- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
I’ll have to try this with some 3” magnum #4,5 & 6’s I have, my mag fed grizzly wont feed 3” shells reliably. This might solve that, it’s feeds 2 3/4” great.
Wax Slugs for Cheap Plinking
- Thread starter Ganderite
- Start date
I’ll have to try this with some 3” magnum #4,5 & 6’s I have, my mag fed grizzly wont feed 3” shells reliably. This might solve that, it’s feeds 2 3/4” great.
I don't see why this would help feeding. The length of the shell being loaded is unchanged.
It would help if there was an ejection problem with the longer shell.
When I trim a 3" shell so it can be shot in a 2 3/4" chamber, I put a piece of cardboard on the top of the shot, inside the lip, and run a bead of epoxy around edge, to keep the cardboard in place.
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- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
My bad, it was late and I misread lol. I guess I could cut it back in length but I’d loose some shot volume.
If you cut the shell back, you lose the folded over lip. This lip is important for several reasons:
A wad is compressed a bit on the powder. This compression is important to reliable ignition. If the lip is cut off, the wad will relax a bit.
On recoil, the lip holds the wad and shot in the case. Otherwise it will tend to pop out the top.
In the case of a wax slug, the slug is as wide as the walls of the shell, so the folded over lip holds the slug in place, so it can't pop out and block the bore.
If I had a 3" gun that would not feed 3" shells, I would either switch to 2 3/4" shells or look closely at it to figure out what is happening. The first thing I would do is ask my fellow CGNrs with the same gun if theirs will feed 3" shells reliably. If "yes", then I would work on the gun. Could be something as simple as a bent follower.
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Ive been trying to get a hold of the maker of these for over a year now, with no luck. If somebody on here can make them there certainly would be a market for them. It is a tool that cuts the crimp off of the shell but keeps the lip containing the wad. It is perfect for this process. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__NWTi2HUMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__NWTi2HUMI
Does your cutter look like the one I have in the picture above? Mine cuts fairly easily. I cut 4 shells before stopping to pop the crimps out of the cutter body.
It looks exactly the same but after cutting maybe 30 shells, the grit seems mostly gone from the front of the cutter.
I have cut about 300 shells so far. This one is still going strong. If it can cut ceramic, the plastic shell should be nothing. I bought it on ebay for less than $5.00
I just did a search on ebay. They are about $1.00 each !! Check out 173474767332
Thanks for sharing Ganderite, those look really nice !! Great work!
However, we are starting to enter here the world of reloading shotshells …. I mean we are modifying factory loads here … right?
So, just a word of caution for those that are not familiar with shotshell reloading concepts. There are certain generally accepted rules of what you can do safely and what you should not do …. and because … well your gun could blow up into your face … :-(
For example, I just cut the crimp away from a 3” Federal Black Cloud 1 1/4oz steel BBB load, and which has the Federal Flitecontrol Flex wad. I poured the steel shot out and the shot weighted 540 grains. I then filled the shell/wad with #6 lead shot till the shell was full. The total weight of the #6 shot was 820 grains. Let’s assume I would poor the wax into the shell together with the 820 grains of #6 shot. The question now is …. Is this load safe to shoot from a 3” chamber shotgun?
Those who know, please chime in.
And while we are at it … what are other generally accepted rules to follow when tinkering with factory loads … and making those wax slugs?
However, we are starting to enter here the world of reloading shotshells …. I mean we are modifying factory loads here … right?
So, just a word of caution for those that are not familiar with shotshell reloading concepts. There are certain generally accepted rules of what you can do safely and what you should not do …. and because … well your gun could blow up into your face … :-(
For example, I just cut the crimp away from a 3” Federal Black Cloud 1 1/4oz steel BBB load, and which has the Federal Flitecontrol Flex wad. I poured the steel shot out and the shot weighted 540 grains. I then filled the shell/wad with #6 lead shot till the shell was full. The total weight of the #6 shot was 820 grains. Let’s assume I would poor the wax into the shell together with the 820 grains of #6 shot. The question now is …. Is this load safe to shoot from a 3” chamber shotgun?
Those who know, please chime in.
And while we are at it … what are other generally accepted rules to follow when tinkering with factory loads … and making those wax slugs?
