Lee Drive Key Sabot results (pic)

DONDALINGER

I have been reloading for years and wanted to try to load some sabot slugs (to save some $$$) for hunting eastern whitetail. I had never before reloaded for a shotgun and never had cast any bullets until now. It has been a very rewarding experiment. I got some old lead pipe and smelted it into ingots. I bought the 1 oz Lee drive key slug mold and did alot of reading online. I also bought a MEC 600 Jr to load the slugs. Many have reported problems with the shot cup/wad column being driven into the hollow base of the slug. Some have placed a 20 ga nitro under the slug to remedy this. Others suggested lubing the slug with bore butter so the wad will separate in flight. I loaded 8 slugs and lubed 4. Here are the results. The non lubed did much better IMO. I found 2 of the wad columns from the lubed load and they had sheared off petals. The dry ones were intact. I can see a small imprint of the slug on the wad column where the drive key engages.

These groups were fired from a rest, but not a real good one. I just wanted to shoot at 60 yards and see if they were all over the paper or capable of decent accuracy. Granted, these are not spectacular groups. I do feel with a better rest and some fine tuning, I can develop a very accurate sabot at a fraction of the cost of factory.



Load was as follows.

Charge- 34 grains HS-6
Hull- Federal Top Gun 2 3/4"
Primer- Win. 209
Wad- Fed. 12S3
Lee 1 ounce drive key cast from pure lead
approximtely 1500 fps

Regards, Don

grizzclaw

Don, I love casting and loading my own slugs. I use 36 gr of HS6 in a Remington hull with a Winchester wad and primer and a fully rifled barrel. I get excellant groups with the fully rifled barrel. The only problem I run into so far was when I tried to substitute the claybuster replacment wads. The ridge on the Claybuster wad petal makes the whole shell swell far enough to keep from chambering in the gun. I have to stick with the Winchester wad. I also found out that they don't group well with my Remington with the rifled choke tube. I've never had a problem with separation from the wad. I'd like to someday try loading and shooting the 7/8 slugs to see if they shoot any flatter. Good luck with your experiment.

richbug

I use the 12s3 wad, a 20ga card wad with a 3 dram equiv load of green dot or solo 1000. makes a nice light load for 3 gunning. Sometimes I loose the petal on my wads, seems to happen in the choke tube, doesn't hurt accuracy any.