has any one ever used the lee mould for 12ga slugs and if so how did they shoot considering one for my usg but would some info first. thanks tom

I have not tried eather of the 7/8 oz. or the 1oz. Lee mould's but am guessing they will be as good as Lymans old 475gr. shotgun slug mould. The nice thing is they can be loaded with a regular star crimp as you would load good bird loads.
If you have a chance I would sugest trying Lymans New Sabot Slug, a 525gr slug that can be loaded with std wads. As I remember there are 7,000 gr's in a pound which would give the Lee 1oz. slug 437.5gr. compared to lymans 525gr. and that is a difference of 87.5 gr's.
I have found it easy to cast and I like the large flat nose on it. In my shotgun it groups well. I also like the fact that it does not have the big ogive like the Lee but is more like a wadcutter. What ever you do stay with the given load information as loading shotgun shells is less forgiving than rifle loading.

Good luck and keep us posted on your results, Leon

I have a Lee 1 oz mould for slugs. John Lee said the 1 oz ones tend to be more accurate than the 7/8 oz. It will take a little experimenting on your part to find the best wad/powder combo for your gun. The slugs cast easy but be SURE you smoke the mould first. You will have a bit of a problem getting smoke ALL the way up the "Key" to the nose, just do the best you can. I have shot these through 2 rifled barrel guns, a Rem 870 and a Ithaca Deerslayer II. I would have to look up what I used for powder charges, but Lee included suggestions with the mould. The biggest point in accuracy seemed to be the wads I used. Some brands seem to have thicker petals than othere and the thickest ones seemed to give the best accuracy in my guns.
I did get a group or two hovering right about 2 inches at 100 yds. I haven't duplicated it again, maybe a fluke or I just flinched the right way for a couple of shots. I bought a Ram Line stock for the 870 as the wood one was broken. When I was testing the loads I filled the buttstock with #8 shot. It certainly helped with the recoil.
I am pleased with the slug mould and it did produce good accuracy in both of my guns. I would cast up a big bunch of them and then weigh and recast the overly heavy and light ones. I have no problem reccommending the mould if you want to cast your own slugs, I am pleased with mine. Good Luck

thanks for the info guys really need the advise on this one. tom

If you have some play between the wad and slug, you can tighten up the fit by placing a single ring of the right thickness paper around the slug inside the wad. Don't overlap the ends of the paper or it'll give you a tight spot, actually a hair short on length will suffice as you're making the seal with the wad.

BTW, round balls will usually outshoot slugs in smooth bores, never tried them in a rifled bore though.

Markkw: I have heard about the paper trick but I haven't tried it so far. Might be fun to play with if our weather ever gets decent and I can see if I can tweek a little more accuracy out of the Lee slugs.
I had a buddy that tried a lubed patched round ball in a cut down shotgun. He put the patch upside down over the ball as he loaded it. As I recall it worked better than without. I guess it helped keep the ball centered in the bore instead of just a rattle fit.
I have 2 rifled barrel shotguns so I don't use the standard type Foster slugs in them. I did experiment shooting them and found that in my guns they shot worse (lousy accuracy) in a rifled bore than in a smooth bore with a lot of leading. The lead is way too soft to take the rifling and strips. I also think that the rifling on the slugs doesn't match my slug barrels and actually doesn't give the rifling much purchase. I wonder what it would do if there were un rifled-rifled slugs (aximoron??) Accuracy might improve, but then we would need lube grooves huh? Thanks for the info and good luck

ok. im going to tell you something that i found that works very well i have unfoldeed the crimp on some light dove and quail loads poured out the shot,and replaced it with a cast .62cal r/b the wad is exact in the size to take up all the all the space in the smoothbore bbl and the .62r/b fits perfectly in the wad and then refold the crimp and this thing shoots so good out to 50-75 yds out of my 870 12ga cly.bore bbl about 21/2" off-hand at 60yds is this not a safe thing? i have shot so many i couldnt count them.i`ve layed down two ferrel hogs with it.

Markkw where can a guy by a round ball mould that will work in my 870, I want one? Will they work in a reg shot cup?

Thanks for the Info guys, Leon

Try Rapine molds for large round ball molds. Greg

Bullet molds are available in many flavors, best places to look are muzzleloader shops for RB molds (on-line is probably best)

I've tried many RB loadings and the one I found that works the best is using a ball that is only a few thousanths under bore diameter, .007" max

CAUTION WARNING: You must NOT use these in any choke, cylinder bore ONLY!

Plastic wads do not give the consistency that paper and fiber will. Slower burning powders are better, start with a powder charge for a shot payload that is equal to the ball weight but you can go up as long as the gun is capable of handling the load and you are not seeing any signs of ecessive pressure.

Full star crimps tend to cause fliers so I remove all but about 3/32" of the crimp fingers, I found Winchester Super X hulls to work the best, use a razor knife & guide (piece of 3/4" nominal schedule 40 black pipe makes a great jig) to get them even. Once you have your powder charge selected, weighing the charges will give the best results as dropped charges can vary enough to destroy accuracy, put it the hull and then build-up a wad column that will place the ball slightly above the top of the shortened crimp fingers. Insert wad column and compress with 15-30 pounds pressure but be sure to do it exactly the same every time. Depending on the machine you have as to how you can get the same amount of compression each time as it will affect the powder burn, pressures and velocity which all needs to be consistent, after all you are now loading a rifle round, just happens to be a smoothbore version.

Now, whatever diameter your ball is lacking in relation to the bore needs to be made up. I select a paper with the proper thickness plus .0005" (here's where a paper thickness micrometer comes in handy!) BTW, check your ball size as-cast not what the mold says as most vary a little either way. Oh, pure lead or no more than 25:1 lead/tin alloy, you want them as soft as you can get. I use a steel rule & razor knife to cut the patches. Width of the paper strip will be equal to that of the ball diameter and length needs to be a bit shorter than the ball circumfrence, just enough so that it does overlap when wrapped around the ball. Pre-rolling the patches around a ball diameter dowel makes things easier. Insert the ball on top of the wad column, slip the patch between the ball and hull and crimp but not all the way. This too will vary with machine and some will only need the starter crimp while other may need a little touch of the finish crimp die. What you want is the fingers to just barely contact the ball and hold it just enough from falling out of the hull. You can adjust your wad column if needed to make the starter crimp work.

Absolutely the most accurate way of loading PRB's in shotgun hulls is to use all brass cases you can now get from Magtech. Same procedure as above but seat the ball just under the end of the hull and use a .068" overshot wad to finish off the round with a light roll crimp.

If you work the PRB load the same as you would any rifle load, you can get very good accuracy. I have a 12ga H&R single I picked up with a dented barrel. I cut the dented part off leaving me with about a 21.5" cylinder bore. When I saw the accuracy I could get with PRB's, I installed a set of rifle sights on it. Off the bench on a good day I can drop 5 into 4" at 100 and all touching at 50. Most times I'd say the average is 5" - 6" @ 100

Talk about dropping a deer....I took a whitetail doe with one of these from that H&R many years ago. Angled broad side about 60 yards and I caught the left front shoulder with the ball as it was going out the other side.... not only knocked her down but drove her down like she was hit by a semi truck. Ball took a good bit of bone & meat with it on the way out leaving about a 4" exit wound.