Interesting slug experiment results....

[115grfmj]

Okay folks, I'm a man of many hobbies (much to my wife's chagrin ).
I have this model airplane prop balancer, a perfectly good remmy rifled slug, and way too much time on my hands .Any way I decided to test the old rifled slug myth. Oh well I decided to destroy the shotgun shell with a razor knife and remove the slug. I removed the wad, a pinned the slug on the rest where the prop normally sits. After about 5 minutes of spinning it to get it oriented to the point where I would call it balanced. I took the wife professional hair dryer and pointed it at it............... The damn thing was spinning......slowly I'll be it but it was spinning with the hair dryer pointed at the front of it. Folks I have always felt that the rifleing on a slug would not spin even in flight.....that it was kind of a gimmick meant to sell slugs. I did this figuring I would put the myth to rest, at least in my own mind, for good. I have since retried this with three separate remmy slugger, all of them exhibited spin, from the force of a hairdryer ( I would only estimate maybe only 20 to 30 RPM ). Since the velocity they acheive leaving the barrel is far greater they would only spin faster.

Has anyone else tried anything to judge whether they can get spin out of a slug. I tried this way because it most represents how a slug would present a profile to the wind. I now doubt my previous position on this. I think slugs do spin, if they are fired in a IC gun, but not in the way you might expect. The rifling is more akin to they way fletching acts on an arrow.

Thought I might share this.......

 

[redneck2]

With the hollow body and all the force pushing the sides against the barrel upon firiing, I can't see why they wouldn't spin.

Also, if they didn't spin for (whatever reason), you'd never get the accuracy they can achieve.

 

[Robo_Railer]

I have this model airplane prop balancer, a perfectly good remmy rifled slug, and way too much time on my hands.

Yep; easily amused. Just the way it should be! Most admirable, and not just for all that applied science.

 

[mswestfall]

That's the kind of thinking that makes America great.

I don't think you can account for the drag created by the prop balance but if you can calculate the RPM at various wind speeds you can extrapolate that to the RPM in flight.

No accounting for the damage done to the rifling as the slug exits the bbl either...

Great thinking!

 

[carpettbaggerr]

Wouldn't the slugs be spinning before they hit the air?

 

[WolfMansDad]

other evidence that slugs spin

My Dad used to be into muzzleloaders, and he tried several different minie ball designs in his .58 caliber muskets. They are a lot like shotgun slugs, except the rifling is in the bore, not on the bullet. Sometimes they would not stabilize (if they were too long, for example), and when that happened, they would "tumble" and "keyhole" into the target. On a paper target, you would see holes of all different shapes. The bullets that went in point first made little, round holes. The ones that went in sideways made bullet-shaped holes. If a minie ball went in at an angle, it would make an oblong hole.

I've fired a number of foster-type slugs into paper targets, at ranges from a few yards to 100 yards. All of the holes have been round, as if the slug was spinning and was stabilized. I've never seen one keyhole.

Neat experiment with the hair dryer!