horseman wrote:The more I read on "reloading for shotgun slug accuracy" just confirms that it's not something I'm interested in trying anytime soon, or ever. It appears to be "almost" an exercise in futility and an endeavor only to test one's patience and determination. But I'm rooting for you, and hopefully you'll find success and if you do please post the results. You may change my mind about the process. Maybe.
I'm enjoying the venture. There are times that my metallic reloading isn't stretching my imagination and I get bored.
I might try the graphite on the wads, probably use mica as I have so much of it, but since trimming the petals shorter, all column wads have had their pedals intact downrange. Since the start, I've been using a 20 Gauge .070 Nitro card wad behind the slug. One, two, or three depending on what the stack was.
When I switched to the six segmented star crimp, I noticed that it top unfolded after awhile. The component stack is too high, so I removed one of the two nitro cards behind the slug. Then the star folded inside which means the stack isn't high enough. I pondered that a bit and decided to try something new. I added an orange BPI overshot card wad (.045") between the nose of the slug and the star fold. After the fold and with the clear hull, I could see that the card was drooping where there was no slug contact (you can see how the meplat of the slug indented the orange disk in the image below). So, I carefully added BPI's Buffer until the filler's level was flat across the nose of the slug and then dumped the Buffer in a scale pan and weighed it so that I could use the Safety Disk with the actual reloading run (5.5-grains ~ .83cc).
It all slid together real quick. I did goof up and use the Load-All II's 8 segmented star folder on one hull... damn it!
I couldn't get up to the range until right before dark, but when I did, I shot the two six-fold shells first. The load sounded better (good compression of the components), the barrel was cleaner (better gas seal), and the two shots produced a double POI that was very acceptable. Both wads were recovered and looked like they could be used again (I am trimming the petal length to the ogive). Then came the eight-fold shell and it didn't hit the paper, just the greater backing. I think that made a good test of the star fold if nothing else, six-segmented star fold or nothing. I could not find the wad. I'm going to load up another this morning, properly, and see where it hits.
All that I've written on these pages sounds like a lot of work and it really hasn't been. A lot of thinking maybe, but I can see it moving forward, and I would rather hunt with a reload than the factory ammo. The actual effort of reloading, prepping and completing the load, is ten times faster than metallic reloading.