Originally Posted by
robs5230
I'm very fortunate, in that I've been asked to test and review, a new product due to hit the market soon, from a new British manufacturer. I am one of a few folk testing these.
The product is a 10.5g slug, made in Britain, from British products and is hand made, rather than mass made, and looking to be very high quality.
This all started, when I was approached and asked about what I wanted from a projectile, from a hunting perspective. Here started what appeared to be a tall order of a wish list.
To explain where I'm coming from on this, I shoot for pest control purposes, and don't take part in any kind of target shooting / plinking and only use my local club facilities for zeroing purposes (and the odd social visit).
I shoot mainly rats, rabbits and greys.
Over the years, I've developed some pretty stringent requirements from my pellets, mainly based around what I've experienced in terms of kills, with the pellets and in pretty much all circumstances, I use .177 JSB express for pest control to fulfil these requirements.
For me, they offer the seemingly perfect combination of accuracy, energy transfer and have the advantage of a faster flight.
So based on that, my answer was a projectile that was of good quality, consistent in terms of accuracy and muzzle energy, that didn't over penetrate. Hence the tall order.
Now slugs aren't new.
The main advantages of slugs, seems to be a far better BC and an ability to buck wind better than a waisted pellet.
There seems to be plenty around, though of weights that may disadvantage a sub12 shooter. The lightest one I'm currently aware of on the market being 13g.
Weight though, is a problem for me as a pest control shooter. A 13g slug just due to the weight, is likely to offer too much over penetration, with the added disadvantage of any type of hollow nose, being possibly unable to expand, due to a reduced velocity needed to keep them safely within sub 12. Of course at FAC levels, the increased velocity will allow that expansion to happen, but I don't shoot FAC.
There's also a potential sealing issue with slugs. A waisted pellet has the advantage of a relatively thin skirt, that expands and seals when the rifle is fired.
A slug, has little ability to do this, having a relatively solid body, so barrel fit would be crucial.
I also had concerns about slugs making enough power at sub12. I have a friend who has used 13g slugs, and confirmed that they were blow par on power levels.
Changes in rifle setup, to get slugs to make acceptable power at sub 12, could leave a rifle, possibly over power with a more normal 10.34 pellet.
So I eventually get a call to say that some slugs are on the way for evaluation. The day after, a package arrived. Contents boxed and bubble wrapped.
So upon arrival, I examined the slugs. Stated weight 10.5g so around the weight of a .177 JSB heavy.
Beautifully made. Consistently good quality across the whole batch.
They have a recessed base and a nice deep recess in the nose. Looking promising.
My plan was to test in a few common rifles to evaluate power, consistency and accuracy.
Rifles used for testing would be a BSA Ultra SE, AAS400
The Ultra has a 12 barrel, is regged and running 95 bar reg pressure. This ultra is set so JSB heavy 10.34 run at 11.4 for safety.
The S400 has a 16" barrel, was unregged and running at 11.8 mid curve with 10.34. This was in factory spec with the AT in place and was subsequently subjected to the venturi AT being removed and power set at a more comfortable level.
Out with the chrono. I use a Skan, which is permanently rigged on my workbench.
I used a JSB Hades (I'd ran out of heavies) as a base line reading.
AA S400 carbine .177
JSB Heavy 10.34 - 11.8
10.5g slug - 11.2
BSA Ultra SE
JSB Hades 10.34 - 11.4
10.5g slug - 10.99
First box ticked. They make good power, and at safe levels. In fact they made far more power than I expected.
Both rifles showed low fps variation, which I suppose indicates consistent weight. I don't have scales to weigh pellets though.
Next test, I decided to see whether they would expand at the above power levels. Now I have no other medium to test this, other than water.
I filled a 15 litre open topped container to the brim with water and fired a JSB hades into the container from a distance of about 4 feet. The pellet wasn't retrieved and I guess deflected off the water so didn't stay in the container.
The 10.5 slug was shot next. An enormous ploom of water errupted and the slug was retrieved from the bottom of the container, to show what I can only describe as a staggering amount of expansion. No damage at all to the container.
The head had peeled back, almost perfectly round, to about half the length of the slug.
The measured expansion was 7.95mm.
Thats almost twice the diameter of the original 4.5mm slug.
A nice observation on looking at the shot slug, is that clear rifling marks are also very evident.
So on to zero and group testing
During lockdown, I only have access to a garden range of 25 yards.
After zeroing, from both the S400 and Ultra, these were making tiny single hole groups when shot at card on my target box. The extremlely small holes in the card, likely due to what is quite a pronounced bullet shaped nose of the slug.
There is a need to lead up with the slugs after normal pellets, but I accomplished this in around 20 or so shots.
Over a couple of days of testing, out of both rifles, results remained consistent.
These are seriously accurate at this distance.
I've recently tried these slugs on a newly acquired Parker Hale Phoenix mk2 carbine too. I'd already contempleted whether using slugs in a mag fed rifle would be problematical. Many mags retain pellets with O rings and they're positioned to retain the pellet by the waist.
But seating the slug slightly proved enough to allow the mag to function without issue.
Again in the Phoenix, accuracy was spot on at 25 yards. Muzzle energy was slightly lower than Hades, as per the other 2 rifles tested.
Testing in the field.
At this time of year, my main pest control duty is ratting, so a couple of weeks ago, I went out to the ratting perm armed with some 10.5g slugs as ammo.
Before commencing, I rechecked zero and checked drop out to 30 yards (my normal max distance on this perm). All good, vermin control then commenced.
A rat is a relatively small creature and I expected pass through on rats, which did happen. Pass through seemed similar to a 10.34, in terms of noise of theslug hitting objects behind the quarry.
What was very noticeable is the sound these slugs made on impact. They seemed to hit extremely hard.
Kills were very quick. Not overly messy but an instant lights out at all distances that shots were taken at.
As all shots were head shots, there was no opportunity to retrive a slug to check expansion.
I wouldn't consider using slugs on rats on an ongoing basis, due to the projectile weight not being needed, but on larger quarry, like rabbits or greys, I'm thinking that the expansion will come more into play.
I can say without doubt, that the sub12 slug is here.
Its going to be the first 10.5g slug, to hit the UK (or worldwide market) to my knowledge, and it works at sub12
As far as I'm aware, these will be hitting the UK market in a matter of a few weeks.
I don't think you've heard the last of these, by a long chalk.
With the imminent reopening of clubs, these will then get tested at greater distances
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Sugs for 12 ft/lbs
) they won't give enough benefit to be "a game changer"
Untitled by Mark Hill, on Flickr
Untitled by Mark Hill, on Flickr
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