Slugging barrels/ New questions believe me

[Jim..47]

Ok I have tried slugging a couple barrels but it didn't work.

I used new pure soft lead and melted it in a large spoon. Poured directly into my mold, cooled and tried driving it through the barrel receiver end first. I got it started using an aluminum rod that filled the bore within a few thou. It got stuck before I could even get it all in the barrel that alone through the barrel.

Then it took me over and hour to drive it out. I did size it but I know thats not an accurate method.
Why did it get stuck so bad?

Plus why was it all but impossible to drive out the way it went in?

Wanting to confirm the following. Once I am able to get a slug through the barrel. The way I understand that was told another man here just last week, was that you measure the the marks the riflings make and compare to your cast bullelts once they have been sized. Correct?

I'm sorry but I thought I was following instructions as posted in this forum. I also watched a couple You tube videos but they didn't seem to differ from your instructions or what I did.

Nest question, and this one may seem dumb. Since we know J-bullets go through it Ok and we are able to measure them, what more are we too gain by slugging?

End of questions. :lol::castmine:

Also, in case you forgot about me. I have been reloading and casting successfully for many years. Maybe 35 or more.

Thanks guys for all your help.

[Jim..47]

Oh, I forgot to add. I have already shot a few of my cast bullets though this gun sucessfully. The only problem I have so far is feeding, which my factory crimp die will fix once I get it. They didn't all jam, but maybe 50/50.

[gandydancer]

Oh, I forgot to add. I have already shot a few of my cast bullets though this gun sucessfully. The only problem I have so far is feeding, which my factory crimp die will fix once I get it. They didn't all jam, but maybe 50/50.


http://www.meisterbullets.com/slugyourbarrelsdetails.asp

[Jim..47]

Thanks, I read it and am printing it out.

Still looking for answers to these:
Why did it get stuck so bad?

Plus why was it all but impossible to drive out the way it went in?

[DrCaveman]

I havent slugged barrels that many times, but i will say that each time went better for me than pushing out stuck jacketed/plated bullets.

I usually see wooden dowels or brass rods recommended. Some swear against the wood because of splinters, hasnt been a problem for my attempts.

One important thing i didnt hear you mention is lubricating the slug. I just wipe some 3-1 household oil on there, and it slips down the bore pretty easy even a round ball sized .04" over my bore.

You slug your barrels because generally a gun will like a larger lead boolit than jacketed. How much larger depends on each gun, so you slug. Jacketed are immune from lead fouling, whereas cast boolits have exposed lead so you usually want to fill the grooves and then some.

Anyone, feel free to correct if i am misspeaking.

Hope this helps

[DrCaveman]

Oh and jim, if you want the most sage advice, please let everyone know the gun, caliber, and boolit which you are dealing with. Lots of people with lots of experience here and if you have an odd duck chances are decent someone here has worked with one.

[44 mag nut]

Jim, I start at the muzzle end 1st. With a little lube it should go easy. Wood or brass rod it the best way to drive them in, as aluminum can damage the barrel or chamber. Did you cast the lead into a boolit or just a chunk of lead?

[ffries61]

Just curious how aluminium could damage the barrel or chamber, and brass would be ok ?? aluminium is much softer than brass.

Fred

[Pilgrim]

The method I use to obtain a barrel slug is the following...cast an oversize boolit of the appropriate caliber, hand lube it, gently seat the boolit in a primed case charged with a small amount of a fast powder, and fire it into a thick pile of towels. I just "slugged" a model 94 .30-30 using an RCBS 30-180 FN, hand lubed, seated over a grain ( 1 grain!) of Bullseye. I fired it into a stack of folded towels about 9" thick. It stuck in the top towel. How did I know to use 1 gr ? I knew because I first tried 3 gr. and the slug blew thru the whole stack and into the ground. Back to the reloading room and repeat with 1 gr. Success!!

[Texantothecore]

I use an aluminum rod for slugging but I use an empty case of a smaller caliber that is scotch taped to the end of the rod as the contact point. Works fine and wont hurt the bore at all.

And yes, you must oil the slug.

[dakotashooter2]

LUBE...LUBE...LUBE.... Easier to get lube out of a barrel than a stuck slug....................

Wood dowels (even hardwood) can and will flair on the end or splinter........getting them stuck

[freebullet]

Lube lube lube the slug. Some Aluminum can be harder than brass, but it'd be some expensive uncommon stuff. I only slug when standard for caliber loading don't work properly. Fcd shouldn't be necc. If its an autoloader I'd say yer rounds are to long. That would create feed issues. Is it an autoloader?

[Edubya]

A boolit has more surface tension than a round ball.
If you're still having problems with the slugging you might want to try http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/chamber_casting_alloy.htm

EW

[John Boy]

A brass muzzle loader seating rod with the cup end and a pure lead round ball

[Geppetto]

I just read "Gunsmithing Rifles" by Sweeney, and his thought with aluminum cleaning rods is that they are soft and can get abrasives embedded in the rod surface, which can then abrade your barrel, or chamber throat if cleaning.

