I recently purchased some of NSA's new 177 Cal slugs. The 12.5 gn slugs work like magic in my AT44. I went to the range recently to see how far I could push them and I was amazed. The wind was very low, about 2 MPH, with lulls of dead calm air. I set a 6 inch round plate, a 2 1/2" X 5" mini torso, and a golf ball on a tee out at 200 meters curious to see what would happen. I started with the 6" round plate and the AT44 was grouping really nicely. The groups on the plate were so good that I skipped right to the golf ball and had no problem hitting it. The berm behind it made a nice hill so I would hit the ball and then it would go up the hill and roll back down ready for the next shot.

Finally I decided to shoot the mini torso. Not only did I hit it on the first try, I knocked it over. I was expecting to be able to hit it but was very surprised that it was knocked over. The torso is 3/8" thick AR500 steel and has some definite heft to it.

The AT44 was set up to shoot the 12.5 gn slugs at 892 FPS at muzzle for 22 FPE. Based on my ballistics calculator there was 10 FPE left at 200 meters. Here's a picture of the mini torso target with the hit. If you look at the background you can see the golf ball and to the right of the golf ball you can see the pink tee that it started on.



200 Meters.1602629784.JPG




I am so happy with the quality and consistency of these slugs!
 
Nice. I love 17 cal slugs it really brings the caliber alive. 20 cal is next, I now have the die in hand. I need to make some 20 cal punches and heat treat them and make some test slugs. We do all that in house but a little limited on time.

Glad these 17 cal slugs working for you

TWENTY twenty twenty ...... can't wait !!

Own 2 rifles in the caliber that can make the power to utilize .20 cal slugs !!!

YES!!! Right there with ya Scott. Can't wait for the .20 slugs. 

@jungle_george: impressive. I recently set up a mostly un-used gun to shoot the same .177 12.5s and it is also right at 22fpe. I took it out after pdogs a few weeks ago and was connecting on shots out to 115 a lot more easily than I can with pellets. It did seem to be just poking holes in them though, vs DRT/dropping them in their tracks. The same shots with pellets seems to be a little more effective at kill shots. I found it interesting that a 20ish fpe pellet will kill them better than a 20ish fpe .177 slug. Maybe just not enough expansion at this speed, and the better BC of the slug means its still going pretty fast and just ice picks them? 


 
@jungle_george: impressive. I recently set up a mostly un-used gun to shoot the same .177 12.5s and it is also right at 22fpe. I took it out after pdogs a few weeks ago and was connecting on shots out to 115 a lot more easily than I can with pellets. It did seem to be just poking holes in them though, vs DRT/dropping them in their tracks. The same shots with pellets seems to be a little more effective at kill shots. I found it interesting that a 20ish fpe pellet will kill them better than a 20ish fpe .177 slug. Maybe just not enough expansion at this speed, and the better BC of the slug means its still going pretty fast and just ice picks them? 


I think you are probably correct. The slug is probably going fast enough to just go right though but not fast enough to induce much in the way of hydro-static shock. When I look at the slugs after hitting the 6 inch plate they are nothing more than a flower shaped disk, so they are hitting with decent force, but hitting a steel plate is completely different than going through flesh and achieving expansion in that sort of media requires a minimum velocity. What that velocity is, I have no idea. Might be fun to shoot at a gallon jug of water at 50 yards to see what happens.
 
@jungle_george: impressive. I recently set up a mostly un-used gun to shoot the same .177 12.5s and it is also right at 22fpe. I took it out after pdogs a few weeks ago and was connecting on shots out to 115 a lot more easily than I can with pellets. It did seem to be just poking holes in them though, vs DRT/dropping them in their tracks. The same shots with pellets seems to be a little more effective at kill shots. I found it interesting that a 20ish fpe pellet will kill them better than a 20ish fpe .177 slug. Maybe just not enough expansion at this speed, and the better BC of the slug means its still going pretty fast and just ice picks them? 