The regular way that I have heard of doing wax slugs is to use the same shot that you took out, just melted in with wax... If you swap one size shot with another, yeah, you are asking for trouble. My general rule would be going lower weight projectile is fine (ie a 7/8 oz slug in place of a 1 oz target load of shot) but never the other way around...
- Location
- Southern Vancouver Island
I wouldn't be pushing nearly 2 oz of payload out of a factory shell meant for 1.25 oz. That could cause pressure spikes the gun may or may not handle. Best to keep the wax bombs the same or less weight than the factory load. I'd go with an IC choke or cylinder bore as well. Best to handload with light target powder charges when playing with these wax slug fun loads.
I use a Ballistic Products shell clamp fixed to my drill press to do roll crimping with along with their shell trimming tool to get the hulls just right for my uses.
Attachments
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
I’m not going to screw with it, I’ll just shoot them out of my tube fed shotguns as 3” shells. Not worth having them cause problems, the issue is the Grizzly mag.
The 3” shell will hit the front of the mag and jam, the bolt can’t strip a round or if it does the brass end isn’t free of the feed lips when it starts to enter the chamber mouth and it jams again. I hope that makes sense without actually seeing it happen, I have deburred the inside edge of the mag, polished it as well as the feed lips, polished the follower, dimpled the front edge of the follower allowing the nose of the shell to sit higher. The dimple has helped a lot, the new angle the shell is as it hits the feed ramp and chamber mouth has improved things. Before tweaking things it would feed 3” shells 30% of the time, after tweaking its up to 75% of th time with a 3” shell. 2 3/4” shells feed 100%, the 3” shell is just to long to allow reliable feeding. Extraction is 100%
Sounds like you have done all that can be done with that gun.
I made some more wax slugs today. I ran out of sealing paraffin, so I used tea candles from Dollerama.
I get the impression that this was is softer. I will buy another block of paraffin at Home Depot.
The plan is to go to the range tomorrow and shoot 4 different wax slug loads for accuracy at both 25 and 50 yards . This includes the slugs with the added 45 cal lead bullet.
I made some more wax slugs today. I ran out of sealing paraffin, so I used tea candles from Dollerama.
I get the impression that this was is softer. I will buy another block of paraffin at Home Depot.
The plan is to go to the range tomorrow and shoot 4 different wax slug loads for accuracy at both 25 and 50 yards . This includes the slugs with the added 45 cal lead bullet.
It is not acceptable to change the payload to something heavier. I just weighed some of my wax slug rounds. The ordinary ones weigh 635 gr. With the 45 cal bullet - 640 gr. The original factory round weighs 640 gr. So making the wax slug just adds a tiny amount of wax in all the little voids. Not a significant difference.
If you dump steel and add lead - that is a big increase.
My container of pulled lead is slowly getting bigger, so I seem to be adding a bit less lead than what I dump. I leave the lead column just below the edge of the folded crimp lip, and then top off with some extra wax.
Have you ever tried to blow up a shotgun? Other than a barrel obstruction, it is difficult. They are very well made. I have tried twice to do it, deliberately, and failed both times. That included, in frustration, driving a big lag bolt into the muzzle.
So unless you get carried away and do something very stupid, your gun is safe.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Yeah I think I’ve gone as far as I can to get it to feed 3” slugs, it’s just the limitation of the magazine unfortunately. Other than that the gun is great, I’ve polished the internals and mags and barrel chamber mouth etc etc. It shoots 2 3/4” shells perfectly, I took a handful of grouse with it this season. Fun little shorty, I picked up a choked 14” barrel for it this year.
I’ll have to try the wax slugs, they look fun to make and shoot.
Just out of curiosity, I wonder how a wax slug with buckshot would work. Hits as one projectile, but breaks up on impact and you have 9-15 projectiles then penetrate and go each their own way. Sounds like a huge wound channel to me?
Yes, I have had the same thought.
If I shoot at a deer at, say, 40 yards, with buckshot, I will get some of the 9 balls missing, and some hitting in non-lethal places. If the was slug flies true, it can deliver 100% to the point of aim, and then yield 9 wound channels.
They key is accuracy. I will test 4 different types of wax slugs tomorrow at 25 and 50 yards. That will give me an idea if this has any merit for hunting.
I put a scope on a shotgun tonight, to enhance the accuracy test, and switched the choke to Skeet.
I bet the buckshot breaks the paraffin block before it goes past the forcing cone
