Slug Inconsistency

[Al_Miller]

So I bought nsa 29.5 slugs from Utah air guns about 3 weeks ago. I bought 600 since I was trying them out. When I got them I immediately cleaned them because after touching just one slug my fingers were filthy. When I cleaned them the water turned black along with the lead shavings. After cleaning they shot great at 50 yards at 870fps (all I can get out of my stock wildcat compact). So I bought more slugs straight from nsa. Utah had them for preorder but it was cheaper/faster to go to the source. I bought $120 worth because these things are great for pest control which is what I’m doing. When I cleaned these they did not turn the water black, it just had lots of lead shavings. Lubed them the same as the others. But these new ones are shooting like garbage out of my gun with the same tune. Before it was 865-875. Now it can be 860-880 and barely an inch group at 50 yards. It almost seems just by the slugs interaction with the magazine that they are a bigger diameter even though they’re supposed to be the same. The other batch would move around more in the mag. I have no way to measure the difference in the slugs because I shot all my old slugs (huge regret there). Sometimes I can get 4 shots slug on slug but 10 shots forget it. Used to get 16 in a ragged hole at 50 yards. Even the untuned slugs from the old batch shot better. I cleaned the barrel but no improvement. Seems the barrel just doesn’t like these new slugs. Any suggestions for me would be appreciated as I really don’t want all these slugs to be useless to me . Pellets still shoot good so the gun seems fine. 

 

[Odoyle]

It's a fact of life to be at the mercy of commercial pellet and slug manufacturers.

If you are serious about accuracy I suggest ordering the Corbin press and dies and make your own perfect match grade slugs no need to wash or weigh or even sort them (just lube them) and this way you can make in between weights to experiment which weight is most accurate out of your barrel.

There's a rather long wait time when you order the dies from Corbin since they are made to order FYI...

You SHOULD ALSO address your concern with NSA ASAP...

 

[TrinityMaker]

Nick may have changed the alloy blend on his slugs. He has to add antimony to the lead mixture in order to utilize the automated swagging dies. The batch you bought from Utah may have been an older batch. However, 10fps can be the difference between hole in hole shots, and spread out groups. Matt Dubber and Rohlf (spelling?) have proven this in their videos. Also, Nick lubricates his slugs from the factory. Not sure if he cleans them first, but I'm pretty sure he does. So the dirt in the water after cleaning the old slugs would indicate that they were from an older batch (IMHO). You may need to harmonically tune the gun to the newer slug. Also, It's odd that the velocities would spread apart. Going from a 10fps spread to a 20fps spread with identical reg and power settings seems suspect to me. I could see if the velocity increased or decreased with the new alloy blend, but the extreme spread followed the higher or lower velocity. But to see the extreme spread double seems odd. You might have 2 simultaneous issues happening.

You can try getting some pure lead slugs from one of Nicks competitors. I understand the appeal of NSA slugs from a price point. Nick gives you 3x's as many for the same price his competitors charge for 100 of them. But the competitors slugs are hand swagged, and they use pure (soft) lead wire. I don't mind paying more if I know that a slug works well in my rifle. The cost is an afterthought compared to the confidence of knowing my slug is going to hit what I'm aiming at. Just my $.02

 

[deke]

You could try the 29 gr dish base Nielsons which are very slightly smaller in Dia. vs the flat base 29.5's, some guns like them better. List your 29.5's in the classifieds.

 

[bandg]

There is another thread about slug accuracy destroyed by cleaning. I shoot 12.5 NSA .177's (without cleaning) and they shoot fantastically well out of several rifles. Try some without cleaning and if not accurate then your rifle probably isn't going to like them.

 

[Al_Miller]

I was afraid this was what y’all would say! I’ll do some more testing and see if I can make something work. Thanks . 


Deke I actually did get some 29 gr dishes with my order and they were slightly better but I haven’t shot a lot or fine tuned them so I’ll have to check them out. 

 

[JoeKool]

What barrel liner are you using in your Wildcat compact? Pellet, Slug, or Superior liner? If you’re using the a pellet liner... It’s not a great match for NSA’s. I’ve shot NSA’s through a few different FX airguns using slug and or superior liners for some time now, with good results. Never washed or lubed a single slug. Also, it goes without saying an airguns tune is huge when trying to get slugs shooting decently. Spent more than I care to mention on NSA slugs, not one quality issue as of yet. 



