MacTech
Member
After work, the range was open, so I decided to stop off and see how my new-to-me 870 Express Super Magnum patterned with slugs at 50 yards
the slugs I tried were;
Federal TruBall Low Recoil 1 oz
Winchester Winlite 1 oz
Brenneke THD reduced recoil 1 oz
Winchester Super X 3" Magnum 1 oz (1760 FPS)
Brenneke Heavy Field Short Magnum "Green Lightning" 1 1/4 oz
of the contender, the 870 seemed to pattern best with the WinLites and the Brennekes, I was able to recover a couple Brennekes from the backstop sand after shooting, one of the Green Lightning Magnums and one of the THD's
the THD seperated from it's wad, but the wad was lying directly behind it, it looks like the wad stayed with the slug until it hit the gravel/sand backstop, the GL wad stayed on the slug all the way into the backstop, there was some mushrooming at the head of the slug, but overall the shape was intact, I could find no remnants of the Federals or the Winchesters, they seem to have pancaked/disintegrated when they hit the backstop gravel/sand
as far as to what I "won't be doing again soon, well, that'd be;
1; I won't be shooting any slugs over 3" in length, 2 3/4" for me please, I do have a Remington Supercell recoil pad on the stock and it does work quite well, changes the punchy recoil into a firm shove, it wasn't the *recoil* that I disliked about the 3" Maggie-Numbs, it was the fact that I bashed my nose with my thumb thanks to my thumb-over grip on the stock, when I moved my thumb to the side of the wrist stock, no more nosebashing happened, recoil was firm, but not unpleasant
2; I will make sure to have my hearing protectors on MY EARS whenever I am shooting, after coming back from checking my accuracy on the target stand, I had my hearing protectors perched on the top of my head, I was in the groove, and not thinking when I chambered my next Brenneke Heavy Field Short Magnum and pulled the trigger...
"hmm, that one seemed a little *louder* than normal.... D'OH!, forgot to put my hearing protectors on!"
thankfully, I don't seem to have suffered any noticeable effects from that single round, I've always had a mild case of tinnitus, largely brought on from my teenage years where I was mowing the lawn and using two-stroke weedwhackers with no hearing protection, if anything, my tinnitus seems to have *reduced* slightly...
I'm sure I have *some* minor hearing damage from that shot, but nothing immediately obvious, I count myself lucky and thank the great Flying Spaghetti Monster that I didn't come off worse from the experience, as the shooting area is a three sided "hut" style building with one wide opening facing the target range, lots of space for sound to reflect off of, however, I was standing near the end of the shooting hut, and the muzzle was almost out in the open, so there was less wall area for the sound to reflect off of
Let me just say, the sound of a 12-gauge shell going off without hearing protection is quite memorable, the Brenneke shell didn't sound particularly *loud* per-se, heck, I think my diesel garden tractor at full throttle is louder (yes, I do wear hearing protection when using the tractor), and there was no real pressure/shockwave like you'd get with a 9mm/.40/.357/.44 Mag handgun cartridge, the shotshell report was more "boomy" and had no supersonic *crack*
and yes, I will be doubling up from now on, plugs and muffs whenever I take the shotguns out to play...
and the final thing I'll never do anytime soon...
Shoot a bunch of slugs back to back, no, it has nothing to do with the recoil, as the Supercell pad mitigates that quite nicely, it's the *CLEANUP* involved
My 28" Mod choke tubed barrel had a decent amount of leading in it thanks to those frelling slugs, and it's taken me, no exaggeration, THREE SODDING HOURS to get the leading down to a manageable amount that will let me get some sleep (I don't like leaving a dirty/leaded gun uncleaned), I'm a bit....particular....about my guns, I want the bores to be as close to pristine as possible, and I had no idea how badly this selection of slugs would lead up the barrel.
I've had to go in ever increasing levels of agressiveness to try and get all the lead out of the barrel, starting off with a Boresnake (reasonably useless for slugs, works great for birdshot/trap loads though), then going to Gunslick foam, then up to a brass brush and Hoppe's #9, then a cleaning patch with Hoppe's over the brush, then swabbing it and letting it soak in #9, then a Tornado brush, then a Tornado in Hoppe's.
I finally I had to break out the *big guns*, picked up a bottle of Shooter's Choice Lead Remover and a brass brush/mop and a cleaning jag, as well as a box of Nitrilite gloves (two by two....hands of blue, two by two....hands of blue...
) as the gunshop rep said that SCLR is exceptionally noxious/caustic and it's best to not get it on your skin/open cuts
I'm not completely impressed by SCLR, it was only marginally more effective than Hoppes, and it still hasn't got out all the lead, the cleaning jag however is much better than any brass brush I have ever used, with a cleaning patch draped over it, it gets out far more lead than any brush or mop I have yet used, almost as good as the Hoppes-patch-over-tornado-brush combo...
