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Tumbling and washing NSA slugs

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lamarkeiko

Member
Jun 22, 2017
129
2
Oregon, United States
I read a reply back from NSA on a previous post on lubing NSA slugs, where they said they tumble slugs after forming, then sonic clean, and finally tumble again with silicon lube.

Yesterday I went to try out for the first time a box of .25 cal. 36.2 grain slugs. I was shooting them straight out of the box at 60 yd. with my FX Crown and STX Superior liner. They seemed to group fairly well 4 of 5 shots most of the time. I started looking closely at the pellets in the box after noticing pieces of lead slag on my fingers. There was a lot of slag in the bag and on the pellets. Also a couple of the slugs had holes in the base. I'm thinking that this batch may not have gotten the final process NSA does with tumbling, cleaning and lubing.

Has anyone done tumbling of slugs before? I do have a small rock tumbler that I could use. I'd then final wash and try a little silicon spray lube. I think these pellets have great potential. The 33.5 grain slugs that I got with the same order look a lot cleaner, and I haven't tried them yet.

Lamar


 
Mine are always in perfect shape and well lubed. I would if anything send them back. Alternatively the slag might be taken off in am old towel that you could use as a nestle and get the slag into the fibers (if they makes sense. Then flip the towel over, tumble again with lube, and take your pellets to the tin and chuck the towel. Or just call NSA they are legit. Their quality is first rate in my experience, so I am sure they had skipped a step.



I had an experience like that with JSB pellets with 60% of the pellets useless. It was a bummer too because it was an $18.99 order and then $5 shipping. It must have been a complete failure in QC. I didn't send them back but just laughed it off, used the %40 and thought to myself: thst sucks. The next order I did with JSB was great and no slag and 1% or less in rejects.








 
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I purchased NSA'S 2 weights of .177 slugs, and they looked reasonably shiny, and didn't seem to have lube on them at all.

That being said, I tumble my .1775 slugs that I make from Corbin equipment. What I'll do, is put at least 300 of whatever weight or design I'm creating, whether it's for me, or someone else, and tumble them amongst themselves for no more than 2 minutes. The slugs get a medium grey color, but all of the small sharp edges get rounded off. I've found that accuracy is enhanced after this process, and the barrel does not foul any quicker than with "shiny" ones. Once tumbling is done, I wash them, then lube them, which is almost a necessity when shooting slugs.

Tom Holland 

Field Target Tech 

Fieldtargettech.com 
 
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Thanks everyone for your input to my post. The general consensus seems to be that I should contact NSA on the issue. I think I may, just so they may look into their quality control if they think they need to. I know they're a good business with very reasonable prices on their slugs. I don't expect any replacement slugs or really want them to send me any. This box of slugs just most likely slipped through a step. I only bought one box at this time. I will be buying more because I think they have great potential.

I did do some further inspection this morning. I dumped the remaining slugs on a clean white rag and rolled them around and found a lot of slag left. had to repeat this several times until there was very little showing up. I then took a fresh unopened box of 33.5 gn slugs and spread them out on the rag and rolled around. Only a very small amount of slag showed up.

I also did some closer inspection of the slugs and I found that the 33.5 gn slugs were much cleaner looking on the base. A few had slight dimples along the edge. The 36.2 gn slugs showed dimples on 50%. I did also find a couple that had wrinkles on the side.

The next thing I tried was weighing about 20 of the slugs. I had 2 that weighed 35.9 gn and one that weighed 36.2 gn. the rest were 36.0 to 36.1 gn. I think that is a great consistent weight. I then opened a tin of JSB MK II and weighed about 15 pellets. They weighed from 33.7 to 34.8 gn with no real consistent weight in between. I also dumped them out on the rag and rolled around and found very little slag.

Just a final note, after I got my Superior liner for my Crown, I purchased a box of FX Hybrid slugs to try out because there seemed to be such great reviews. It was a little hard to swallow the price you pay for 100 slugs. I couldn't come close to consistent accuracy I was getting with NSA slugs after tuning to the best I could. Needless to say, I won't be buying more.

Attached are a couple photos I took this morning of the 36.2 gn slugs and slag.
36.2 gn slug slag.1612637791.JPG
36.2 gn slugs.1612637791.JPG


Lamar
 
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I sent an email to NSA explaining the lead flack on my slugs. I got an answer back from Nick this morning. Here's his reply back

Thank you. We like all feedback good and bad so we can dial in our process, make changes and strive for perfection. I don't think it missed a step but I think we were washing too many at a time not allowing the flakes to make their way to the bottom and would get caught in the pile of slugs in the basket. We have made that change recently but obviously not in time for your ammo.

If you feel the ammo is not up to par we will send out a replacement, just let us know. I really do appreciate your feedback and we do take all feedback seriously and try to take appropriate actions to correct issues.

Nick

Nielsen Specialty Ammo

I don't think you can get better customer support than that. I replied back that I don't need a replacement. I've already washed and relubricated with silicon spray. Haven't had a chance to try them out yet.

Lamar


 
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