12 gauge loading and roundballs.....?

[the Black Spot]

Did a little research and wanted to get some feedback from those here.
When loading roundball in a shotshell(smokeless lowder); if using a wad that holds shot i use a .690 ball? and a .710 when using just an over powder wad?
Be shooting these out of bobbed double so no choke restrictions.
Thanks

 

[GooseGestapo]

Castboolits.com has a dedicated section for loading cast shotgun ammo including single round ball.
I'm set up to do it, but never got around to it.

 

[the Black Spot]

Thanks for the info Goose

 

[JO JO]

Shotgun world is another website ro look at

 

[adcoch1]

+1 on castboolets.com. been over there a bit lately and there is a few VERY knowledgeable fellows loading roundball and other custom slug loads. Very good info.

 

[243winxb]

In the 1950's, they were called pumpkin (Punkin)balls. http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Pumpkin-Ball-Slugs-12ga-715-550gr-25_pak/productinfo/7000004/ I know they kill deer, but never used them.

Old neighbor shot a nice buck with a single shot break open shotgun back then. All he had at the time.

The rest of use young guys had our high powered rifles.

 

[illinoisburt]

I would recommend you go with the Lee keydrive 7/8 slug instead of the round ball as it will likely give you better accuracy and is specifically designed for shooting with shot wads.

There are a lot of opinions on them and the consensus is the 7/8 is better than the 1 ounce. Just ordered one myself to tinker with.

 

[243winxb]

Shot the Lee 1 Oz. Does OK , except when a wad petal breaks off. Best with a rifled barrel.

 

[the Black Spot]

Guess i need to measure the diameter of my shotgun muzzles. This gun is a stevens 311 double that has had the barrels cut back to 20".
Yall think slugs be more accurate than roundball?

 

[243winxb]

barrels cut

I dont think it will matter. Use the less costly one.

 

[Sunray]

Round balls fly like dyslexic bricks. Wouldn't be any different out of a smooth bore shotgun than they were out of smooth bore muskets.
A 12 gauge bore is .73". You'd need a 4 thou thick patch. A sheet of 50 pound copy paper is that thick. So it's neither impossible nor horribly expensive to play around with. A plain old shot wad cup might do.
A slug will most assuredly be more accurate. Slugs are called 'rifled' for a reason. You can expect 2 or 3 inch 100 yard groups with regular slug ammo out of a smooth bore shotgun. Be lucky to hit the target with a round ball at 100.

 

[cpileri]

let me find you a wad to round ball fit chart... (its on castboolits if you want to search)

 

[the Black Spot]

I would buy a mold and cast my own rb's or slugs. So both would be smooth sided. Shots would be kept 50 yds and under. Mostlikey 40 yd and under.
The rb looks like it would drop out of the mold easier than the Lee slug?

 

[cpileri]

wad fit (need to slug your bore):
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...Range-report&p=2109160&highlight=#post2109160


Also, if you search for posts by a guy named longbow, he has achieved remarkable accuracy w round ball loads in shotguns. example of his informative posts: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...-ball-diameter-consensus-AND-load-with-no-wad

plus some good info on wad "slip fit" in bore (still need to slug your bore):
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...load-problem&p=2159582&viewfull=1#post2159582

 

[243winxb]

The rb looks like it would drop out of the mold easier than the Lee slug?

Yes on the ball. The lee key drive slug must have pure lead, so it shrinks as it cools. The mould also needed a lot of burr removal. Slugs in photo are scrap, cold mould/alloy, didnt fill out right. I had loaded all the good ones.

 

[the Black Spot]

Thanks for the pics and links! Good stuff!

 

[harvester]

I load both lee drive key slugs, the lyman 525 and lee 690 round ball. At your 40 yard range distance a round ball will be fine as will the Lee slugs through a smooth bore for bear or deer hunting. I am always surprised how well the round ball shoots in a smoothbore. The slugs will outperform the round ball at 100 yards in a rifled barrel but in a rifled barrel I still hit a paper plate at 100 with round ball. The slugs hold 4 inches.

 

[the Black Spot]

I measured the muzzle of my barrels and they are at .725. So i figure i will mostlikely need a shotcup, even if i got a .710 rb mold. Leaning more toward the Lee 1oz slug mold.
I have bunch of the WWAAR12(?) red shotcups.

 

[243winxb]

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/slugs.606034/ Post 3 has this link to the data. http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/SM 3529.pdf

 

[Paddy]

Don't discredit round balls out a smooth bore. They can surprise you with their accuracy, while the slugs can surprise you with the crazy ways they fly!
You can swage down a bigger slug out a choked shotgun, and that's how many of them are designed to work, using soft lead.
I use the Lyman 525 slug and sometimes it flys great, sometimes it swings 10' off to the side.
Slugs that are designed to have a cup rather than a wad are called full bore and will fill the bore. About .040" bigger.
Slugs are super fun as long as you don't get too hung up on accuracy lol. As will other reloading disciplines there are many factors to obtaining accuracy and the physical shape of the projectile is only a small part of the whole picture.

 

[the Black Spot]

Thanks for all the info!
Now i may have to get a rb and slug mold!

 

[Curator]

The key to round ball accuracy from a smooth bore shotgun has always been fit. A .69 round ball will slip inside a plastic wad column and be a slide-fit in a regular .728" 12 gauge barrel. A trick I use when loading round ball is to use two 20-gauge .125 Card wads under the ball to reinforce the wad column and to bring the ball up far enough to get a nice crimp. My shooting experience with .715 round balls loaded over traditional card wads was not as accurate. Noticing that the .715 balls rattled a bit in loaded shells, I tried patching them with a greased pillow-tickiing patch. Groups tightened up significantly. This worked even better in all-brass shot shells that allowed a thicker cloth patch.

 

[243winxb]

When a wad petal breaks off the Lee Key Drive, the slug will hit as much as 18" away from a normal 4" group at 100 yards. Firing a Mossberg scoped, cantilever rifled barrel , these flyers open the average for all shots fired to 7" firing 5 shot groups.

 

[jmorris]

You can expect 2 or 3 inch 100 yard groups with regular slug ammo out of a smooth bore shotgun.

That would be fairly high expectations from my experience. "Can get" maybe but to "expect" it is the short path to disappointment.

3.5" out of fully rifled barrels with Brenneke style slugs is actually considered pretty good at 100 yards.

 

[243winxb]

That would be fairly high expectations from my experience. "Can get" maybe but to "expect" it is the short path to disappointment.

I wanted to say that, but didnt. I got about 8" using the cheaper "rifled" slugs. in my above Mossberg.