The first thing I had to do is make the change Lee recommends for Load-All when working with the 3" rather than 2 3/4. You remove the wad guide and raise it which means you must drill a new hole. Nothing to it. I'm not using the Load-All to drop a powder charge, I'm treating my slugs just like I would a rifle cartridge and using a scale to measure the max loads. To make the work easier, I drop the charge with the Perfect Powder Measure and then check it with the Safety Scale.
The one problem I did experience with the Load-All right away is that the press depends on you delivering the crimp by feel. I didn't like that a bit as the consistency is all over the place. A 12 gauge hull will slip into a 3/4" PVC pipe and with a little cutting and filing I was able to make a "crimp sleeve" that leaves an identical hull length after each and every crimp. The press can be bottomed out against the sleeve. The crimp is closed by feel in the final stage but that feel is very definate.
I actually made two sleeves, one that delivers a closed nose like a regular trap hull and another that produces an exposed nose like a traditional slug load. Load work will tell me which ends up being the better.
I started my work with three wads that I will refer to as wad/sabots as I will soon be including card wads which serve a different purpose. I purchased the Federal 12SB and Claybuster CB4118-12B wad/sabots based on a recommendation in YouTube video. Right off the bat I found these to be poor choices as they are to deep for the Lee slugs.
I had also purchased the MEC 100T4 as it is easy to find and is a direct replacement for the Winchester 12SL that Lee recommends. Mr. James Gates of Dixie Slugs has done quite a bit of writing about the Lee slugs and he suggest a 20 gauge .070" Mini Nitro Card be place between the slug and cup of the wad/sabot. His testing indicated that accuracy improved with the card wad. The nice thing about these wads is that two can be added behind the 7/8 ounce slug allowing this single wad/sabot to be used for both slugs. There is no reason to find purchase and additional wad/sabot.
My concern with using the Mini Nitro Card wads was that the slug would slip inside the wad/sabot and not spin with it. No worries, the slug's key fulling engages the the wad/sabot through the card wad. These are sample recovered after the shot.
My depart from Lee's suggested use is based on the fact that modern slug guns have a 3" chamber (min) rather than the older 2 3/4" chambers. I felt that the freebore created by using a 2 3/4 hull in the longer chamber would rob pressure from producing velocity and plus not fully support the wad/sabot for a 1/2" of travel right at the place and time the chamber pressures are at their greatest. I was also disappointed in the wad/sabot survival as after it crossed the freebore and engaged the step. The wads I were picking up were destroyed and from the pedals peeling back inside the barrel, I was experiencing leading and unstable slug flight once out of the barrel.
My assumptions were well founded. Both wad/sabot survival and slug accuracy performance was fantastic!
The MEC wad/sabot in the top of the image where shot from 2 3/4 hulls in my first range session. Every wad that was recovered was destroyed. I watched some, in the shot path, completely disintegrate. The wads in the bottom of the image where shot from 3" hulls. Every wad was recovered and all eighteen survived! This image also shows the Lee slug as removed from the 50-yard target berm.
This range session was not about accuracy but about wad/sabot survival. The interesting thing was in the recovered wads. I shot 12 MEC wads and three each of the Federal and Claybusters.
All the MECs were very uniform in compression. The Federal and Claybusters where all compressed off center. All the MECs were found on the shot path to the target in a 3' by 10' box.
The the 12 slugs supported by the MEC wad/sabot were on point of aim in a six inch group. Not much left of a target center with 12 .70" projectiles cutting into it. Not so with the Federal and Claybusters.
I've a lot of work to do but will focus on using the MEC wad/sabot as I move on to pressure test Hodgdon powders. This little bit of shooting with the Rossi Slug Gun really impressed me as I've never messed with slugs.
One thing that I wanted to work on was a way of determining just what "over-charge" wad should be used as I will be working with a number of powders with incremental charges of each as I work up to max pressures. Everything within the hull needs to balance out to 100% compression and the variable is powder charge. I added a calculator to my VMD calculator that delivers the wad height needed on top of the charge. My VMD Calculator spreadsheet has been updated.
The results of using the correct wad between the powder and wad/sabot is very satisfying! You got to love the Cheditte clear hulls as well!
Some final comments. The Lee slug is impressive! These pictures so that my plumbers lead slug is holding together very well as recovered from my target berm. I am going to follow Mr. Gates' suggest and water quench them at the drop to make them a little bit tougher. These will be used on nilgai, a very large critter, and I want to make sure that they don't stop before they exit.
... and I bought another slug gun, a Mossberg 695. I read a lot of comments pro and con but the con always seemed to be written by those that had not owned them. I decided for $250 I could figure it out myself. I will use the Rossi for pressure testing as it is set and ready to go.
