ww or Pure lead to cast slugs?? Help!!

[encoreman]

Hi guys, I tried searching and haven't had any luck. I borrowed a 7/8 Lee 12 gauge mold and cast for 2-3 hours using ww like I do for my pistol bullets, then it dawned on me this may be too hard. Also I drop into bucket of water. Please tell me I can use these and didn't waste all that time!! Also anyone have a good recipe using either Rem sts or Winchester hulls and I would like to use Green Dot as that is my main shotgun powder. I have a light load recipe of 18.5 grs Green Dot. 1 other thing is crimping okay as opposed to roll crimping for the slugs? Thanks Mac

[mckutzy]

As per the manual, regular fold crimp and lead is what u should use, but a number of members here do use ww and roll crimp. so not all lost.

[white eagle]

you can use pretty much any kind of lead you want
not like b/p where you are better served with a softer mix
I roll but there are fellas here that use a fold
so no you did not waste all your time
best of luck

[Jarel]

I believe that the paper work that came with my 1 oz. slug mold said to use pure lead. I had good luck with accuracy. All on a paper plate at 100 yard. I gave a box of them to a friend to use deer hunting and he had only 1 problem. The things were zipping right through the deer with out mushrooming any and not making a large enough exit wound to leave a good blood trail. So I could only guess that harder slugs would only do worse. Just my thoughts.

[jmsj]

encoreman,
I am pretty new to casting slugs and I use WW alloy also. One thing i have heard that you have to be careful about how much choke restriction you try to push "hard slugs" through. Pure lead slugs are pretty soft and can swage down easier than hardened WW alloy.
I wanted maximum penetration from my slug load so on the advice from James at Dixie Slugs, I heat treated my slugs. I did measure the overall diameter of the slug and wad together and compared that diameter to the slugged diameter of the choke tube I intended on using(Cyl.). As the combined diameter was too large for the screw choke, I built a sizer for my "hard slugs" to achieve the necessary fit.
This may be overkill but I am pushing these slugs fairly hard and did not want any take any chances of damage to myself or my gun.
Do a search on slugs and you'll find lots of good info.
Good luck, jmsj

[missionary5155]

Greetings
If shooting slugs through a screw in choke remember to check the choke tightness every now & then to be sure it will still screw out. The torc from the slug passing through tends to tighten the choke further into the threads... sort of like a hammer / impact wrench.
If you are looking for deep penetration try the lowly Round Ball. All my tests showed a Round ball will always out penetrate any hollow base slug when made of the same lead mix. 20-1 round ball was used for years in Africa as the "hardened projectile" for use on big criters. I imagine if those huinters would have had access to WW they happily would have thumped 2 toners with it. HB slugs are god medicine but a solid object is always better for penetration.

[sargenv]

If it's up to me, I try to use lead for slugs that cost the least.. usually for me that is recovered range lead.. bhn in the 8-14 range.. but then all I'm doing is punching paper with it.. for hunting, the heat treated or water quenched method likely is a good idea.

[white eagle]

I believe that the paper work that came with my 1 oz. slug mold said to use pure lead. I had good luck with accuracy. All on a paper plate at 100 yard. I gave a box of them to a friend to use deer hunting and he had only 1 problem. The things were zipping right through the deer with out mushrooming any and not making a large enough exit wound to leave a good blood trail. So I could only guess that harder slugs would only do worse. Just my thoughts.

forgot to mention
I use mine in a fully rifled barrel
at .735 I don't need to worry about expansion

[Moonie]

I believe that the paper work that came with my 1 oz. slug mold said to use pure lead. I had good luck with accuracy. All on a paper plate at 100 yard. I gave a box of them to a friend to use deer hunting and he had only 1 problem. The things were zipping right through the deer with out mushrooming any and not making a large enough exit wound to leave a good blood trail. So I could only guess that harder slugs would only do worse. Just my thoughts.

How is a .7+ size hole not large enough to leave a good blood trail?

If you put a slug that big into the vitals AND it passes through there should be NO possibility of losing that animal, whether it expands or not.

[SuperBlazingSabots]

Greetings, a couple of days back I was watching a show on crocodiles hunters and I was surprised to see a rifle bullet bounced off of a skull shot from 6 to 10 feet and a tiny bone splinter from skull bone hit the guy next to the hunter.
The sphere is the most difficult geometric form to deform or destroy.
The only time it will deform is if you hit a large bone, so proper placement is very important.
Ajay Madan
Video Memories
www.PreciousVideoMemories.Com

[steg]

One time I cast up a lot of 1oz LEE slugs using wheelweights, then I remembered one of the shotguns I use them with is a SXS mod and full choke, I just didn't want to take any chances of one of those going thru the full choke by mistake, it would probably be ok, but I also know my luck, and that damn Murphy Guy and his Law, so I bit the boolit, LOL, and melted em down and used it for other boolits, and cast the LEE's with straight pb, from lead sheating I was given, I got over it and my guns are still intact........steg

[ireload]

Encoreman not hijacking your original posting but since you mentioned WW, has anyone here have casted Linotype with the same Lee 7/8 slug mold? I'm currently sitting on 300lbs worth. Thanks for any response.

[blasternank]

I had a post awhile back on this and it seems like the consensus was that pure lead or even the stick on ww's were the best. You probably have a bunch of the stick on ww's and they work fine from what I was told. They are mostly pure lead.