12 ga sabot reloading?

jag

has anyone reloaded 12 gauge sabots? i'm finding very little info on this. i sorta remember seeing dyes for roll crimping but thats about it. they are to darn expensive to buy! anybody???

SCOUT5

I looked into it and it seems the componets cost about as much as buying them. That's all we hunt with here in IN and we spend a lot on the shells. $2 a shell is not much when your shooting deer but at the practice range it kills you. We practice shooting with 22's to stay sharp then put a few thru the slug guns to make sure they do what they are suposed to then go.

If these can be reloaded cheaper I'm interested to.

Scout

grizzclaw

If your talking about slugs, yeah I do. I cast my own with a drive key slug mold. They are loaded into a shot wad, and crimped like a regular shotshell. They are really accurate with a fully rifled barrel and cheap to shoot. I'm pretty sure that you can get the mold in 7/8oz and 1oz size, and the loading info is included. The mold runs about $27 new, but I see them at the shows for $10.

jag

i wouldn't have thought it'd cost that much, that could be why nobody seems to do it. faster/flatter loads keep coming out and i'd like to shoot several at different yardages but it just cost to much. after you decide which to shoot and are sighted in, than its no big deal, its just getting there that hurts. thanks 4 reply, jug

grizzclaw

A cheap shotshell reloader, a bag of wads, pound of powder, 209 primers, your empty shotshells, Lee mold, and some range lead or something equal. It's pretty low cost, and you can work up different loads. It's alot of fun to hunt groundhogs with a slug gun, and it's good practice.

jag

hey grizz, would you consider these loads sabots? what are you calling accurate? yardage? thanks

grizzclaw

Well, they are pretty much the same as what you stuff in your muzzleloader. A plastic shot cup with a projectile stuck inside. If you take your time and try different powder charges, you should be able to come up with some good accuracy. With my 1187 and just a rifled tube I can print 2 inches at 100yds, but with my sons 1300 and a fully rifled barrel I can print 2" at 150yds. I'm not that good with a slug gun, and I never did like the accuracy from the rifled choke tubes in my 1187. I use my contender with the .44mag barrel and a red dot for deer when I'm not bow hunting. But anyway,I'll use my homemade slugs instead of buying factory stuff. It's a good feeling to take game with the stuff I reload.

jag

grizz, first of all, thanks for taking the time to reply. second, you really have me interested. what kind of drop between 50 and 100yds or 75 and 150, whatever you know would be great. what powder and wads? i did find a post somewhere a guy said the lee key mold was awesome, 3 holes touching @ 50 yds, but he couldn't hit the paper at 100yds. i guess you disagree. any idea on velocity? thanks again, jag

grizzclaw

Whew!, every time someone asks a question about reloading, I have to run down from the loft to the basement and back for info. If you buy the mold, there's a sheet with how-to info and reloading info in the box for the 7/8oz and 1oz loads. I'm using Rem premier hulls, win 209 primers, waa 12sl wads, and 36gr of hodgdon hs6. With this load the slug is said to be moving at 1450fps. It's been awhile since we've shot our slug guns, so I don't remember the trajectories. Like I said, a fully rifled barrel did alot better with these than with my choke tube. You could probably move them a little faster, but I would be VERY careful in loading to higher speeds, along with higher speeds comes higher pressure. Go slowly, watch for signs of stress on the hull and primer. I very rarely use max loads in anything I reload. When you crimp the load, don't use too much pressure. The slug load should look just like a shotshell when finshed. You can't see the slug.

loverspantyhose

Could you reload them on a RCBS single stage press?

hubel458

You can get hard cast Dixie lead slugs for about
70 cents each.They weigh 730 gr, and are .729 inch
diameter, perfect for rifled barrels..They also sell
loaded shells. great for big game.

I got them up to 2700 fps with no leading in
my 12GA From Hell I built on a Savage 210
bolt shot gun action. We also got a 3/4oz
Barnes sabot out at 3900.Ed.

grizzclaw

You can load them on anything that you load a shotshell with.

Tailgunner1954

quote:Originally posted by hubel458
You can get hard cast Dixie lead slugs for about
70 cents each.They weigh 730 gr, and are .729 inch
diameter, perfect for rifled barrels..They also sell
loaded shells. great for big game.

I got them up to 2700 fps with no leading in
my 12GA From Hell I built on a Savage 210
bolt shot gun action. We also got a 3/4oz
Barnes sabot out at 3900.Ed.


