Really OT: Lyman 20 guage Slug Mold

[260Ackley]

Hey guys,
I know this is not small caliber by any means, but I figure you guys might shoot other stuff then just small cal. And if you can make tiny little bullets, I'm sure you can make large ones.
So I have everything for production of cast bullets, all pistol, and I just bought a lyman 20 guage slug mold, 350gr, its the one that looks like an air gun pellet.
I have no experience in casting. Years of experience in reloading, both shotgun, rifle and pistol.
Any of you guys make this slug before? any experience with loads, any advice? I'm going to use new chedite 3" hulls, fed 201s wad, SR4756 powder or blue dot which ever shoots best.
Some guys are using pure lead, with a tiny amount of tin, but no where near #2. Soft lead use to get expansion in the barrel for a good seal inside the wad. Small amount of tin lowers working temp, and flow through mold?
I will be using a 20 guage NEF single shot, rifled barrel. Looking for 75-125 yd accuracy. I've used hornady sst sabots with decent success. Not overly impressed with knock down power, have had a few with no blood trails, but deer never went more then 75 yds.
So far 5 deer, and one small bear. One deer was nearly 175-200lbs, and he went the furthest at 75 yds.
Any advice is well apreciated.

[ray h]

I briefly cast some of those in 12ga. I used pure lead. Our county was thinking of going shotgun for deer so I thought I'd get a jump on them. I had a Mod 12 made into a slug gun and that thing kicked the snot out of me. Accuracy was only so-so. Dropped the project when our part of the county stay rifle. Even if it hadn't, on my ground, I'd been using my 30-06 shotgun.

[260Ackley]

yeah I grew up in the mountains of PA hunting with rifles, moved over the border into upstate ny and its shotgun only. I feel like I'm throwing rocks compared to the precision I had with my rifles. The NEF is a good shooter, low recoil in the 20 guage, seems more accurate do to less flinching.
I'm not a fan of slugs in a 12 guage, I dont enjoy recoil, and have nothing to prove on being macho and handling the recoil. 20 guage seems like a good compromise.
I used an inline muzzleloader for the first season, and while accurate I hate the cloud of smoke and the wondering about a hit until you find a blood trail. With the 20 I can load that single shot fast, I shot 2 doe out of the same little herd, last year, my father in-law thought someone was tresspassing because he heard bang, 1 second bang, and he knew all I had was a single shot.
I like to tinker, and love to harvest animals with my own reloads, bullets, and effort. This is another extension of it.

[ray h]

You are ahead using the 20, flatter shooting,less recoil. Jim has a smokeless black powder rifle thats very accurate, would that be legal up there? At one time you were allowed to use pistols. I took a class put on by Jerry Hart. He took us on a field trip to his shop. He showed us a 358 Win in an XP that he used for deer, that was back in the mid 70's near Syracuse.

[260Ackley]

Yeah the savage smokless is legal, just slow to reload and over $500. Ballistics are close to a 30-06, I've mulled that around.
I'm an hour south of syracuse, about 10 min over the pa border. Pistols are leagal, I have a tc contender in 30-30 that shoots moa at 100yds. But that is on the bench, not under regular field conditions. I'm not great with it.
Shot a 12 pt last year with the 20 guage, 80yds on the run through the woods. He came walking up the hill about 5 minutes after I shot a black bear from the same stand. Glad I didnt get to excited and check the bear, biggest buck of my life. Big proponent of sitting tight after a shot now, you never know what will come to your stand. All that said I would have never made an 80 yd running shot with a pistol. Still dont know how I did it with the shotgun.

[dungheap]

260Ackley, while I haven't made slugs, I've cast quite a few bullets, and if I were going to cast them (slugs), I'd add a little linotype metal to the dead soft lead. In addition to making a somewhat harder slug, it should fill out the mould better. Beyond that, I'd preheat the mould and make sure it was really clean using brake cleaner or carb cleaner. If you don't have or can't find linotype metal, PM me. I have lots of it.

One of my friends made a bunch of 12ga slugs long ago, and was loading them in AA trap hulls. He found a really accurate load. All in all, it seems to me that your experiment should be worth the effort.

[Iowa Fox]

I cast & loaded a lot of Lyman 12 ga years ago. I used the Lyman shotshell manual for load info. The only caution I have is certain combinations of wads and cases can really spike pressures, yes even happens in shotguns. Other than that its fun and economical shooting.

[260Ackley]

thanks for the replies guys. Mold should be here this week, waiting on some other components. May have to fire up the lee production pot and give casting a try. I will post results when I get them over the next few months.

[trappst]

I've got the same mold. I used wheel weight metal with a few different powder/wad combos out of a Mossberg 500 fully rifled barrel. Nothing seemed to shoot well so I quit testing and bought some pure lead.....just haven't made it back to it yet. Plus, I got a new savage 20ga. slug that loves remington accutips.

Keep the mold HOT and be patient. Clean that new mold well and give it some time to "break in" too.....patience is a virtue! :-)

[260Ackley]

Thanks trappst. If I get a good load together I will post it. I know everything shoots differently. Everything I'm reading makes it sound like softer the lead the better. I've heard the 12 ga version is more accurate, I dont know if the 20 guage is to long and changes the ballistics with the weight forward design. Everything else I shoot is always better with a longer bullet, but I dont know if that translates well.
I know you have a load that works well, but those accutips arent cheap. Hope you get a chance to try out the mold once more. If you do let me know how it goes.