[gareth96]

I haven't tried this yet as I'm new to casting (just cast my first 100 plus batch last night). Anyway, I read somewhere that you could drill a hole through the bullet.. this gives the lead somewhere to go as it squeezes through the barrel.

[Sensai]

Along the same line as drilling a hole through the bullet, I use egg sinkers. The round balls work, but unless you use one that's a lot over bore size they don't give an awful lot of useful measurement space. The egg sinkers, being longer, give more space to take your measurements from. Lube is critical. I use case lube, probably just because it's handy and I always have.

[mdi]

I use egg sinkers. Lube barrel and slug. One important thing; I use a heavy hammer (5 lb. single jack). I start the slug with a smaller mallet then use the bigger hammer. A small hammer, tap, tap, tap, will upset the slug more, making it tighter in the bore. A heavy hammer will tend to push the slug through.

[Mohavedog]

The main reason to not use a wooden dowel is because the wood grain can and does sometimes run diagonal to the length of the dowel. What can often happen is the dowel breaks along the grain and the sharp end pushes past the matching end of other piece wedging the two pieces against each other in the bore. The result is a dowel that is stuck so hard it is very difficult to remove. An analogy is what a baseball bat looks like when it breaks. I pass this along because it happened to me a few yrs ago and I discovered no matter which end you hammer/push from when attempting to remove it, it just wedges itself tighter and tighter.
Mohavedog

[MtGun44]

LUBE the barrel!

aluminum rod can't damage steel bore. Wood dowel can break on a long diagonal
and then wedges UNBELIEVABLY tight. Drilling it out is not cool. Do not use
wood for rifles, you may get away with it in a pistol.

I use a 1/4" steel rod with a .25 ACP case jammed on one end, this brass "shoe"
prevents damage to barrel and a few wraps of tape prevent it from even touching
the barrel anywhere.

Bill

[dakotashooter2]

Just make sure the rod is considerably large than the hole in the sinker otherwise it can try drive itself through the hole wedging the sinker and rod in the barrel.

[ku4hx]

Since we know J-bullets go through it Ok and we are able to measure them, what more are we too gain by slugging?

If you can recover one totally unchanged (except for rifling engraving) it might be useful. But how do you know it completely sealed the bore? Even slightly undersized jacketed bullets will take the rifling and perform well. For me, it
s just simpler to drive a soft lead slug through the tube.

[Blammer]

you need oil and lots of it. and use something other than alum rod or at least wrap it in some plastic tape or something to protect your barrel.

[Jim..47]

Ok, I've read through all the replies. But Dusty sent me a couple PMs as he had figured out what I did wrong. First I didn't clean the barrel and 2nd I didn't lube the bullet or barrel.This along with all the other tricks you guys gave me should make this a lot easier.

I just hope I can find a couple of the soft slugs I cast for slugging. And I really like the idea of shooting a low charge bullet through into rags. This particularly appeals to me cause I don't have to worry about damaging the barrel by hammer, dirt or anything else.
Thanks also for explaining why its important to slug a barrel. In fact I will be slugging 2 barrels for this gun and when I get time for my others as well. One the Glock .40 barrel and the Storm Lake .40 barrel so I can shoot cast B's, which is about all I ever use in a pistol.

I read through all the replies, now I'll try to answer what I didn't answer with the above.
Its for a Glock 22 in Gen 4, .40 S&W. I really like this gun and hope I can learn the trigger.
I have past experience with using too small of a hammer, but I appreciate the warning. I used to be a heavy diesel truck mech.

An answer to
ffries61 to this> Just curious how aluminium could damage the barrel or chamber, and brass would be ok ?? aluminium is much softer than brass. The reason is that aluminum oxidizes and that oxidation is what many grinding wheels are made of.

Thanks also to EDUBYA for the link to RotoMetals soft slugging material.
and to gareth96 for the idea of drilling a hole in the boolit.
and to Sensai for the idea of using egg sinkers.
and to MTgun44 for the idea of using a brass rod inside a smaller shell casing. I might try that.
and to the other men who had similar ideas.

I'll let you guys know how this works out, might be next week, busy now with spring chores.

[searcher4851]

My first attempt at slugging a barrel, I forgot the important step of lubing the slug first. This was magnified by the fact that I was slugging a rifle barrel. Long way to go without lube, but I did get it done. Needless to say, the second barrel I slugged went much easier since I used some lube.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have slugged many a barrel for my self and others. WD-40 is the only thing I have used as lube for slugging even though it is not a lube. I spray it down the muzzle end and then tap an over sized pure lead muzzle loading ball down the muzzle end I use an aluminum cleaning rod with a proper size cleaning jag to push it through the barrel ( you don't need a hole in the slug to do slugging). I position the chamber area over a towel to catch the slug. If you have a barrel with an uneven amount of lands and groves you can't use a standard micrometer to measure it. Most US made fire arms have an even number of lands and groves. For a 30 cal barrel I use a 36 cal round ball that will give about a 1/4" of area to measure.

