A big slug does transfer a lot off energy to a steel plate

Looks like you are almost ready to go hunting. At least you had a good plan B incase the Lee slugs did not work out.

Good luck getting a blue bull with the Marlin

I thought I would add the resolve to my handloading effort with slugs and offer a suggestion. The suggestion first; don't bother with the old school designs such as the Lee and Lyman. These designs are inherently unstable. I've spent a lot of time with both and didn't give up this year, I didn't want to start again someplace down the road.

By accident, I came across Sabot Technologies' Slugs-R-Us website. This outfit has it going on! They offer saboted lead slugs for the reloader along with a slug mold and sabots for those that want to cast their own projectiles. Here are a couple pictures from my bench.





STI offers a good selection of tested load data which makes it very easy to step up to the reloading bench. Downrange, these perform as well as premium ammo like the Lightfields.

My target backing board from my first bit of shooting tells the best story. I was pulling and replacing individual targets and when I pulled it down, thought that the groups were pretty neat.



The Marlin is sighted in with a 3" Point Blank Range and I finished that work yesterday despite a wind gusting up to 22 mph. When I finished, I was out of ammo. Before getting up from the bench, a spike ran out down range at about 125-yards. I wished for one more round as I would have gone ahead and shot that buck.

As a tally, I've spent $270 on column pressure wads trying to find something that works with either Lee mold, the Lyman, and an Accurate full-bore slug mold; that's another $220 on molds. If you won't be happy just chunking pumpkins down range and want measurable performance downrange; don't mess with the others and start with Slugs-R-Us.

Impressive and thanks for the update. That latest load looks like it should be $ on your hunts

I enjoyed reading this. I use smooth bore 12 shotguns with subsonic slugs and a Silencerco Salvo12. It's just to tinker with. I cast my own 525 gr lyman slugs.