Reduced recoil slug: my findings.

6gm6

6gm6

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With shooting as much multigun as I do, running slugs at a buck a pop was really starting to add up. As well the reduced recoil loads that most of us use are pretty hit and miss on availability. With this in mind I started to look for a long term solution.

Here were my requirements for this slug:
Find a steady supply of components.
Cost as low as I could get.
Reduced recoil for quicker follow up shots.
4 inch groups max at 50 yards.




Find a steady supply of components:
So I put out the word at the club that I was going to start doing this and needed hulls, primers, lead (and someone to mold them for me), powder and wads.
Holly people like to collect stuff I ended up with 400 hulls in less than two days and more to come.
I have had a few offers to cast the slugs for free if I can get them the lead. I have had a few people offer me what I am hoping will turn out to be a few dozen pounds of lead for free as well.

Powder, wads and primers. SFRC, Higginsons and Irv shooting supply. Could keep us all shooting for a long time to come.

Cost as low as I could get:
Press: Lee Load all II from Higginsons powders 60.00 I saved on shipping thanks to 1topgun.
Hulls: free
Primers: SFRC has the cheddite on for 41 dollars a 1,000 since they are so close I save on shipping. I did have some Winchesters that I have started to use for the initial run.
Wads: 12.50 per 500
Reloading book: Free Reloading for Shot gunners was just given to me.
Slugs: In the future free, but since I don't have the lead yet I purchased some from bluemike807 here on the board for $20 a hundred plus shipping.
Powder: 1 pound of Green Dot $23.00 Thanks again to 1topgun for picking it up.

Initial setup cost: 196.05 taxes and shipping included.

Current cost to load each slug minus the press cost is: $0.23

After setup up cost and everyone comes through with their free offers the cost to load each slug after taxes is: $0.14. My only cost is going to be wads, powder and primers.

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Reduced recoil for quicker follow up shots:
With the loads I found in the reloading book along with some loading Data I found online from a US slug manufacturer. These slugs should be running at around 1100-1200 fps. Maybe I can borrow a chrono from whenindoubtfixit and get an accurate reading. Needless to say they feel more like shooting .223 than a slug. There is no muzzle flip, and with a red dot on my shotgun I was easily able to keep on target.


4 inch groups max at 50 yards:

I was out to my property yesterday to do some scouting for goose, brought along a few used targets and some slugs to try them out.

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Here's some results at 25 yards:

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They were hitting low so with some quick adjustment I did my best attempt at a 25 yard smiley face.

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With that group being close to what I wanted I took it out to 50 yards off a rest.

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Again they were low but a nice group so I adjusted up.

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.

Happy with that I called it a day. I think I have easily met with my 4 requirements. Thanks to everyone who has helped out to get this underway.
 
looks good, what kind of slugs are those? they look like lee drive key slugs.
I made some similar loads using winchester cheapo trap loads, remove the shot, a couple of cards and a 7/8oz slug, crimp with the lee loadall 2. functions very well in my 1100 and about the same in accuracy as your results here. nice work
 
mckutzy said:
looks good, what kind of slugs are those? they look like lee drive key slugs.
I made some similar loads using winchester cheapo trap loads, remove the shot, a couple of cards and a 7/8oz slug, crimp with the lee loadall 2. functions very well in my 1100 and about the same in accuracy as your results here. nice work
Click to expand...

They are the lee slugs. I'm going to ask to try them in a Benelli m4 to see if they cycle.
 
Are those hulls recomended for your load... I also reload slugs all be it not reduced loads but full magum power around 1700fps... all the slug hulls that are recomened normally have a much higher brass bottem.

Basically the amount of powder should not exceed the brass on the bottem... at least thats my understanding.

Might want to look into this to be on the safe side... maybe the reduced amount of powder is perfect for those hulls.
 
msg.drew said:
Are those hulls recomended for your load... I also reload slugs all be it not reduced loads but full magum power around 1700fps... all the slug hulls that are recomened normally have a much higher brass bottem.

Basically the amount of powder should not exceed the brass on the bottem... at least thats my understanding.

Might want to look into this to be on the safe side... maybe the reduced amount of powder is perfect for those hulls.
Click to expand...



The loads I will be using depending on the hull/wad list between 19-22 grains. It does list "high brass" hull loads with 5-7 additional grains difference depending on the hull manufacturer.

The data from the slug manufacture in the US lists only cheddite hulls and 17 grains of powder at 1050 fps so when I'm done sorting out I might try some of their slugs as there are quite a few challanger hulls in the pile.
 
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Sounds like your well on your way just wanted to make sure you'd be safe incase you didn't know...

Fireing off 25 reload slugs at the range sure beats factory any day :)
 
msg.drew- amen to that. for the last bunch i reloaded were 50 slugs and were fun as hell, and with out a slightest feeling to the effect.
 
My slugs kick like a mule but I am tougher chuck norris :) so I dosen't bother me that much... hunting shot gun is pretty tame due to the thumbhole stock. The shorty grizzly thats another story. :)
 
msg.drew said:
Are those hulls recomended for your load... I also reload slugs all be it not reduced loads but full magum power around 1700fps... all the slug hulls that are recomened normally have a much higher brass bottem.

Basically the amount of powder should not exceed the brass on the bottem... at least thats my understanding.

Might want to look into this to be on the safe side... maybe the reduced amount of powder is perfect for those hulls.
Click to expand...

here's a quote from "Reloading for Shotgunners"
When I bought my first shotgun, about 25 years ago, I learned that there were two kinds of shells, high base and low base. This referred to the height of the brass base. It was generally understood that low base equated with low power and high base with high power. Consequently, my buddies and I purchased high base shells for pheasants and waterfowl, and low base for grouse and woodcock. What a surprise it was to learn that there is no essential relationship between the height of the base and the power of the load! But myths die hard, so today we still have high-brass magnum loads and low-brass dove loads.
Click to expand...
 
Its pretty much industry standard... trap and skeet low power loads have low brass... slugs, buckshot, turkey and magnum... have high brass.

There are actually several different heights of brass when it comes to shotgun shells... I use #8 federal international gold medal and they have quite high brass... but not as high is factory loaded slugs or heavy shot... they however are what is recomened for the load.

I have a bunch of 7.5 top gun federal, and winchester 4 universal low brass if someone is interested in them... i'll stick to my federal gold medal high brass shells.
 
I have used the Universal #4 hulls for slugs in the past and they work fine for a couple reloads. I tend to load at the low end of the data since it is range target shooting.

I will mention that it is important to inspect the hulls. As a rule of thumb, I toss the Universals after 2 reloads.

Cactus
 
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