Finally found some time and good weather with very calm wind/condition to test out the Mako Sub12 10.5 grain slugs @blackpaw sent me to test. I love new things and slugs so pretty excited when @Blackpaw reached out to see if I wanted to try these Mako slugs he brought from UK and jumped at the opportunity.
Guns are Crown @10.4FPE, AA S200 and 1720T both @ 8.5 FPE. Majority of the testing was done with my crown, next HS was 14.3 FEP so I figured I should keep it under 12 FPE during my tests. Also when shooting I kept the same POA without adjust for wind at all, the wind was 1-3mph. All groups are 5 shots and at 20 yards I got pretty descent 5 shot group, promising it seemed so I changed to 33 yard target but the groups opened up quite a bit at 33 yards. For the most part even with gentle breeze of 3 mph the slugs drifted significantly. This isn't a huge surprise as the FX barrel has slow twist rate of 1:18 so when shooting at such low speed there isn't enough rotational stability, without adequate rotational stability or stability factor the BC or the ability to cut through wind suffers. Sadly both the S200 and 1720T did even worse with much slower speed so I didn't bother to take a picture of the groups from them.
pretty respectable 5 shot group from the Makos @20 yards:
the group opened up pretty good at 33 yards, top 3 groups are NSA 12.5 and bottom are mako 10.5:
The Mako slugs are slightly shorter than NSA 12.5 grain slugs with center mass appears to be more towards the rear compared to NSA which appears more center. I shot NSA at the same settings for comparison and got just as bad results except 1 lucky group. Again it fully lines up with my expectation of degraded BC/more wind drift for a slug due to lack of rotational stability from pellet barrel/slow twist rate. I'm sure they will shoot better at higher speed but I wanted to see if they will work under 12FPE but they didn't. Also if there is no wind then they are stable enough to be fairly accurate it seemed since every group has 3 or 4 stacked on top of each other from both NSA and Mako at 33 yards. I suspect at sub12 speed the barrel need at the very minimum 1:12 twist rate.
Since it's my yard and the target boxes are stationary I know that 10.5g hades with BC of 0.026 has slightly less wind drift in the same condition and crosman 7.4g & 7.9 pellets with BC of 0.012 has a little more wind drift shooting at 7FPE or 600-650 FPS. MAYBE I'm expecting a little too much given how slow they are flying? NSA was flying at 640FPS and Mako was flying at 680FPS, let me know what you think!
Either way it was fun trying something new, thanks @Blackpaw!
EDIT: After thinking about it maybe I was a bit too critical or set the expectation a bit too high given how slow they are flying, I was expecting 1/4 inch group even with 3mph wind for some reason. The slugs clearly are well made and can be consistently accurate with no wind, just wish my barrel's twist rate is much faster so I can see the true potential of these slugs.
Guns are Crown @10.4FPE, AA S200 and 1720T both @ 8.5 FPE. Majority of the testing was done with my crown, next HS was 14.3 FEP so I figured I should keep it under 12 FPE during my tests. Also when shooting I kept the same POA without adjust for wind at all, the wind was 1-3mph. All groups are 5 shots and at 20 yards I got pretty descent 5 shot group, promising it seemed so I changed to 33 yard target but the groups opened up quite a bit at 33 yards. For the most part even with gentle breeze of 3 mph the slugs drifted significantly. This isn't a huge surprise as the FX barrel has slow twist rate of 1:18 so when shooting at such low speed there isn't enough rotational stability, without adequate rotational stability or stability factor the BC or the ability to cut through wind suffers. Sadly both the S200 and 1720T did even worse with much slower speed so I didn't bother to take a picture of the groups from them.
pretty respectable 5 shot group from the Makos @20 yards:
the group opened up pretty good at 33 yards, top 3 groups are NSA 12.5 and bottom are mako 10.5:
The Mako slugs are slightly shorter than NSA 12.5 grain slugs with center mass appears to be more towards the rear compared to NSA which appears more center. I shot NSA at the same settings for comparison and got just as bad results except 1 lucky group. Again it fully lines up with my expectation of degraded BC/more wind drift for a slug due to lack of rotational stability from pellet barrel/slow twist rate. I'm sure they will shoot better at higher speed but I wanted to see if they will work under 12FPE but they didn't. Also if there is no wind then they are stable enough to be fairly accurate it seemed since every group has 3 or 4 stacked on top of each other from both NSA and Mako at 33 yards. I suspect at sub12 speed the barrel need at the very minimum 1:12 twist rate.
Since it's my yard and the target boxes are stationary I know that 10.5g hades with BC of 0.026 has slightly less wind drift in the same condition and crosman 7.4g & 7.9 pellets with BC of 0.012 has a little more wind drift shooting at 7FPE or 600-650 FPS. MAYBE I'm expecting a little too much given how slow they are flying? NSA was flying at 640FPS and Mako was flying at 680FPS, let me know what you think!
Either way it was fun trying something new, thanks @Blackpaw!
EDIT: After thinking about it maybe I was a bit too critical or set the expectation a bit too high given how slow they are flying, I was expecting 1/4 inch group even with 3mph wind for some reason. The slugs clearly are well made and can be consistently accurate with no wind, just wish my barrel's twist rate is much faster so I can see the true potential of these slugs.
? Excellent write up and thanks for sharing. I’m interested in these for my compact uragan at 15 fpe haven’t tried the 12.5 nsa my gun seems to be pellet picky only likes jsb 10.3s 
