Hello everyone,
Today I decided to post the results of my initial slug liner and slug testing. I know this isn't probably the best way to go about sharing the info, but it is certainly going to be the easiest and this way, you'll have every single little scrap of information, just like I do. Not sure how else to do this, other than posting pictures of my notes and the targets I shot so anybody that wants the info can simply look at the numbers for the slugs I tested. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get a hold of me and I'll clarify anything necessary. The info I have so far is all here, you just have to wade through it, use what you need and disregard the rest. Like I said, there will be plenty more before I'm done. I'm not affiliated with any of the slug manufacturers or FX in any way and I'm certainly not a professional shooter or anything like that. I'm just doing some slug testing and decided to share what I've learned so far.
This has been a nightmare... basically the slug liner didn't shoot anything except the JSB 33.95gr. MKII phenomenally well. Better than the original liner that came with my Crown when new. For reference, I shot a 10 shot group with the MKII's, it was 3/8" @ 50yds. I'm not trying to bash on FX at all here, I love FX guns, the people at FX, etc... I'm just trying to put all of the data out there for all of you and be 100% honest about it.
When I got the 600mm .25cal liner, I cleaned it very well and installed it in my FX Crown. I was so excited I decided to go out and shoot a few slugs to see what it could do... Oh my, as you can see on the first targets, it was bad, not good at all! I would get very strange groups... two slugs together, then one 3 inches to the right and then one 2 inches high left. All over, with no rhyme or reason. Because things didn't look good, I didn't even begin to test the slugs thoroughly until I had more answers. I ended up making some calls and finding out what I could. I talked to Mr. Nielsen at Nielsen slugs, he told me the liners shot the heavier 36-39gr. slugs best. I talked to the owner of Rat Sniper and was told the lighter 25-28gr. slugs shoot the best. I talked to FX and was told the 32-36gr slugs shoot the best. I was getting confused so I got a hold of Matt Dubber who did much of the testing with the .25 cal. liner. He told me that he didn't remember a velocity but that the 34 and 39gr. slugs shot the best in his testing. He also told me that he had a lot more shooting time with the .22 liners so he couldn't help me as much as he'd like to. With a little bit of information in hand, I decided to start from square one.
At the advice of Dale, the owner of Varmint Knocker Slugs, I ended up polishing my slug liner. I used 320 grit, 400 grit, 1000 grit and finally with 2000 grit. I did the whole barrel but focused a lot of my effort on the choke. After I polished the liner, I cleaned it very well, reinstalled it and then began my testing. The slugs being tested are by the following manufacturers...
AONCO 25.4, 32.8 and 45 grain
NIELSEN 34.7, 36, AND 39 grain
WICKED MONSTER 25.5, 32 grain.
RAT SNIPER 31.3 grain.
H&N Grizzly 31 grain
VARMINT KNOCKER 26 WMB, 26 DHB, 28 WMB, 28 DHB, 28 DHB-DHP, 30 WMB, 30 DHB, 30.4 DB, 30.4 FB, 31 FB, 31 DB, 31.5 FB, 31.5 DB, 32 FB, 32 DB, 32.5 DB, 32.5 FB, 32.80 FB-SHP, 32.80 DB-SHP, 34 DB-LHP, 34 FB-LHP, 35 DB-LHP, 35 FB-LHP grain.
I also did a little bit of testing initially with the MKI JSB's but then I also tried the MKII's and was astonished how well they shot! I shot a few groups with the 33.95gr. MKII, just to get baseline for velocity and accuracy numbers. I think initially the MKII was shooting at 885fps. As I messed with my gun's settings as the testing progressed, the MKII's were consistently flying down range with an average velocity of around 900fps.
