Slugging The Bore

[KCSO]

I am working with a new to me 88 Commission rifle and went to slug the bore and a fellow in the shop was dumfounded. He had never seen a bore slugged in this manner...

I have sets of brass rod stock and I took the 30 caliber rods a 24" section and a 6" section. I put the long rod in the bore and held it abot 4" from the muzzle, dropped in a 30caliber round ball and then used the 6" rod to pound the 30 caliber ball fully into the grooves and then pushed it out the muzzle. I then did the same at the breech and I had a slug from both ends to compare. With just a little practice you can get realy nice slugs this way.

[Lance Boyle]

sounds logical to me.

for the throat, I take an empty case, preferably a Berdan primed one that I won't miss, and fill it with hot lead to half way up the neck. I take a large and long cast bullet insert on top of lead filled cartridge, chamber combo. Insert rod down bore and tap on rod repeatedly until it stops moving. This gives me the throat area just in front of the case.

My smith cerosafes his stuff but he's used to the stuff and I just don't like the idea that you have to time the measurement as it changes as it cools disturbing the true number. Pounded down cold lead ain't moving much.

[blackthorn]

Just a thought/alternative:---An alternative to using Cerrosafe or the pounded slug method is to make a sulphur or a sulphur/graphite cast. To do this, make up a mixture containing a ratio of approximately two-thirds sulphur to one-third powdered graphite. Sulphur requires a much higher melting temperature than Cerrosafe but it has the advantage of neither growing nor shrinking once the cast has set. As noted, a chamber cast can be made using just sulphur but these casts tend to be somewhat hard to remove and they tend to be brittle. The addition of graphite in the casting makes it less brittle and easier to remove once it is hard.

A four pound. sack of sulphur can be had cheaply at the garden centre. Clean and degrease the chamber, put a paper plug about one half inch into the rifling, drop a piece of cotton string into the chamber, do not use synthetics, have a wood dowel longer than the barrel and of smaller but as close as possible to the inside diameter on hand. Alternately, you can make a barrel plug out of cork or other stiff material, attach the required cotton string through the plug and push it into the chamber/barrel. Place some sulphur in a small pan with a pour spout, using, preferably an electric hot plate, slowly heat the sulphur until it melts, do not let it catch fire, the smoke is () poisonous. Stir in the powdered graphite and pour in enough of the liquid mix to just fill the chamber, wait until the cast is completely hard, this will depend on how large the chamber is, which governs the mass that has to cool down. Carefully push on the cast with the dowel while firmly pulling on the string; it should come out easily once it starts to move.

As noted, unlike Cerrosafe, sulphur cast dimensions of the chamber do not change at all over time, so how soon after casting you measure the cast is not important. Sulphur is one of the few elements that do not change dimensions when going from a liquid to a solid state. Casts made with sulphur do not change shape or dimensions even after many years. Molten sulphur can also be used to set machinery anchor bolts in concrete.

The inclusion of graphite allows the casting to release very easily after it cools. These castings can be remelted for re-use or they can be marked for identification and kept for future reference.