It's now 11 PM, leading is down to about 10% of what it originally was, I'm going to run one more Hoppes/Tornado patch down the bore, dry-patch it, and let it sit overnight and attack it tomorrow morning
hmm, wonder if I can "shoot" the lead out, take the gun to the trap range tomorrow and run some trap loads through it to see if the wad/shotcup can abrade out the rest of the lead, yes I know, lead is harder than plastic, but perhaps the edges of the wad/shotcup combined with the heat from the propellant combustion might soften/scrape out the remaining leading....
looks like I'm gonna stick to shotshells in the 28" (and the 18" I'll eventually get), and just pick up a dedicated slug barrel for slug shootin'
the slugs I tried were;
Federal TruBall Low Recoil 1 oz
Winchester Winlite 1 oz
Brenneke THD reduced recoil 1 oz
Winchester Super X 3" Magnum 1 oz (1760 FPS)
Brenneke Heavy Field Short Magnum "Green Lightning" 1 1/4 oz
of the contender, the 870 seemed to pattern best with the WinLites and the Brennekes, I was able to recover a couple Brennekes from the backstop sand after shooting, one of the Green Lightning Magnums and one of the THD's
the THD seperated from it's wad, but the wad was lying directly behind it, it looks like the wad stayed with the slug until it hit the gravel/sand backstop, the GL wad stayed on the slug all the way into the backstop, there was some mushrooming at the head of the slug, but overall the shape was intact, I could find no remnants of the Federals or the Winchesters, they seem to have pancaked/disintegrated when they hit the backstop gravel/sand
as far as to what I "won't be doing again soon, well, that'd be;
1; I won't be shooting any slugs over 3" in length, 2 3/4" for me please, I do have a Remington Supercell recoil pad on the stock and it does work quite well, changes the punchy recoil into a firm shove, it wasn't the *recoil* that I disliked about the 3" Maggie-Numbs, it was the fact that I bashed my nose with my thumb thanks to my thumb-over grip on the stock, when I moved my thumb to the side of the wrist stock, no more nosebashing happened, recoil was firm, but not unpleasant
2; I will make sure to have my hearing protectors on MY EARS whenever I am shooting, after coming back from checking my accuracy on the target stand, I had my hearing protectors perched on the top of my head, I was in the groove, and not thinking when I chambered my next Brenneke Heavy Field Short Magnum and pulled the trigger...
"hmm, that one seemed a little *louder* than normal.... D'OH!, forgot to put my hearing protectors on!"
thankfully, I don't seem to have suffered any noticeable effects from that single round, I've always had a mild case of tinnitus, largely brought on from my teenage years where I was mowing the lawn and using two-stroke weedwhackers with no hearing protection, if anything, my tinnitus seems to have *reduced* slightly...
I'm sure I have *some* minor hearing damage from that shot, but nothing immediately obvious, I count myself lucky and thank the great Flying Spaghetti Monster that I didn't come off worse from the experience, as the shooting area is a three sided "hut" style building with one wide opening facing the target range, lots of space for sound to reflect off of, however, I was standing near the end of the shooting hut, and the muzzle was almost out in the open, so there was less wall area for the sound to reflect off of
Let me just say, the sound of a 12-gauge shell going off without hearing protection is quite memorable, the Brenneke shell didn't sound particularly *loud* per-se, heck, I think my diesel garden tractor at full throttle is louder (yes, I do wear hearing protection when using the tractor), and there was no real pressure/shockwave like you'd get with a 9mm/.40/.357/.44 Mag handgun cartridge, the shotshell report was more "boomy" and had no supersonic *crack*
and yes, I will be doubling up from now on, plugs and muffs whenever I take the shotguns out to play...
and the final thing I'll never do anytime soon...
Shoot a bunch of slugs back to back, no, it has nothing to do with the recoil, as the Supercell pad mitigates that quite nicely, it's the *CLEANUP* involved
My 28" Mod choke tubed barrel had a decent amount of leading in it thanks to those frelling slugs, and it's taken me, no exaggeration, THREE SODDING HOURS to get the leading down to a manageable amount that will let me get some sleep (I don't like leaving a dirty/leaded gun uncleaned), I'm a bit....particular....about my guns, I want the bores to be as close to pristine as possible, and I had no idea how badly this selection of slugs would lead up the barrel.
I've had to go in ever increasing levels of agressiveness to try and get all the lead out of the barrel, starting off with a Boresnake (reasonably useless for slugs, works great for birdshot/trap loads though), then going to Gunslick foam, then up to a brass brush and Hoppe's #9, then a cleaning patch with Hoppe's over the brush, then swabbing it and letting it soak in #9, then a Tornado brush, then a Tornado in Hoppe's.
I finally I had to break out the *big guns*, picked up a bottle of Shooter's Choice Lead Remover and a brass brush/mop and a cleaning jag, as well as a box of Nitrilite gloves (two by two....hands of blue, two by two....hands of blue...
) as the gunshop rep said that SCLR is exceptionally noxious/caustic and it's best to not get it on your skin/open cutsI'm not completely impressed by SCLR, it was only marginally more effective than Hoppes, and it still hasn't got out all the lead, the cleaning jag however is much better than any brass brush I have ever used, with a cleaning patch draped over it, it gets out far more lead than any brush or mop I have yet used, almost as good as the Hoppes-patch-over-tornado-brush combo...
It's now 11 PM, leading is down to about 10% of what it originally was, I'm going to run one more Hoppes/Tornado patch down the bore, dry-patch it, and let it sit overnight and attack it tomorrow morning
hmm, wonder if I can "shoot" the lead out, take the gun to the trap range tomorrow and run some trap loads through it to see if the wad/shotcup can abrade out the rest of the lead, yes I know, lead is harder than plastic, but perhaps the edges of the wad/shotcup combined with the heat from the propellant combustion might soften/scrape out the remaining leading....
looks like I'm gonna stick to shotshells in the 28" (and the 18" I'll eventually get), and just pick up a dedicated slug barrel for slug shootin'