So, here you go. These are all the pictures of my notes, pictures of the targets and everything I have. You will see in some of the first pictures of targets that the slug holes are all over the place, scattered like I shotgun blast. I know, it's bad! I want to assure you though, I am a quite capable shooter which is part of the reason I shot a 10 shot group at 50yds with the JSB MKII"s. I wanted you to see that the barrel liner is going to shoot the slugs and definitely already does shoot the pellets great. It's just going to come down to finding the exact velocity, slug weight and shape that the liner likes the best. In the beginning of my testing, I just shot a couple 4-5 shot groups to see if there was any hope at all for the particular slug I was testing. After talking to Dale Riggert at Varmint Knocker, he told me that after switching from one slug to the next, I needed to shoot 2-3 shots before shooting groups with the new slug. I had heard this before but thought it was baloney. Why would changing the grain weight or shape of a slug have anything to do with in shooting well or poorly after shooting a very similar slug? Dale told me to do it! He said it was absolutely a fact that the liner needed to settle in after changing grain weights of the slugs I was shooting. So in some of the first photographs of targets, some of the groups might be 3 shots, 5 shots or 7 shots. I wasn't dialed in at that point. As I got dialed in, I started shooting 2-3 shots to let the liner settle and then I shot 2- 5 shot groups. These are the groups that I took close up pictures of with the ruler for comparison! I hope this information helps some of you at least a little bit. It has taken me many, many hours already and I'm just finally to the point where I've selected 4-5 slugs to re-test at different velocities and distances. If you have any questions, as I'm sure you will, because my notes look like chicken scratch, please feel free to get a hold of me. I'll help all I can. My notes are super messy because I never intended to take pictures and post them this way. Please do with this information whatever you can to shorten your learning curve with the slugs and FX liner!!! Here it is, finally!
That's what I have so far. I know the verbiage I used to describe the accuracy of each slug isn't the most accurate... good, very good, great, awesome. However, It wasn't my intention to take pictures of my notes and share with everybody. I was going to just make a short synapses and share that with you. When it came down to it though, I've already spent a lot of time trying to figure this all out. I didn't want to have to rewrite it all for all of you. This way, you can look at what I did and take what you will from it. I didn't know how else to do it. I started out with way too many slugs which was more of a hindrance than anything else. I also changed my gun's settings from time to time to check a theory I would have every once in a while. I would do things differently if I was to do it over but I can't now. When it's all said and done, I will have some definitive answers for you, at least those of you with a 600mm FX slug liner. It just might be a while! I hope it helps some of you at least a little bit. There will be a lot more testing and a lot more information when I have can find some more time! Have a great day!
Stoti
Today I decided to post the results of my initial slug liner and slug testing. I know this isn't probably the best way to go about sharing the info, but it is certainly going to be the easiest and this way, you'll have every single little scrap of information, just like I do. Not sure how else to do this, other than posting pictures of my notes and the targets I shot so anybody that wants the info can simply look at the numbers for the slugs I tested. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get a hold of me and I'll clarify anything necessary. The info I have so far is all here, you just have to wade through it, use what you need and disregard the rest. Like I said, there will be plenty more before I'm done. I'm not affiliated with any of the slug manufacturers or FX in any way and I'm certainly not a professional shooter or anything like that. I'm just doing some slug testing and decided to share what I've learned so far.
This has been a nightmare... basically the slug liner didn't shoot anything except the JSB 33.95gr. MKII phenomenally well. Better than the original liner that came with my Crown when new. For reference, I shot a 10 shot group with the MKII's, it was 3/8" @ 50yds. I'm not trying to bash on FX at all here, I love FX guns, the people at FX, etc... I'm just trying to put all of the data out there for all of you and be 100% honest about it.
When I got the 600mm .25cal liner, I cleaned it very well and installed it in my FX Crown. I was so excited I decided to go out and shoot a few slugs to see what it could do... Oh my, as you can see on the first targets, it was bad, not good at all! I would get very strange groups... two slugs together, then one 3 inches to the right and then one 2 inches high left. All over, with no rhyme or reason. Because things didn't look good, I didn't even begin to test the slugs thoroughly until I had more answers. I ended up making some calls and finding out what I could. I talked to Mr. Nielsen at Nielsen slugs, he told me the liners shot the heavier 36-39gr. slugs best. I talked to the owner of Rat Sniper and was told the lighter 25-28gr. slugs shoot the best. I talked to FX and was told the 32-36gr slugs shoot the best. I was getting confused so I got a hold of Matt Dubber who did much of the testing with the .25 cal. liner. He told me that he didn't remember a velocity but that the 34 and 39gr. slugs shot the best in his testing. He also told me that he had a lot more shooting time with the .22 liners so he couldn't help me as much as he'd like to. With a little bit of information in hand, I decided to start from square one.
