the pattern. Does anybody know if bolo rounds are legal in Canada? I searched the firearms act and the criminal code, but could not find anything that would relate to a bolo round.

Anybody??

???????


For those who want more infos on the original Dixie Tri-Ball load, here are two links:


https: //castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?47198-Tri-Ball-Revisited!


https: //castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?424853-Dixie-Tri-Ball-L-oad-Part-Two
 
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I did some online research regarding Hog Wild buckshot. I spoke with a clerk at Colonial chokes and he recommended I purchase Imp Modified choke which I did.
About eight inch grouping at 40 yards.
The one almost spot on bullseye and second 'pellet' about 7-8 inches directly about the first strike.
,
Felt recoil was something else.
Yeah, not bolo....
 
I dont know if it would work or not but what about stacking them into a ring cloth bag? I dont know if they just rip thru. I was going to try it woth buck shot when i get time. The ring bags are cloth similar weave as bean bags. Also dont know how the sack would fly. Once my elbow heals up ill experiment
 
Butcherbill said:
What’s your reason for not wanting to thread the barrel for chokes?
Click to expand...

Butcherbill, the main reason is that I can’t sit still for more than 30 minutes …. Lol

It’s true … I am not the guy who can sit in a tree stand or duck blind for hours and hours or all day long. I like to stalk the woods … and I call myself an opportunistic hunter! I roam the woods and I take what I encounter … and what I can get … a grouse, a hare … a deer … a beaver …. etc …

And this little Tac-14 has become my favorite woods bumming gun …. light, only 6 lbs … very maneuverable when the bush gets dense …. and with the open choke it is my “point – shoot – can’t miss” boomstick ….. :)

Here in the Eastern Woodlands … if you are moving silently and carefully in the woods … and if you know what you are doing … you can get pretty close to wildlife …. sometimes even touching close …

And for those “close” encounters I don’t want a tighter choke …

And for longer shots I switch to Flightcontrol ammo or slugs with an aiming technique.

Switching to a different shell/load on the fly and in the woods … is easier than changing chokes on the fly ….

Wouldn’t you agree?
 
I know I am off topic again but what kind of worked for me in ten gauge blackpowder cartridge shotgun is improvised slug.
A fifty caliber RB crazy glued over a triangle of three 000 buckshot.
You won't see this in any handload manual.
Seemingly works best with full choke in my few experiments.
 
0faustus0 said:
Butcherbill, the main reason is that I can’t sit still for more than 30 minutes …. Lol

It’s true … I am not the guy who can sit in a tree stand or duck blind for hours and hours or all day long. I like to stalk the woods … and I call myself an opportunistic hunter! I roam the woods and I take what I encounter … and what I can get … a grouse, a hare … a deer … a beaver …. etc …

And this little Tac-14 has become my favorite woods bumming gun …. light, only 6 lbs … very maneuverable when the bush gets dense …. and with the open choke it is my “point – shoot – can’t miss” boomstick ….. :)

Here in the Eastern Woodlands … if you are moving silently and carefully in the woods … and if you know what you are doing … you can get pretty close to wildlife …. sometimes even touching close …

And for those “close” encounters I don’t want a tighter choke …

And for longer shots I switch to Flightcontrol ammo or slugs with an aiming technique.

Switching to a different shell/load on the fly and in the woods … is easier than changing chokes on the fly ….

Wouldn’t you agree?
Click to expand...

I agree and disagree lol, all my short barrel 12g’s have chokes and I find there’s usually one choke that does everything well. Usually it’s a mod or imp mod, great patterns out to 40y and great slug accuracy as well.

But if you have something that works for you well, don’t mess with it. It will ultimately be more affordable to find or make a load that does what you need it to than to thread a barrel. I just find chokes and shorter are always a winner, that’s just me though. Anything I have that doesn’t have screw in chokes has a fixed full in it, Cooey 84’s or Ithaca 37’s.
 
Butcherbill said:
I agree and disagree lol, all my short barrel 12g’s have chokes and I find there’s usually one choke that does everything well. Usually it’s a mod or imp mod, great patterns out to 40y and great slug accuracy as well.

But if you have something that works for you well, don’t mess with it. It will ultimately be more affordable to find or make a load that does what you need it to than to thread a barrel. I just find chokes and shorter are always a winner, that’s just me though. Anything I have that doesn’t have screw in chokes has a fixed full in it, Cooey 84’s or Ithaca 37’s.
Click to expand...

Butcherbill … here is just an example of what I am talking about …

Last year I approached a beaver pond on my property … and when I saw a beaver ... I decided to try to get closer … Whenever that beaver’s head would disappear behind a log or a stump … and when his view was blocked … I would move a step or two closer and eventually I managed to settled down at the edge of the pond … not moving one finger while that beaver could see me.