Honest 2 cents,



Joe

 

[Al_Miller]

Ok spent a hour this morning testing at 30 yards. To windy for 50. I figured out my consistency issue. In the bright sun my chronograph was reading great. Today I got a ES of 10. SD of 2. Avg of 867. The last time I tested was in the evening and I was losing sun. Probably the chronograph readings were off.


Groups were still wider than I like and I had fliers (fliers just don’t happen to me to unless I mess up). I grabbed a micro fiber cloth and rubbed some lube off the slugs. My thinking here is that if the slugs are slightly bigger diameter maybe less lube will help with the barrel interaction (I didn’t use a lot anyway but just experimenting). Groups actually tightened up and fliers disappeared at 30 yards. Still have to see at longer ranges but maybe I just had to much lube!? My other batch liked more lube so that’s interesting. If wind goes down I’ll test at 50 yards.


Joekool I have a wildcat mk3 Compact that’s stock. 500mm superior liner (not heavy superior) with ER carbon fiber liner sleeve.

 

[knifemaker]

One doesn't have to go the home swage route or depend on what you get is what you have. Do your home work. Remove the barrel and slug it Push one of your slugs thru. 

Now, order up a set of NOE Bullet Molds sizing inserts and an inexpensive press. 

Order your slugs slightly oversized for your grove's in the bbl. Size to a few thou. over the groove ida.

This is where your homework comes in. Some bbl's. like no more than .0001 under grove dia. and some like no more than .0003 over. This is how you get top accuracy from a slug bbl. 

Shooting slugs accurately by simply pot luck ordering them and not having them a perfect fit is no more than Blind Hog Finds Acorn. It is simply plug and play and hoping the stars line up. The lazy mans wishful thinking adventure. 

If you are serious, get serious. 

Should you decide on the very expensive swaging route, this is even more important. Swaging dies are very expensive with a long wait. You had better know what your gun needs before starting the long drawn out and expensive hunt and peck of ordering, waiting, spending, and testing only to find you need yet another die for testing, and more and more and more. Searching for that magic combo. doing your home work will pay off big in the end, and a hell of a lot cheaper and the rewards with be worth the effort. 

Example, cherry picked, but very doable. That's 60 shots!

One last thing, if the barrel has a choke, either remove it or size to the choke groves, NOT the Bore Groves. View attachment DSC02497.1612466856.JPG 

this was one shot to settle the reg, 10 on target. And lastly, the same slug and bbl. before removing the choke and sizing to the actual groove. At a much shorter range. GRRRRR!!!!

 all shot thru the FX, .22 Superior Heavy liner. Before and after proper sizing and choke removal. (the choke in the FX Superior slug liner is meant for the thin wall, easily conforming thin walls of their slugs, not a full thickness slug.) No choke is always the best option for standard slugs.

Knife 



Knife

 

[ladwict]

Maybe you can try the 26,8 grain in order to get your speed up a bit, 930-ish might be the key to succes. Small differences in speed can make a huge difference and slugs tend to like a bit higher speed in general. Also if you like you said maxed out your settings to obtain the speed with your current slugs it could well be that your “ small”. Compact is just having a too hard time getting the slugs out accurately. 150 bars should be your max Reg setting I would recommend . 

 

[Vetmx]

The problem that you’re having with slugs IS the problem with slugs. We are trying to shoot bullets out of pellet guns. I don’t care what anyone says about how great their gun shoots them, they are always secretly chasing their accuracy. Small adjustments, cleaning regimens, lubing regimens and so on. This is the part of the slug life that you don’t see on the videos or read in the bragging posts that lure guys into believing their pellet gun will compete with their powder burner. The slug craze is a hobby, but it’s not what most guys think. The hobby is the endless search for consistent accuracy. Guys coming over from the real gun world are especially gullible because they think it’s just like working up a load for their favorite rifle. Find the right load, sight it in then put it in the safe until I want to shoot it. Not!!