Patched round balls in shotguns?

[A strange person]

I've had this idea for a while. Imagine taking, say, a .58 cal (.57 diameter) round ball, patching it up to fit a 12GA bore, loading it into a 12GA shell, and using that as your deer/defensive load. Recoil would be dramatically lighter than any slug on the market, but without really sacrificing terminal performance, as a .73 cal projectile intuitively seems to be well beyond the point of diminishing returns for creatures this size. Penetration would probably be equal to or better than any traditional slug design. Accuracy may suffer a little, but not enough to matter, given that trajectory would likely still be the limiting factor in terms of range. As a plus, the shell itself would be lighter in weight, so more could be carried in a bugout ammo supply for a given weight.

Would this work?

 

[TurtlePhish]

Sounds like a saboted slug.

No reason it wouldn't work. It might even get decent accuracy out of a rifled barrel.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Go with the big balls. Castboolits.com has quite a few threads on using Lee's RB molds of the largest size possible. They weigh like an ounce and a half or so and hit like a train.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Such a load would not function a semi-auto. Seems like it'd be viable and fun to play around with.. if you're careful. And sure, a .57 round ball will kill stuff and probably be pretty accurate if patched tight.

 

[rcmodel]

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Pumpkin-Ball-Slugs-12ga-715-550gr-25_pak/productinfo/7000004/

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/AQ-Slug-12ga-25_pak/productinfo/0151000/

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Slug-Loading-Manual-3rd-edition/productinfo/00MSLUG/

rc

 

[hueyville]

It will work but I would be concerned about it nuckle-balling like a Phil Niekro pitch with no spin from a smooth bore. I have some rifled wad/ sabots that would so this perfectly. In fact you could load two 50 caliber round balls in one shell to double your trouble. I believe mine came from a company called Ballistic Components.