Sounds to me like you are doing a damn fine job mate and are right on top of things mate. I'm looking forward to seeing how your slugs shoot.

The main thing about the different type of hulls mate is the type of wad you use. The Cheddite hulls are straight wall and need the appropriate wad. I use mainly Winchester compression formed hulls, but I also have Active, Reiffenhaauser style cases (Fiocchi Cheddite) and Remington Premier Plastic Cases. I generally use the Winchester AA for Trap and the "straight walled" hulls for the field.

great stuff. I looked in the lyman manual and their slugs are both heavier than what you have. nearest I could figure yours are close to 15/16oz and 1 and 1/16th oz as 7/8 is 382.8 and 1oz is 437.5grns. you SHOULD be able to work off the loads in your manual as the slugs you have are lighter than the ones in the load data. only fly in the ointment could be sabot vs wad???? the loads in lyman are honking along at 1500fps etc so you should be able to play around and sort what works best for you.
great to hear they cycle fine you must be getting them right.

OK got to the range today before doing pistol drills I set up on the rifle range . Shot at 75 yards both slugs and both crimps shot pretty much the same avg 2.5 " groups which I was hoping to be a little better but that is minute of deer . My biggest concern is un burnt powder there was a fair amount of un burnt powder. The loading data given with the slugs suggested this load and charge now blue dot is the slowest powders they suggested I would think a faster powder should eliminate this issue shouldn't it ? .. Maybe Ill try Herco I have data for that What I have is acceptable but I thing I would to try and get it better and I don't much care to waste powder .. Any thought would be appreciated

I've been following this and even thou I use old tools that still work, I'm interested in the link Joe provided for the roll crimper.

Here is a pic of what i've been using over the years, these are from my Granpa.

And here is another pic of load data that I use.

Ive seen those for sale and never been able to work out what they were!!!!
I take it they are both roll crimpers??? or do you use one then finish with other???

They are both roll crimpers, but for different calibers.

Yes both roll crimpers, top one was made by "Diana" and will do 2 1/2" - 3 1/2" cases. The bottom one is of unknown orgin and will work up to 3" cases.

Well I talked to slugsrus today and talked to to the gentleman that designed the sabots very nice man I talked to him about the unburnt powder issue with the blue dot and he said it is a common issue with the blue dot so he said I should not have the issues with Herco or the IMR 4756 so I will see whats available locally and go from there. He said he knows blue dot isn't a great choice but its almost always available that's why he has it listed it was also the reason I got the blue dot in the first place they didn't have the other two..

thats good customer service. I see in the lyman manual that you may have to play around a bit to get a good group...somewhere I read that some guns prefer the 2 3/4" and some the 3", sounds like a great excuse for more trigger time testing them.

ya once I get a powder that burns efficiently Ill adjust the charge and see what shoots best. It may be tough to find one of the other powders locally.. Ill make some calls and see whats available ...

One good powder that I use is Imr 800x (Hi Skor 800x), burns clean, leaves no unburnt powder at all in my shotguns, accurate and is pretty versatile in heavier caliber handguns too.

Ominivision1 wrote:

One good powder that I use is Imr 800x (Hi Skor 800x), burns clean, leaves no unburnt powder at all in my shotguns, accurate and is pretty versatile in heavier caliber handguns too.

He said they were testing with the 800x but too early to post data for it. I found a pound of IMR 4756 so Ill try it ..

I wouldn't let the unburnt powder be a deciding factor !!!

Blue Dot is known to be a dirty powder but is also known as a good powder.

chambered221 wrote:

I wouldn't let the unburnt powder be a deciding factor !!! Blue Dot is known to be a dirty powder but is also known as a good powder.

If it ends up being the most accurate powder Ill deal with the unburnt powder. I just felt if it wasn't getting a complete burn that my accuracy would suffer.. The IMR shows good velocity as well ..