[popper]

By feed problems do you mean it won't go full into battery? Usually it's too long OAL, lead shavings that stick to the mouth of the case or you didn't taper crimp enough to remove the bell. Stovepipes are usually a bad load, start in the middle of the chart. I slugged 1 of my 40s then forgot about it. Size it .401 and forget. It's a SA, just look at the targets. Make sure the bases are good, lube is good and then work on alloy.

[Jim..47]

By feed problems do you mean it won't go full into battery? Usually it's too long OAL, lead shavings that stick to the mouth of the case or you didn't taper crimp enough to remove the bell. Stovepipes are usually a bad load, start in the middle of the chart. I slugged 1 of my 40s then forgot about it. Size it .401 and forget. It's a SA, just look at the targets. Make sure the bases are good, lube is good and then work on alloy.

Yes, Yer right popper. After I shortened the OAl it flew threw the gun as it should. Stove pipes before. Thought I mentioned that back aways?

Ok I sucessfully slugged it today. I cheated! :bigsmyl2: I used a full hard cast bullet unsized and lubed and seated it in a casing ahead of .1 Gn Bullseye. I shot it into a coffee can filled with sawdust with a shop cloth foled over twice on top so I didn't get a saw dust shower.

The unfired unsized bullet measures .404, the fired bullet measures .400 and the lands grooves measure .391

Worked great and much easier and less danger of barrel damage then driving one through. (my hands are half crippled) so this is the way for me.

[Jim..47]

I forgot to ask, are my bullet measurements results acceptable, poor or average??

I'm asking because I hope to sight this gun in soon and shoot a few mags off the bench to see how accurate it is. What size shot group would be in good or great? and at what distance do I need to shoot it at?
Thanks guys, you've all been a big help.

[sthwestvictoria]

This is the best tutorial I have seen around slugging a barrel with a great picture about grooves, lands and bore:
http://62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSlug.htm

Lube is essential, I use automotive grease. Wooden dowels did not work for me. I use a steel cleaning rod with tape around it at intervals to centre it in the bore.

[Sig]

I take a fired piece of brass of the caliber I want to slug & fill it with split shot that I made with pure lead. Heat the brass with a torch to melt it(add more split shot as necessary). Let cool & use a kinetic bullet puller to remove the slug. Measure the slug & adjust it's diameter by tapping the end of it with hammer on a hard surface. This produces a tapered cylinder shaped slug that is very easy to get started. I lube the slug & barrel with Mobil-1. Drive it though the barrel with a brass rod.

[ironhead7544]

I use the slugs from Lead Bullet Technologies. Fits on the end of a cleaning rod. Easy to use and you can feel any tight spots like under a dovetail. I quit using the drive it through with a hammer method after finding these slugs. I always was afraid I might damage something.

[Hardcast416taylor]

After reading all the comments on slugging, that have a goodly amount of the ways I do a barrel except one. I, when possible, use a larger than normal (by far) round ball for muzzle loaders. I start with a ball on a piece of plywood and with a plastic bench hammer proceed to tap the ball into a more or less tapered cylinder. Now I start the tapered end into the lubed muzzle and drive the cylinder down into the barrel. The ball being still way over size will shave off lead as it is driven down the barrel at the muzzle. I use a G.I. .30 cal. sectioned rod with tape covering it and a .25 acp case that I`ve filed down to assure it is under bore diameter on the rod tip assuring a flat driving surface. For slugging my .416`s I just drove a .54 round ball down the bore.Robert

[popper]

Your numbers look right, size to 401 shoot and enjoy. With hard cast you probably need to load to the upper end for better accuracy. Pull some dummy rounds and make sure the case is not reducing dia.

[Jim..47]

Your numbers look right, size to 401 shoot and enjoy. With hard cast you probably need to load to the upper end for better accuracy. Pull some dummy rounds and make sure the case is not reducing dia.

I'm sure glad you said not to reduce my charge. I wondered about that as most recipes advise to cut back about 4-7 10th of a grain or more.

Are you talking about the bullet dia.? or what?

[Foxcatcher]

He is referring to bullet swaging. If you don't open the case (not just the mouth) enough the case can actually squeeze the bullet down to under size. This will give you fits. I know because I did it with my 9 mm.

Don

[Jim..47]

He is referring to bullet swaging. If you don't open the case (not just the mouth) enough the case can actually squeeze the bullet down to under size. This will give you fits. I know because I did it with my 9 mm.

Don

I guess I wasn't aware of it either, but! I know I have had it happen. So you are opening it up by running by opening it up you are running the expander button deeper? Usually if I try that then the bullet slides down beyond the OAL I need.