I think you are probably correct. The slug is probably going fast enough to just go right though but not fast enough to induce much in the way of hydro-static shock. When I look at the slugs after hitting the 6 inch plate they are nothing more than a flower shaped disk, so they are hitting with decent force, but hitting a steel plate is completely different than going through flesh and achieving expansion in that sort of media requires a minimum velocity. What that velocity is, I have no idea. Might be fun to shoot at a gallon jug of water at 50 yards to see what happens.

I was wondering if your at44 was stock or have you adjusted it or modified it at all?

I have an at44 sitting in the back of my safe that hasn’t seen light in a while. I might pull it out and see if it’s still holding air. If it is, I think I’ll order some of these to try.
 
As far as the rifle itself is concerned, it is 100% stock. The only tune I did was to adjust the hammer spring so that it was shooting 21 gn piledrivers at 750 FPS and once I got the NSA slugs I just used that setting and it worked perfectly. Incidentally, I just received some Crosman 10.5 gn pellets and I used that same setting just to see if they would work and the are stacking one on top of another at 10 yards in my basement. I hope to try them out at 100 yards soon.
 
As far as the rifle itself is concerned, it is 100% stock. The only tune I did was to adjust the hammer spring so that it was shooting 21 gn piledrivers at 750 FPS and once I got the NSA slugs I just used that setting and it worked perfectly. Incidentally, I just received some Crosman 10.5 gn pellets and I used that same setting just to see if they would work and the are stacking one on top of another at 10 yards in my basement. I hope to try them out at 100 yards soon.

We have 10.5 grain slugs out for testing right now too
 
As far as the rifle itself is concerned, it is 100% stock. The only tune I did was to adjust the hammer spring so that it was shooting 21 gn piledrivers at 750 FPS and once I got the NSA slugs I just used that setting and it worked perfectly. Incidentally, I just received some Crosman 10.5 gn pellets and I used that same setting just to see if they would work and the are stacking one on top of another at 10 yards in my basement. I hope to try them out at 100 yards soon.

We have 10.5 grain slugs out for testing right now too


SWEET! I will be extremely interested in those once they come out. Please make an announcement when you do, I will be first in line. At that weight I will see how they work in a break-barrel as well. I tried the 12.5 gn in my break-barrel and they were accurate enough, I was only able to get 570 FPS out of them though.


 
As far as the rifle itself is concerned, it is 100% stock. The only tune I did was to adjust the hammer spring so that it was shooting 21 gn piledrivers at 750 FPS and once I got the NSA slugs I just used that setting and it worked perfectly. Incidentally, I just received some Crosman 10.5 gn pellets and I used that same setting just to see if they would work and the are stacking one on top of another at 10 yards in my basement. I hope to try them out at 100 yards soon.

We have 10.5 grain slugs out for testing right now too


SWEET! I will be extremely interested in those once they come out. Please make an announcement when you do, I will be first in line. At that weight I will see how they work in a break-barrel as well. I tried the 12.5 gn in my break-barrel and they were accurate enough, I was only able to get 570 FPS out of them though.



I'll be on the look-out for those as well. My Daystate MK4 loves the Crosman heavies in the brown box. I will definitely gives those a try when the come out.
 
As far as the rifle itself is concerned, it is 100% stock. The only tune I did was to adjust the hammer spring so that it was shooting 21 gn piledrivers at 750 FPS and once I got the NSA slugs I just used that setting and it worked perfectly. Incidentally, I just received some Crosman 10.5 gn pellets and I used that same setting just to see if they would work and the are stacking one on top of another at 10 yards in my basement. I hope to try them out at 100 yards soon.

We have 10.5 grain slugs out for testing right now too

I would certainly be interested in those as well. The 12.5 grain .177's are extremely accurate from my Pulsar and I recently received a large order of them. 10.5 grain might make them useful in a lot more rifles. Thanks and watching.