Slugging

[Hansj]

After a bunch of reading I now know that I need to slug my barrels. I am not really looking forward to this task as I am not one to go hammering on my precious firearms, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

A couple of questions.

1) Where do you get or how do you go about making the round lead balls used to slug? I have several guns in .357 and .44 I want to get started with, as well as some .223 and .30 cal that I will be casting for in the future. Is there maybe a multiple cavity ball mould that I can cast several different sizes in for this purpose? (if not, anybody want to make one?)

2) I assume that I measure the slug across the lands (high parts) to get the maximum barrel diameter, is this correct?

Yhanks for your help guys, I am sure I will come up with more questions on the subject.

[johnvid]

I use a 50 caliber mould that I use to cast round balls for my muzzle loader. I use one of the round balls and hammer them to a cylinder shape that is just larger than your bore diameter. I then use a brass pin and hammer and force the lead plug through the barrel from the muzzle to the chamber end. Be carefull not to damage your barrel.
Measure the lead plug at its greatest diameter any you are done.
Check you tube. There are some video clips on how to do this.

[243winxb]

I would start by sizing to the standard diameter. Only slug if accuracy is bad or you have leading. But then i am lazy. Standard diameter are .358" .430" .226" .310"

[mooman76]

In a pinch you could drill a shallow hole in a board and cast a slug. It will be a rough cast but that doesn't matter.

[FAsmus]

Hansj;

Naturally I don't know where you've been reading about slugging barrels or exactly what method was recommended there but here's the way I do it;

Simply cast up a couple of the regular bullets for the firearm intended to measure, making sure that they're enough oversize to squeeze all the way to the bottom of the rifling grooves, lube them with your fingers and load them up as normal into the gun.

Sure, use a very reduced load for the case in question ~ for example just yesterday I slugged the barrel of a new-to-me 30'06. I used 3 grains 700X to blow the bullet through the barrel into a suitable heap of rags out in my garage. All it makes is a "snap" .. less than a cap pistol. Dig through the rags, find the spent bullet and measure it - you're done.

You don't need any special molds as in your question! No special molds or casting *procedures, no hammers or punches anywhere near your delicate rifling. Just go for it as a normal shooting operation .. with lots less power.

Good evening,
Forrest

[MyLeadHabit]

Thanks Forrest that does sound like the best mothod I've heard of. I'll try it tomorrow.

[MyLeadHabit]

Maybe I could load lots of these then I could shoot inside all winter.lol

[chris in va]

Or just grease up the barrel and tap a cast boolit through with something non-steel. Takes all of 10 seconds.

[Down South]

If you have a mold, what I do is cast a normal boolit out of pure lead. I bump the size up just a tad by squishing it in a vice. Lube the boolit and barrel and drive it through.

[Taylor]

I picked up a container of barrel sinkers at Walmart,it has several different sizes for just a couple of bucks.Also they have a hole in the middle so they can squish together.

[Down South]

I picked up a container of barrel sinkers at Walmart,it has several different sizes for just a couple of bucks.Also they have a hole in the middle so they can squish together.

Gotta be careful of some of those store bought sinkers. Some of them are made with used WW. I tested the hardness on one just last week. It measured about 13BHN.

[243winxb]

Go here http://www.castpics.net/ Then click "Articles by Members" Then click "Slugging the Bore" This website is part of castboolits.