Can I slug my barrel with a boolit instead of a round ball?

[jrebs]

Hey guys, sorry if this is a stupid question, but I have tried searching and because the keywords are so common I'm having a hard time confirming whether or not this is a good/bad idea to try.

I have been getting myself set up with gear for casting for the past couple of months and finally this weekend a friend helped me do my first casting session. I'm casting for a 308 Winchester rifle. I will be lubesizing the bullets and gaschecking with a RCBS LAM2.

When I ordered the equipment, I went ahead and ordered a .309" sizer, as I assumed that was the size I'd need for my gun (and it may be correct), but I have since found that it would be wise to slug my barrel to know what the actual size is.

I've read various articles and watched videos on doing this, and it seems that passing a round ball through the bore is the recommended process. Is there a reason why I couldn't simply use one of the unsized cast bullets that I made this weekend? They are 160gr round nose rifle bullets that dropped from the mould at about .311".

I don't have access to any appropriate slugging balls at the moment and would just like to know if there's a reason why I can't just use one of these boolits to do the slugging instead of waiting until after xmas to find something.

Thanks in advance.

[MBTcustom]

You can slug your barrel with any soft lead cylinder of appropriate size.

[HangFireW8]

You can slug it with a boolit,
you can slug it with a ball,
you can slug it on the toilet,
you can slug it in the hall.

The usual caveat is that you're supposed to use soft lead and not an alloy, as the alloy can spring-back a bit. This may be true if just hammering it into the muzzle and popping it out, but I kind of wonder if it really has any spring left in it after being pounded through twenty some inches of barrel.

Nonetheless, I've cast some boolits in the largest mold I have for each caliber, all in the softest lead I have on hand.

Merry Christmas!
HF
PS Sorry, but there's not much that rhymes with "boolit".

[jrebs]

Thanks, guys. These were cast from what I think is 100% wheel weights (he added a small amount of tin as well), so not pure lead but they weren't hardened with any other additives either. I'll have to get myself some doweling of the appropriate diameter and then give it a try over the christmas break.

Thanks for the help.

[oneokie]

I suggest you forget about using a wooden dowel. Find a brass rod, or a steel rod and wrap it with electrical tape to prevent bore damage to drive the slug through the barrel.

[jrebs]

Sounds like a job for the cleaning rod.

[wmitty]

It's pretty hard on a cleaning rod in my experience. Best thing I have found is a 1/4" piece of brass brazing rod. Saves from bending the cleaning rod and can also be used to remove a stuck case from the chamber ( or an oversize boolet from the throat). It is also useful in pounding soft lead into the throat area to allow measuring throat length and diameter. I paid six bucks for mine about three months ago.

[69daytona]

I have been using the oval fishing weights, the hole in the middle lets them collaps just enough so its not a huge pain to get them down the barrel.

[bayjoe]

I have been told wheel weights will spring and will not be a true measure of your bore. Melt down some fish sinkers in your mold and then push thru the barrel.

[MBTcustom]

Go to the hardware store and buy a 3' length of aluminum rod. Use a hacksaw to cut it into 6" lengths.
Prep your barrel by cleaning it with an ammonia based cleaner like sweats 7.62, wipe it clean with patches saoked in solvent like Hoppes #9, and follow with a patch that is heavily oiled with 3in1 or similar.
Place an old towel on the floor and set the but of the gun on it.
Start your pure lead boolit (please note the correct spelling:mrgreen:) and use a rubber hammer to smack it flush with the bore.
Take the first of the 6" aluminum rods (one of the two with a flat end) and use it to drive the boolit into the bore until the rod is flush with the crown.
Follow with the remaining sections until the slug falls onto the soft towel.
Take the slug to a magnifying glass, and observe carefully to see if you have achieved good contact all the way around the perimeter of the slug. If not, then do it again (I usually have to make three before I find one that really satisfies me).
Measure with a quality micrometer. Calipers will not do for this operation, you need a micrometer with a tenths scale on the side of the barrel. Be sure to use the friction or ratchet thimble to take these measurements, because it takes a pretty skilled craftsman to be able to read ten-thousandths of an inch without the aid of a ratchet or friction thimble.
Once you have made your slug, and measured it, wrap it with tape, and mark it so that you know what rifle it came from.

[MtGun44]

You will immediately destroy a cleaning rod. Wooden dowels can and HAVE broken on a
long angle and wedged to the point of nearly destroying the barrel to get it out.

Steel rod, 1/4" with a .25 ACP case wedged on the end and a wrap of electrical tape every
6-10 inches works great. Case acts as a brass shoe, is on the end that goes into the
barrel first. Will not harm your barrel.

Bill

[Shiloh]

I have with good results.

Shiloh

[jaysouth]

Load a soft cast bullet with 2 gr. Bullesye and shoot it into a box of rags. A death in the family left me with a couple of boxes of Depends. A box full of depends makes a good bullet catcher for 'cat sneeze' loads.

Recover the bullet and measure with a micrometer.

[uscra112]

Load a soft cast bullet with 2 gr. Bullesye and shoot it into a box of rags. A death in the family left me with a couple of boxes of Depends. A box full of depends makes a good bullet catcher for 'cat sneeze' loads.

Recover the bullet and measure with a micrometer.

I've had excellent luck doing that myself for my single-shots! If I get the charge just right, the boolit stops a couple inches from the muzzle, and I can just gently tap it out with a rod made of steel piano wire. Boolit has to be a bit larger than you think the groove diameter is.

Never any risk of damaging a crown with this trick. But of course you have to be living where firing the gun isn't going to upset the neighbours.

[dromia]

The key os to use as near to pure lead as you can get.

Harder alloys, as well as having some spring in them, will also put extra strain on your driving rods to get it to shift through the barrel.

Do not use wood dowels.

[nwellons]

The sticky in this section:Removing-Stuck-Wooden-Dowel-and-Soft-Lead-Sinker-from-a-barrel is entertaining reading.

[HangFireW8]

The sticky in this section:Removing-Stuck-Wooden-Dowel-and-Soft-Lead-Sinker-from-a-barrel is entertaining reading.

Here's the link: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?102629-Removing-Stuck-Wooden-Dowel-and-Soft-Lead-Sinker-from-a-barrel

HF

[Joe504]

Do not use wooden dowel. I had to get the help of a pro to get mine cleared. Brass or aluminum only!!!

[SHMACKITY2K]

Found a great video on slugging the barrel.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNoo4m6jso

[geargnasher]

Use dead-soft lead (I like to cast boolits with it and use those, sometimes fattening them up a bit with hammer and anvil before driving through the barrel). The reason is that not only does the alloy spring back if you use harder metal, but the barrel swells as the boolit is forced through, more than you might imagine. It's like a snake swallowing an egg. If you don't think so, drive a WW boolit into the muzzle a couple of inches and find its exact location by mic'ing the outside of the barrel.

Gear