948 grain homemade slugs

[theairgunman]

Since I dont have a roundball mold yet, I decided to cast some slugs using an oak board as the mold. The board itself is 3/4" thick, and I drilled a hole in it with the same circumference. This creates a slug that weighs in at 948 grains. I just had to try it out in the garage, so I beefed up my backstop by placing 3/4" particle board in front and behind the trap box. I placed a plastic cooler behind that to kinda prop everything up. The airgun was pressurized to 150 psi, according to GGDT, the slug should have 92.7 fpe. I felt pretty good about my backstop's ability to do the job, so I took the shot. The slug tore through the first board and went all the way to the back of the trap box and stopped. The whole backstop moved several inches back. The momentum of such a huge projectile is simply amazing. I can't imagine what it would do at 400 psi! The slug itself went into the board sideways as there was no stabilization, but I can fix that by casting the base hollow, called a foster slug.  This will drop its weight down to 667 grains. Here's a picture of the slug after I dug it out:

[Pellethuntr]

 That thing is wicked I can't wait to see how it does at higher pressures.

[theairgunman]

I've got the next 2 days off!  Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and test it at 375 to 400 psi during that time. I've got 6 slugs cast, I'll need to make a few more and make a portable trap so I can recover the lead. My last paycheck was kinda lean, but I'm scheduled for 6.5 hours of overtime this week and I've already gone 2 hours past what I was supposed to today. That should finance my purchase of a roundball mold for my airgun. (It'll finance that and another airgun lol) I think the roundball will have better penetration and definitely a better trajectory than those slugs.

[Pellethuntr]

 The RB will definetlly perform better on paper but I don't know about knock down power do you know how much they are going to weigh???

[theairgunman]

The roundball will weigh 537 grains. The drop in weight will gain 87 fps but lose 24 fpe in energy. Still, I'll have around 215 fpe at the muzzle and over 200 fpe out past 25 yards, so I feel pretty confident about the knockdown power. The extra speed will smooth out the trajectory and make it easier to land the knockout punch.  The new baby kept me up last night, so I never did get out to do some chronographing and high power tests.  Oh well, it'll happen sooner or later.

[Pellethuntr]

 Awesome can't wait to see you're results.

[theairgunman]

Man, I was reading this post and I saw I was scheduled for 6.5 hours of overtime. I'm ending up with at least 15 hours as of tomorrow. Good for financing projects, bad for working on them.  I'm just thankful for having a job where my only real concern is getting too many hours.  Anyway, I found a good source for lead: EBAY! I couldnt believe the deals, including low to free shipping. 50 lbs of lead for $50 bucks shipped! This latest airgun is a lead hog, so I'll be placing a lead order soon. I get 3 days off this week (fingers crossed), so hopefully I can get out and do some real shooting and make some videos.

[Pellethuntr]

 E-bay huhhh that's cool. I would have never thought of that!!! Also I don't know if you know this but if you look around at auto repair places or like car junk yards you can get lead wheel weights pretty easy I guess. I've heard of guys going to the right places and getting  5 gallon bucket loads for a couple bucks.

[boar]

Id sure like to see more on this

Boar

[theairgunman]

So far, I've gotten them to shoot up to 265.3 fps on a 300 psi charge. I've got to tune the valve a little and take it up to 400 psi to see what I can end up making it shoot. I'm hoping to get around 350 with this ammo. I'll probably end up switching to patched .72 roundballs for ammo to flatten out the trajectory a bit.
*EDIT*
Today I cut 1/8" off the piston so the valve would open more. While I havent gotten to chronograph it to see how much a difference it made, it does sound louder and the blast of air feels stronger. This is without any lubrication whatsoever. Grease it up and we'll see how powerful it can get. I'm hoping the sealing face will last better with a different lube, otherwise, I'll have to figure out another way to make one.