Wax slugs.

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whughett

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So I’ve been whiling away time watching YouTube. Seems folks are making slugs for shotguns by mixing shot pellets with hot wax and refilling the shot cup with the mixture. Any one reading this have any sort of success or failure with this.

I ask as part of my ongoing adventure with an old Remington S/S I’ve been playing with. I’m not going to try real slugs thru it’s 120 year old barrels, but might these be safe. On other threads on this page and the blackpowder one I’ve posted successfully loads with light loads of blackpowder of various charges and pellet weights

I have in mind some 25 to 50 yard plinking, not real hunting. Blasting away at paper targets with pellet loads only goes so far for amusement.
 
If I were to try it, I’d order unslit wads from BPI. I personally would be hesitant to dissect a factory shell, tinker with its innards, then hobble it back together.

presumably, if the payload weight conforms to established data and all other components are kept the same, you shouldn’t run into any over pressure issues. Presumably.

conventional wisdom is that shotshell handloading doesn’t leave the same room for experimentation that metallic handloading does.
 
Try a 58 cal round ball in a 7/8 oz. Skeet wad over 50 gr FFG. Light recoil, lots of smoke and brimstone. "Accuracy " is relative, but you can score good hits on an IDPA silhouette to 50 yards.
 
I've seen some vids on it. I don't think I'd try it with your old gun. When you fire a load of shot the pellets are free to compress as they travel down the barrel. Making them solid by encasing them in wax would reduce that ability and possibly raising the pressure of that load. Not a problem in a modern gun but I wouldn't try it in yours. jmo I'd stick with the BP rated loads.
 
B6363FFA-3F7D-4C76-A324-826480A1CC9E.jpeg 7A29BC33-6B86-4D92-89D5-09CAD8810C25.jpeg

First three rounds from the right barrel of this S/S double. Distance 25yards. Off hand standing.
Top photo same distance same loads, three fliers four more in the center, 10 rounds fired.

3.7CC 2F black powder, nitro card, one 1/2” fiber wad, plastic shot cup 7/8 oz of #6 shot encased in paraffin, over shot cardboard card, roll crimp. At this point can’t explain the fliers, shooter most likely. Think the next 10 will be into 2 targets, left and right barrel. I’m thinking this is a light load with less than 60 grains of black powder.
Random 8, going to try your suggestion also.
 
View attachment 870963 View attachment 870962

First three rounds from the right barrel of this S/S double. Distance 25yards. Off hand standing.
Top photo same distance same loads, three fliers four more in the center, 10 rounds fired.

3.7CC 2F black powder, nitro card, one 1/2” fiber wad, plastic shot cup 7/8 oz of #6 shot encased in paraffin, over shot cardboard card, roll crimp. At this point can’t explain the fliers, shooter most likely. Think the next 10 will be into 2 targets, left and right barrel. I’m thinking this is a light load with less than 60 grains of black powder.
Random 8, going to try your suggestion also.

Not quite sure of the particular caliber of ball that would fit. I'm assuming the balls I had came from a .58 ML as some other .58 stuff was in the auction lot. Had about 25 of them and trying to find a creative use, found they would fit well in the shotcup. Never bothered to caliper any of them. Add in an old Sears single shot 12 Ga and some FFg and I had a fun use for them. I just used a cutoff gas seal from a fired wad for an "over card" and fold crimped. You seem to have some advanced skills for traditional loading, so you can probably take this to the next level. I believe something in the range of .68 caliber would be appropriate for a full bore slug in a choked barrel without the plastic wad. I'll go out to the garage and grab a couple of plastic wads and take a rough measurement of the inside. They made a pretty good sabot for the ML balls I had. The shotgun I used was choked full, and the 50 gr charge was definately mild.

Just measured a Win 7/8 oz W12L, and come up with aprox 61-62 cal between the petals. I remember the ball being slightly loose, but wanted some wiggle room to go through the choke, so they were probably .58 caliber. I was using a BPI wad at the time that seemed thicker than the W12L. I'll leave the experimenting up to you. If I were to do it again, I'd use some sort of patching on the ball.
 
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Wax slugs are, at best, a novelty item and at worse a stupid idea.

There are plenty of proven, and reliable, conventional rounds for shotgun use and entirely economical to boot.

And loading the barrel of any gun up with layers of wax ain't a good idea.

LOL. You sound like my old MMC in Main control on the USS Ingraham in the 60’s. As I was just an MM3 he was the man.