Hey Ed
Welcome to GunBroker

rlnblk

quote:Originally posted by hubel458
You can get hard cast Dixie lead slugs for about
70 cents each.They weigh 730 gr, and are .729 inch
diameter, perfect for rifled barrels..They also sell
loaded shells. great for big game.

I got them up to 2700 fps with no leading in
my 12GA From Hell I built on a Savage 210
bolt shot gun action. We also got a 3/4oz
Barnes sabot out at 3900.Ed.

jag

dont the top of the line factory sabots come out about 2000+/- fps? and you got 3700? sounds odd. is that even safe for a shotgun?


quote:Originally posted by hubel458
You can get hard cast Dixie lead slugs for about
70 cents each.They weigh 730 gr, and are .729 inch
diameter, perfect for rifled barrels..They also sell
loaded shells. great for big game.

I got them up to 2700 fps with no leading in
my 12GA From Hell I built on a Savage 210
bolt shot gun action. We also got a 3/4oz
Barnes sabot out at 3900.Ed.

KX500

And even if it is safe, 325 grains @ 3900 fps may be a little more than necessary for anything on this continent. Can't kill it too dead, I guess........

jag

i was thinking, at least to some extent-i'm a bowhunter more than a gunhunter- that higher fps directly relates to flatter trajectory, obviously, with similiar projectile weight. and that kind of fps,if true, would extend the current range of a slug considerably. anyway, thats not why i asked the sabot reloading question. i was just hopeing to find someone who has had some success in doing so. thanks again to all who've replied.

rlnblk

750 gr projectile at 2700 fps.These ballistics sound more like the 50 bmg round than a 12 ga slug.I shoot 1 oz. winchester hi impact sobot slugs I think they run about 1550 fps.

hubel458

Thses loads in the 12GA From Hell are safe.We built gun
and brass for strength.Brass is a long 12ga case we made by
putting rims on BMG brass.Cases are 3.85 in long. Rob, John
and I over on AR worked out the development. They use a Borchardt falling block action, which can stand 70,000 psi loads, I used a Savage 210 bolt action shotgun reciever, which is safe to about
35,000 psi operating pressure, with cases of that large base diameter.I used a heavy thick long rifle barrel,
as original wasn't heavy enough. Used a larger heavier stock with
big recoil pad with wt in the butt.. Wt 25 lbs.It has big three lug bolt head, and is stronger than any other regular size bolt action.
If bolt and bolt carrier was put in an action made with thicker
sides it would hold 60,000 psi loads..We are looking into getting
heavy wall 210 action custom made, to put bolt and parts into.I load to keep pressures down to the calculated safe operating pressure.
The gun can still chamber and fire regularshorter shotshells.Ed

rlnblk

Since you put it that way it makes more sense, guess I missed the " from hell" part. Sounds very cool. Could you use it for deer gun season?

jimdandi

sorry to jump in.....but the best chronographed 1 oz load I have ever loaded was 1640fps and it kicked the $#$%#%^^& out of me!!! I load my own slugs at 1490fps and they are fairly accurate to 50 yards, but I can't get any where near a 2" group at 100 yrds or farther.....
I'm shooting a remington 870 deer barrel with a IC tube because the rifled tube did nothing to tighten the group...
What powder do you use for the heavy load?????
Hope to fine tune loads by next season...

KX500

Hubel458 - The work you've done does sound very cool. But to say that that is a 12 g shotgun is kinda like calling the space shuttle an air plane!

steelcommander

I've done a lot of research about this but have yet reload any slugs. I will VERY soon though. Alliant Powder has 1 oz. slug loads in there handbook. They look like good ones too. They have 1 oz. loads that go about 1690 fps. Just think of what those velocties would be with a 7/8 oz. slug and when the wad is coated with Mica Wad Slick!!!!! Also, you can make your own slugs out of a harder alloy which should make your loads even more accurate since they will deform less. And, if you buy the supplies in bulk, you can load those slugs pretty cheap.

hubel458

It is shotgun when it fires regular shotshell, and when
high speed slugs are used it is hairy Paradox rifle/shotgun
or as some called them 12 bore rifles,
like used in Africa in old days, only hairier.For heavy
slugs we use 90%-full loads of slow rifle powder, Don't have to
play with wads, cards, pressure settings for wads. etc.Ed.
Here is picture of the Savage--



And steel is right you can load slugs for lot less than
factory. The Dixie slugs were only 70 cents each delivered
and they are hard.And there are others reasonable,Ed.

jag

steel, please let me know how you make out. others- i'm not interested in loading pumkin balls( 2.00 a box, not worth it) only sabot type slugs for a rifled barrel. with some downrange -100 yd- accuracy thanks again to all