.177 Slugs, has anyone had personal experience with them?

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Crank

Crank

Member
Jun 3, 2018
322
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California, United States
We all know .22, 25, 30, 20mm, etc...slugs are becoming the darling of the long range crowd, but as I have been experiencing a renaissance interest in my .177 PCP's, my mind wonders if many have dabbled in the limited offerings starting to show up in .177. Up front, I'm not focused on pinhole sized groups at 100yds (but I wouldn't complain😁), my interest lies in a small bore flinging a chunk of lead rivalling a larger bore pellet. Accuracy will always be required to a degree, but I would be willing to accept hunting accuracy to anchor a critter, vs. winning the next EBR, kind of accuracy. 

In my favor, I have a number of .177's that I can dabble with; BSA Super10, FX Impact (but it's just an ST), Artemis P15, Evanix RS 3D (regulated) and I have an EDGUN Leishy 2 on order with the 250mm barrel. I'm leaning towards a bit of dabbling with the BSA and probably making a barrel for the FX, as I doubt the old smooth twist barrel would do very well. The others, would be tested to see if they can work as is. If I got frisky, I could make a spare barrel for my Leishy 1 in any length needed as a test mule. 

So, I'm not after guesses or theories. If you tried some slugs and they worked, let me know. If you tried some and they were horrible, let me know. Your experiences won't stop me but maybe together we can figure out how to make them tick. For reasons other than a heavy pellet as a smackdown tool, I tried the dreaded Piledrivers from H&N in my Evanix and they worked surprisingly well. Pellets can shoot better out of it, but the PD's were accurate enough to ventilate a particularly large ground squirrel (~4lbs) through the left shoulder, completely though the body and exited the right haunch. I'm following that line of thinking with performance that will hopefully not be too random in more than one platform.

Following up my comment about hunting accuracy, where I am here in San Diego, shots would be limited for range <30yds and noise would be a deal breaker. Higher power and flat trajectory would be fine at the range, or on one of the very limited opportunities when I could go hunting on private land. So if you had the world's worst experience with a .177 slug that wouldn't group under 1/2" at 25yds, that could still be viable for what I have in mind. 

Let's see if we can pool multiple experiences and see what we come up with. Power on paper, for me, won't matter. There are only so many ft/lbs to be had and if I need horsepower, I can go .22, 25, or .30. I know how much damage can be done with a normal .177, so the added mass of a slug will be more than adequate.

Thanks

Mark
 
kabukicrack,

Thanks for that link, when I put in a search for ".177 slugs" I didn't check off the Hunting section to search and that was my mistake. I only searched in PCP's and Pellets. NSA seems to have a solid product there, I may try some from Varmint Knocker as he is in San Diego and I wouldn't mind supporting a local business. Seeing the way that Rapid is set up, is close to how I will have the BSA configured, so I may focus on seeing if I can make that work first.

Thanks

Mark
 
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I shot the 15.5 NSA's out of my Wolverine R HP and they were grouping the same as the 16.2 JSB's out to 40 yards. At 50 I got a vertical string,but no bigger than 3/4 c to c. The JSB's shoot at 910 to 920. I have not shot the NSA's over the Air Chrony and have not gotten around to testing them since. Forest Woody,out?
 
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Alias,

Thanks for the input. What info I have found seems to keep NSA's name in the forefront and that 15.5 as a fairly forgiving performer. I'm waiting for a 250mm barrel to show up for my BSA, I want to turn it into a carbine. I'm hopeful that I could still drive it fast enough to be functional. Otherwise, I'll play with something longer to get velocity up to a point I can get good stability. Time will tell. 

Mark
 
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If I was into .177cal — my first address would be Tom Holland @ Field Target Tech, here:

https://www.fieldtargettech.com/



He is creating new slugs for field target, so.... they've got to be good. 😄

I'm sure he'd be able to give you some advice as what might work in your rigs.

Nice guy from the interactions I've had with him in the past. 👍🏼

Matthias


 
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Mathias, 

Thank you for the kind words, it's greatly appreciated!!

I've been on a quest to find the perfect projectile of the slug realm, for Field Target competition, particularly at 12 ft.lb.

With the 3 nose shapes that I have (1/2 ogive, 3/4 ogive, and S2 ), along with the several base shapes that I have (flat base, cup base, rebated boat tail, and hollow base), plus weights from 9.5 grains, up to 21 grains, gives me literally hundreds of combinations for my slugs. I'm in the process of testing every design I can make, and weight increments of .5 grains. Balance would have a lot to do with it, so testing all those weights is a necessity. 

I've GENERALLY discovered these few things in my quest.......