I was sitting there in the open … immobile … totally visible with my shiny and bling bling Tac-14 Marine in my hands. After feeding here and there … that beaver eventually decided to swim towards my direction …. slowly … without any suspicion. He saw me … I was sitting at the edge of the pond in the open … but for him I was just a stump or something else “non living” … non moving … in the forest. And then he came closer … and closer … swimming slowly … and then at around 3 meters distance his head disappeared behind a stump … and I decided that that was my moment … While he could not see me … I raised my Tac-14 … aiming at the other side of the stump and where his head would appear in 2 seconds … and once that beaver’s head reappeared I fired …

At 3 meters … my shot column had no time to open up …. and it was basically still a “slug” … and I missed that beaver's head by a couple of millimeters … The shockwave in the water was enough though … and It took me another two shots to finish him off … :-(

Three meters was too close for my Tac-14 to be a shotgun even with a cylinder bore!
(At 3 meters my Tac-14 was a rifle!)

Just to say that, … I wish I had an even more open choke for those close encounters …
 
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Brutus said:
I know I am off topic again but what kind of worked for me in ten gauge blackpowder cartridge shotgun is improvised slug.
A fifty caliber RB crazy glued over a triangle of three 000 buckshot.
You won't see this in any handload manual.
Seemingly works best with full choke in my few experiments.
Click to expand...

Brutus, yes, you are slightly off topic .... ;)

https: //castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?339590-Buck-amp-Ball-Once-again
 
0faustus0 said:
Butcherbill … here is just an example of what I am talking about …

Last year I approached a beaver pond on my property … and when I saw a beaver ... I decided to try to get closer … Whenever that beaver’s head would disappear behind a log or a stump … and when his view was blocked … I would move a step or two closer and eventually I managed to settled down at the edge of the pond … not moving one finger while that beaver could see me.

I was sitting there in the open … immobile … totally visible with my shiny and bling bling Tac-14 Marine in my hands. After feeding here and there … that beaver eventually decided to swim towards my direction …. slowly … without any suspicion. He saw me … I was sitting at the edge of the pond in the open … but for him I was just a stump or something else “non living” … non moving … in the forest. And then he came closer … and closer … swimming slowly … and then at around 3 meters distance his head disappeared behind a stump … and I decided that that was my moment … While he could not see me … I raised my Tac-14 … aiming at the other side of the stump and where his head would appear in 2 seconds … and once that beaver’s head reappeared I fired …

At 3 meters … my shot column had no time to open up …. and it was basically still a “slug” … and I missed that beaver's head by a couple of millimeters … The shockwave in the water was enough though … and It took me another two shots to finish him off … :-(

Three meters was too close for my Tac-14 to be a shotgun even with a cylinder bore!
(At 3 meters my Tac-14 was a rifle!)

Just to say that, … I wish I had an even more open choke for those close encounters …
Click to expand...

Oh I get it, I head shot grouse with mine last season as well as my other shotguns with chokes. I guess I just prefer a shotgun set up like that, at 3 yards or meters it doesn’t matter what constriction you have. It’s just a shot cup full of lead, the closest I shot a grouse was about 5’ lol. I hopped out of the side by side to try and get two out around the 15-20y mark and both flushed before I could even load my 870, then I saw the third in a rose hip bush. You could see the shape of the wad on the base of the skull of the grouse, the wad took it off just at the top of the beak.

Like I said if you have something that works for you don’t change it, I just think chokes make an already good thing better. From my experience there’s one choke that’s a sweet spot and it’s never been open cylinder, even for shooting slugs. But that’s just my personal experience, everyone has a different way of getting to the same point. I like having one load that does everything I ask of it instead of trying to find and load a round on the fly.
 
I'm under the impression that bolo rounds are illegal in Canada.
Click to expand...

The Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited or Restricted (SOR/98-462) is the only Law which creates a category of 'illegal ammunition.'

Part 5 of the Schedule [all the way at the bottom of the page] (formerly Prohibited Weapons Order No. 10) includes four types of ammunition:

1. Handgun designed to go through body armour*.
2. Incendiary (except flares, basically).
3. Explosive (except flares).
4. Shotgun flechettes (needles).

(The Criminal Code, Part III, Section 84 simply defines Prohibited Ammunition as that which the government says so, which is a reference to the above.)

The Explosives Act and its Regulations (SOR-2013/211) concern things like import, sale, storage, transportation of Small Arms Cartridges, but do not further prohibit any types of such. Manufactured bolo rounds may or may not be approved by the regulating body to import into Canada, but home reloaders are not barred from experimenting.

* The fact that several handgun cartridges can defeat soft body armour anyway doesn't seem to matter, I guess it's just if they're *designed* with that in mind. For instance, original 5,7x28mm P-90 cartridges are named, because the penetration was touted as part of the design, but modern FN SS197SR (and other) 5,7mm ammo is imported here and available, presumably because penetration is not promoted.

Never mind that there is no legal definition of what constitutes strictly *handgun* ammunition, nor could there be; almost any cartridge you can name has had long arms chambered in it, and you could get that custom big revolver company to make you one for too...
 
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