I have played around the the 7/8 lee slug quite a bit, winter is the best time as you can retrieve the wads and shot cards easily in the snow. If the wads are being mangled and losing pedals then something is not correct. The Claybuster wads are poor for the lee slugs, my accuracy and wad release/ damage improved dramatically when I found some old stock Win wads. I use the Win wads in Win AA hulls, with 2, 20 ga shot cards in the bottom of the wad. 27 grains of Unique, and Fed 209 primers.
I also experimented with using the standard fold crimp, and a roll crimp. I had an antique roll crimper laying around and was surprised to find that I had improved results and less wad damage with the roll crimp. I made up a jig and cut the hulls down past the fold crimp, then roll until there is some pressure on the wad, do a quick shake test to make sure they is no movement of the slug in the hull, roll again as needed.
Cheap, low recoil load that is accurate to 100 yards out of a 18.5" smooth bore 870.