Performance in a choked barrel is better than I expected, probably due to the fact that I sent samples of shot and unshot projectiles to the die maker, in order to get the diameter fitted perfectly. This came out to .1775.

Almost EVERY design and weight of slug that I create with a hollow base is useless. Literally useless. Best group I could get any design at any weight was about 4" at 30 yards. Better off throwing them.

One thing that shocked me, was the input I got from shooters all over the country. Last year, I gave out 7-8000 sample slugs to anyone and everyone that wanted them. The biggest surprise was that the 15 grain slugs that I create, worked surprisingly well in Springers rated at 14 ft lbs and up. I have a member of my club here on Long Island that has a TX 200 at about 14 ft lb, that shoots them amazingly well. 

I've also had good success with them out of my 1720T at about 12 ft lbs. My next move is to put a Sightron 50x on it, and see how it can group at 55 yards. I only have a 12x on it at the moment, so I need to get more magnification on it, in order to see its accuracy potential at 55 yds. 

I'll be going to my range for more testing and tinkering tomorrow, in the quest to find the perfect low power slug that works.

Tom Holland

Field Target Tech 
 
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Mathias, 

I have a video on my swaging equipment and process that explains it, although an artist I am not, and the explanation and diagram are crude, but to the point.

As good as I can explain here, 1/2, 3/4 , 2S, are explained as this....

1/2 ogive refers to the curve made by 1/2 of the projectiles diameter, meeting at the apex. This gives a perfect 1/2 of a sphere at the nose. 3/4 ogive is 3/4 the diameter of the projectile, meeting at the apex. 2S refers to 2 times the diameter, meeting at the apex.

Here is the video, as cheap as it is....



https://youtu.be/pb4ozhvptT4

Tom Holland 

Field Target Tech 
 
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Scott, 

I recall seeing the start of that thread, but didn't follow it because I thought it was a pellet based thread. My apologies for not following along, it wound up having some good info from you and others. 

Thanks

Mark
Click to expand...


Mark,

As the thread went along and the .177 barrel was played with .. IT SHOOTS SLUGS !! like a house on fire !! But as stated the NSA at $15 + postage for 100 slugs is too much $$$

As many are ... we're waiting on the high speed machines to get affordable slugs where we can then really start stretching it's legs out to further distances while also seeing what it can do for critter damage at realistic hunting distances.
 
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Wow! Thanks to all who have replied. 

Tom, 

Your work with these slugs at low ft/lb levels is very much what intrigues me. It's also good to know that they aren't adversely affected by a barrel with a choke. Outstanding example of someone dedicated to a thorough evaluation.

Scott,

Your work seeing what the upper threshold of power is also exciting. I think I will take a two pronged approach. I will probably see where I can dial in my BSA at the mid range of the spectrum for acceptable power and stealth. I just purchased a second used FX Impact, so I will probably use one of the two for a dedicated high powered test platform. I will have to refer to your other thread to verify what style of barrel you are running on it and I'll get a blank ordered up. Out of curiosity, how do you normally cut your leade in the barrel, boring bar, or reamer?

To all those that have replied and I haven't directly responded to, please know that I am very grateful for your input. I hope this thread will be an ever growing source of information for anyone trying to make a decision to try out these small bore slugs.

Mark
 
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Mark,

I've gotten them to shoot halfway decent in a choked barrel, still better than I expected, but still have a long ways to go. They group ok, but not great.........yet.

With all of the nose shapes and base shapes that I have, I have 157 different types of designs. Couple that with 28 different weights in .5 grain increments from 8 grains up, that's 4,396 different combinations I need to test. That's a lot of testing I have yet to do.

Tom Holland 

Field Target Tech 
 
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I took the 15.5 NSA's out to 75 today. I had wind that was cumming in at a 45 from right to left. For the most part it was probably 1 to 4 mph. A 1 mph cross wind can move a pellet over 1 inch at 75. The 16.2 JSB's were better than 1 inch left and low at 50. The 15.5 slugs were right on. Both groups were about a half inch. I went to 75 and the JSB's were stringing much more horizontally and also vertically as would be expected. The slugs had a horizontal spread of less than 1 inch and vertical of 1/4 inch. This was with a Wolverine R HP poly barrel shooting 16.2g JSB's at 910 to 920. I will put a couple of the 15.5 NSA's over the Air Chrony tomorrow. I am running low and still need to try them in the Condor. I hope we can get these cheaper very soon. .
 
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alias,

That's encouraging news. It seems like the Nielsen 15.5 is a fairly consistent performer for several people. I'm going to order up a blank or two Monday in preparation for making a conventionally rifled barrel for the Impact. The debate will be regular rifling or polygon. Also whether to get it with a choke or not. I could always cut off the choke.

Mark
 
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