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First let me thank you all for your time and say, in this first post, that I have no experience with breech seating rifles and am coming here from the Cast Boolits forum. Please forgive anything that I haven't picked up from researching this forum and know that I appreciate your advice on this somewhat strange question. To get to the point I own an H&R Ultra Slug Hunter break-action single shot 12 gauge rifled slug gun (built on a 10 gauge frame it's essentially a .73 caliber break action rifle). It's no Scheutzen, but it does operate on similar principles which is why I'm here. I am no fan of plastic sabots and, as such, like to cast my own full-bore .731 slugs. Unfortunately, the Ultra Slug Hunter has a very long forcing cone which destroys full bore slug accuracy when the slug is roll crimped in a 3" shell. Hence, my interest in breech seating. I plan on having an aluminum mould cut with a tapering diameter and breech seating pure lead slugs with a dowel fitted into an empty shell. I then thought that I might roll crimp a shotgun shell filled with powder to seat behind the slug (should I roll crimp to the longest possible length or trim it to the shortest?). I am open to either black powder or smokeless, although I imagine that bp would require a shell full of powder (way too much) and wouldn't respond well to plastic cases. That said, I'm also open to using 12 gauge brass. So, aside from an overall assessment of this idea, how would I safely load the shell with wads, cards, seals, etc.? I imagine that having all that extra space in the chamber could potentially lower pressures for smokeless loads (the Ultra Slug Hunter is much, much stronger than a standard shotgun - I've shot plenty of 800 grain slugs at 1300 to 1400 fps). Of course, I believe that having too much space between the shell and the seated projectile can destroy accuracy (most shooters breech seat brass 1/8 to 1/16 behind the bullet, correct?) and that the use of buffer, gas seals, and wads can lower the pressure on the barrel. Basically, I'm looking to do whatever I can to maximize accuracy and minimize pressure. Incidentally, I'm familiar with a 1043 grain slug load that uses slow burning powder to reach 1000 fps at barely 10k psi. Subsonic velocity is fine and the load doesn't need to shoot minute of angle. Yes, I know 1043 grains sounds a bit silly but slug ballistic coefficients are atrocious at anything below 800 grains and I'd like to be able to shoot to 200 yards. Thanks again!
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