I’m just horsing around with an old shotgun that I want to give a little life to. By building Low pressure black powder rounds using inexpensive components I’m to old to hunt, the guns to old to put any serious rounds thru, even though at the time of its Manufacture Remington proof tested it’s barrels with loads that exceed today SAMMI specs. Not much different than shooting my muzzle loaders just a little more flame and smoke. As for waxing the bores they get cleaned bright and shiny after each range session, an absolute must when shooting black powder in any gun.
Happy Veterans day chief and thanks for your service.
Harvey.
 
ive had decent success with wax slugs, it depends on what you use and how you make them. for me the best ones ive made are with 12 ga 2 3/4 in steel BB loads. what i do is cut about 1mm or 2mm off the end of the shell and then pouring half the BBs out. i then put the shell(s) on top of the furnace vent allowing the BBs to get warm. if you dont warm the shot, when you pour the wax it will cool too quickly and not reach the bottom and fill the air pockets, this is also why i remove half the shot. after the shot is warm and the wax is melted and ready i pour the wax in just enough to cover the shot thats in the shell. i then fill the rest of the shell with shot and put it on the furnace vent again to heat the shot i just put in. after the shot is warm again i fill the rest of the shell with wax. you can do this a whole ton of other ways and use practically any type of shot size you want. whatever way you make them just make sure that the shot is also heated otherwise it will just fall apart when fired cause of the air pockets. these are definitely plinker type of shells, i have no doubt it would harvest game or be successful in defending your self, but they are similar to cut shells in the aspect that they dont always work, they will sometimes fall apart when fired. when they fall apart it just acts the same as a birdshot load or whatever load you used to make them. when you make them correctly ive only had maybe 1 or 2 fall apart for every 100 shells, so its not that common. good luck!
 
from left to right: 2 3/4in BB goose load wax slug loaded with 1.5x powder (wouldnt recommend unless your gun is a magnum), 2 3/4in BB goose load wax slug. 2 3/4in shell with 20 ga #8 shot shotcup pressed in and filled with wax(this load id say would be tipping at the edge of me wanting to shoot it through an old gun, it has some impressive power). Half size wax slug(regular amount of powder) of a
2 3/4in BB goose load(would highly recommend this load in an older gun cause this load hardly kicks at but still packs quite a punch down range).
 
My load out on the street was always around 20 rounds (kept in an old cloth M16 bandolier) with at least five rounds of ordinary 2 3/4 rifled slugs... I left each five rounds in the boxes they came in - but with the bottom of each box cut away, ready to go... In use each box was clearly identified at a glance and you pulled the cardboard to make each five rounds available as needed. That old cloth bandolier meant for M16 mags was the perfect size for a five round box of 12ga shells (and each box had the contents labeled right on the end of the box so you could tell at a glance what was there...).

In all my years on the street I never had occasion to need a rifled slug since I was never going up against a barricaded subject but always had them available if needed. Ordinary 00buck rounds were the ticket for me.

I know that folks like to tinker but why anyone would rely on "waxed shot" when a cheap and always available rifled slug would certainly do the job in short order is beyond me....
 
Fortunately I’ve never put my self in any situation to need to rely on any thing for defense, slug gun or otherwise. I do have a CCW, carry when I remember to.

Not sure what other folks are doing with them but I’m just having a little shooting fun and at .23 cents a round don’t see how it can get much cheaper. It just more entertaining to see quarter size holes appear in targets then counting pellet holes. And I like to reload Ammo, so the shot shells are an addition to that.

Reference the opening post of the thread for the purpose of this.
 
Cut shells are an easy way to do the same thing you are doing with wax. I don't know if they are safe in your gun.

I would not recommend cut shells.

Shotgun barrels are very thin walled in comparison to rifle barrels. I can't imagine what it would be like to tote a shotgun around if it were otherwise.

And the shotgun shell is a bit larger in diameter than the bore of the barrel. This would lead to increased pressures in an already thin walled barrel.

Yeah, I know it's been done "for ever", but the engineer in me cringes at the thought.
 
My load out on the street was always around 20 rounds (kept in an old cloth M16 bandolier) with at least five rounds of ordinary 2 3/4 rifled slugs... I left each five rounds in the boxes they came in - but with the bottom of each box cut away, ready to go... In use each box was clearly identified at a glance and you pulled the cardboard to make each five rounds available as needed. That old cloth bandolier meant for M16 mags was the perfect size for a five round box of 12ga shells (and each box had the contents labeled right on the end of the box so you could tell at a glance what was there...).

In all my years on the street I never had occasion to need a rifled slug since I was never going up against a barricaded subject but always had them available if needed. Ordinary 00buck rounds were the ticket for me.

I know that folks like to tinker but why anyone would rely on "waxed shot" when a cheap and always available rifled slug would certainly do the job in short order is beyond me....

Reading this again, and noticing the moniker, it dawned on me your life probably has a few more high points than mine. I’ve Spent exactly one week in your town as a tourist. Nice place on the facade.
I live half way back up the Tamamia trail. Nothing exciting here.
 
Whughett...

My era on the street down in Dade county was 1973 - 1995 - the height of the party... If you're living out along the Tamiami Trail you're in the lord's country... Funny thing, after I retired out in 1995, I went back to school, got my captain's license and ever since I'm either working out of Flamingo or Chokoloskee/Everglades City when I'm guiding... All in all -even though I have to tow my small skiff more than 20,000 miles a year... it's a better way to live as far as I'm concerned.

For anyone interested... an email to [email protected] will get you a brochure by return mail...
 
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