I've been experimenting shooting NSA slugs with my Veteran for about a month now. Dairyboy threw in a few NSA 20.2 and 17.2 grain slugs when I bought the gun from him and I shot them up pretty quick. The 20.2 grain slugs shot phenominal at 50 yards. Five shots covered with a dime is good enough for me!
The 17.5 grain slugs weren't so good. I quickly ordered a bunch more of the 20.2 grain slugs from Nielson and the new batch of slugs shot HORRIBLE! We're talking 3 inches at 50 yards and velocities would jump 50 fps between rounds. This got me scratching my head and I thought maybe the barrel was leaded up so I gave it a good cleaning. No change in accuracy. I also ordered some 17.5 grain slugs for additional testing and this batch shot much better. I was getting 3/4 inch 5 shot groups at 50 yards with the new batch so I settled on them and went gopher hunting.
Let me tell you, the Nielson slugs pack a wallop! The gophers were dieing left and right and it was like I couldn't miss. I quickly went through the one box of slugs and ordered two more boxes from AOA, but this time I selected 17.5 grain slugs in .2165 and .2175 diameter. The .2175 would not shoot well through my barrel with very erratic groups BUT the .2165's produced 50 yard, 10 shot groups of around 3/4 inch. I may have solved the mystery and believe the slugs Dairyboy sent me were .2165 in diameter.
I was out bright and early Saturday morning shooting gophers with the 17.5 grain .2165 diameter slugs and wreaked havoc on the local population. Ended up with 69 gophers and my longest confirmed kill was a 127 yards head shot! Most gophers were between 50 and 80 yards and several in the 90 to 110 yard range.
So, the take home message for me is 18 grain JSB's shoot tighter groups in my gun but the 17.5 grain Nielson's aren't far off AND they buck the wind much better AND they THUMP the gophers! I'm sold on the slugs and for the price, will be shooting Nielson slugs till these little buggers hibernate for the winter.
The 17.5 grain slugs weren't so good. I quickly ordered a bunch more of the 20.2 grain slugs from Nielson and the new batch of slugs shot HORRIBLE! We're talking 3 inches at 50 yards and velocities would jump 50 fps between rounds. This got me scratching my head and I thought maybe the barrel was leaded up so I gave it a good cleaning. No change in accuracy. I also ordered some 17.5 grain slugs for additional testing and this batch shot much better. I was getting 3/4 inch 5 shot groups at 50 yards with the new batch so I settled on them and went gopher hunting.
Let me tell you, the Nielson slugs pack a wallop! The gophers were dieing left and right and it was like I couldn't miss. I quickly went through the one box of slugs and ordered two more boxes from AOA, but this time I selected 17.5 grain slugs in .2165 and .2175 diameter. The .2175 would not shoot well through my barrel with very erratic groups BUT the .2165's produced 50 yard, 10 shot groups of around 3/4 inch. I may have solved the mystery and believe the slugs Dairyboy sent me were .2165 in diameter.
I was out bright and early Saturday morning shooting gophers with the 17.5 grain .2165 diameter slugs and wreaked havoc on the local population. Ended up with 69 gophers and my longest confirmed kill was a 127 yards head shot! Most gophers were between 50 and 80 yards and several in the 90 to 110 yard range.
So, the take home message for me is 18 grain JSB's shoot tighter groups in my gun but the 17.5 grain Nielson's aren't far off AND they buck the wind much better AND they THUMP the gophers! I'm sold on the slugs and for the price, will be shooting Nielson slugs till these little buggers hibernate for the winter.