At the advice of Dale, the owner of Varmint Knocker Slugs, I ended up polishing my slug liner. I used 320 grit, 400 grit, 1000 grit and finally with 2000 grit. I did the whole barrel but focused a lot of my effort on the choke. After I polished the liner, I cleaned it very well, reinstalled it and then began my testing. The slugs being tested are by the following manufacturers...
AONCO 25.4, 32.8 and 45 grain
NIELSEN 34.7, 36, AND 39 grain
WICKED MONSTER 25.5, 32 grain.
RAT SNIPER 31.3 grain.
H&N Grizzly 31 grain
VARMINT KNOCKER 26 WMB, 26 DHB, 28 WMB, 28 DHB, 28 DHB-DHP, 30 WMB, 30 DHB, 30.4 DB, 30.4 FB, 31 FB, 31 DB, 31.5 FB, 31.5 DB, 32 FB, 32 DB, 32.5 DB, 32.5 FB, 32.80 FB-SHP, 32.80 DB-SHP, 34 DB-LHP, 34 FB-LHP, 35 DB-LHP, 35 FB-LHP grain.
I also did a little bit of testing initially with the MKI JSB's but then I also tried the MKII's and was astonished how well they shot! I shot a few groups with the 33.95gr. MKII, just to get baseline for velocity and accuracy numbers. I think initially the MKII was shooting at 885fps. As I messed with my gun's settings as the testing progressed, the MKII's were consistently flying down range with an average velocity of around 900fps.
So, here you go. These are all the pictures of my notes, pictures of the targets and everything I have. You will see in some of the first pictures of targets that the slug holes are all over the place, scattered like I shotgun blast. I know, it's bad! I want to assure you though, I am a quite capable shooter which is part of the reason I shot a 10 shot group at 50yds with the JSB MKII"s. I wanted you to see that the barrel liner is going to shoot the slugs and definitely already does shoot the pellets great. It's just going to come down to finding the exact velocity, slug weight and shape that the liner likes the best. In the beginning of my testing, I just shot a couple 4-5 shot groups to see if there was any hope at all for the particular slug I was testing. After talking to Dale Riggert at Varmint Knocker, he told me that after switching from one slug to the next, I needed to shoot 2-3 shots before shooting groups with the new slug. I had heard this before but thought it was baloney. Why would changing the grain weight or shape of a slug have anything to do with in shooting well or poorly after shooting a very similar slug? Dale told me to do it! He said it was absolutely a fact that the liner needed to settle in after changing grain weights of the slugs I was shooting. So in some of the first photographs of targets, some of the groups might be 3 shots, 5 shots or 7 shots. I wasn't dialed in at that point. As I got dialed in, I started shooting 2-3 shots to let the liner settle and then I shot 2- 5 shot groups. These are the groups that I took close up pictures of with the ruler for comparison! I hope this information helps some of you at least a little bit. It has taken me many, many hours already and I'm just finally to the point where I've selected 4-5 slugs to re-test at different velocities and distances. If you have any questions, as I'm sure you will, because my notes look like chicken scratch, please feel free to get a hold of me. I'll help all I can. My notes are super messy because I never intended to take pictures and post them this way. Please do with this information whatever you can to shorten your learning curve with the slugs and FX liner!!! Here it is, finally!
That's what I have so far. I know the verbiage I used to describe the accuracy of each slug isn't the most accurate... good, very good, great, awesome. However, It wasn't my intention to take pictures of my notes and share with everybody. I was going to just make a short synapses and share that with you. When it came down to it though, I've already spent a lot of time trying to figure this all out. I didn't want to have to rewrite it all for all of you. This way, you can look at what I did and take what you will from it. I didn't know how else to do it. I started out with way too many slugs which was more of a hindrance than anything else. I also changed my gun's settings from time to time to check a theory I would have every once in a while. I would do things differently if I was to do it over but I can't now. When it's all said and done, I will have some definitive answers for you, at least those of you with a 600mm FX slug liner. It just might be a while! I hope it helps some of you at least a little bit. There will be a lot more testing and a lot more information when I have can find some more time! Have a great day!
Stoti
