HI, I bought a smoothbore slug barrel to my Beretta Urika (Beretta doesn't make rifled slug barrels ) and I plan to start casting my own slugs. However, I guess that rifled slugs would be appropriate, this may of course require special slug molds.

Does anyone have any hints or advise here?

Regards,
/HerrBerg

Herrberg

I think Lyman makes these molds, maybe Lee. I'm not sure if the typical slug with the fluted sides is required for accruracy.

Jim

The grooves are purely cosmetic and homebrew slugs do without them. Lee offers 7/8 oz and 1 oz slug moulds in 12 gauge. Lyman offers a traditional slug and an hourglass shaped one. Your best bet is probably to slug your bore, and buy a round ball mould a few thous oversized. Dixie Gunworks will supply a RB mould to your size very reasonably. Dixie moulds are minimalist, but adequate.

Developing and loading your own slug load is probably the most challenging project in handloading. I have been at it 20 years off and on and still ain't happy with my results. Data is scarce and so are appropriate components. Crimp is critical and so is wad release. Find something that almost works and one of the components gets discontinued.

By the way, there are smiths who can rifle that smoothbore barrel for you. I had one done about 20 years ago.

I was at www.mountainmolds.com the other day and Dan showed me some 70cal and 12ga slugs from holds he made. They look great. You might look into some Brass 12ga hulls. I got mine at old western scrounger. They are made by CBC. I believe there was some kind of test done awhile back that showed the rifled slugs didn't impart any spin, but did hold the slug in the bore and allowed it to swag down going through a choke. There is the Lee molds that go inside of a regular shot wad. I think for the smooth bore accuracy, then the hollow base molds give more stability. Just what I've read. from haveing more weight forward???

The slug moulds available do not have rifling. I have fired the Lee key slug 12ga.1oz.. This slug is made for rifled barrels and uses a plastic shot cup,standard crimp. I did test fire it in a smooth bore with scope at 50yards. The best 3 shot group was 6 1/2" of all groups fired.Worst group was 18".The factory ammo, Federal classic slug (Foster type) f127rs 3 shot group was 2 1/4". Lyman makes a sabot type slug and a forster type slug. Lymans info said the sabot can be fired in both smooth and rifled bores, it uses a plastic shot wad also,standard crimp. The Lyman forster slug is made for smooth bores, roll crimp, with fiber/card wads. I have not tested any lyman products. If i were you, i would take the easy way out, buy factory ammo.The factory forster type ammo is cheaper to buy than to make your own slugs.

I use the Lee one ounce slug in a rifled barrel and get 2.5 to 3 inch groups at 50 yards with the crude buckhorn style sights on a winchester 1300 barrel. It's the same size group I was getting with factory.

I've been quite happy with Brenneke KO slugs in my Mossberg 590, they also offer their 20 gauge 1 oz slug in a sabot (heavy shotcup) that might give a better SD. Unfortunately, I have not found them as components, much less molds.

I will soon be ordering an Ultra Slug barrel for which I plan to paper-patch special Lee slugs (having the base plug ground to make a solid or slight hollow base) and loaded into brass cases to allow a good fit to the bore. Several ideas for that one though they may not be useful to you....

And to get back to the subject of the post, check out www.ballisticproducts.com. They have the Lee, Lyman, and traditional foster-type moulds as well as some slugs that you can load yourself, including some that operate much like the Brennekes that I like so much.

Lyman used to make a swager to go with their 12ga slug hollow base mold. It screwed into the top of the press like a sizing die and the bottom punch was placed in the shell holder slot. The punch was shaped to fit the hollow base. The swage was rifled and would rifle the slug. This was more to allow it to fit different dia. barrels and chokes safely than to impart spin. Balistic Products published a good pamplet on slug and buckshot reloading and sold hollow point fracture slugs, wads and other components. One nice load was "buck and ball" which contained one 69 cal round ball and 6 00 buchshot. wrg-inc

Ok, I goofed: I can order a 20 gauge ultra slug barrel for my handi, but I need to have a 10 gauge frame for the ultra 12. So I will be looking around for one.

I have played around with factory slugs and trying to handload them for more years then I want to admit to. For the smoothbore, I never found a good handload that worked. The best factory load was always the Winchester 2-3/4" foster slug out of any make shotgun. I would take them apart and load mine exactly the same and mine would not group. Most of my trouble was that the wad would blow into the hollow base and stay there. I never figured out how Winchester solved that problem but I could keep theirs in a teacup at 50 yds.
I recently bought a Hastings barrel for my old 870 and found the same problems with the Foster slugs and round ball loads. The Lee slug would shoot good with some loads but was never consistant. The crimp has to be perfect from case to case for any results with Foster slugs.
Then I tried the hammer head sabot slugs and accuracy was fantastic, but I had to buy them. I then picked up the new Lyman wasp waist slug mold and load them in the AA red wad. This was a good move and I will retire all of my other molds. Last time out to plink, I was hitting litter bottles at 120 yds almost every shot.
I would try this slug in the smoothbore if I were you. If it doesnt shoot, nothing will.

brfshooter, I will go for your advise! I've heard someone talk enthsiastically about these hourglass-shaped slugs before, and adding up what you said then makes this my choice.



Regards,

/HerrBerg