I did a BUNCH of slugging today

[adanymous]

Hey guys. I slugged a pile of barrels today. Thought Id post my measurements for some sizer advice. Never bought a sizer die before so I dont want to be guessing at what Im doin here. Also I had a guy who owns a shop across from me double check my measurements, Ill post his too.

357 sig Lone Wolf bbl Mine .3583 His .3589
.40-9mm conv Lone Wolf bbl .3574 .3579
.40 Lone Wolf bbl .4027 .4033 What the heck do I do with this? Will it even load right?
9mm Lone Wolf bbl .3570 .3581
300 AAC .3088 .3096

ruger gp100 357 mag cyl slugs 1 .3584 .3593 2.3577 .3586 3 .3585 .3587 4 .3584 .3588 5 .3579 .3587 6.3579 .3585

I slugged the bbl but its a 5 groove and Im not sure what to do with that, though I measured it with calipers and its roughly .340 didnt write it down

Any suggestions for sizing would be appreciated.

[adanymous]

My question on the .40. If I get a .404 die, will that bullet even load in a case without it being bell mouthed? Will that bullet swage down in a seat die. How would I even get a mould to cast 404 without beagling etc. What a PITA, thinking about calling lone wolf to ask them whats the deal.

[petroid]

Measure the inside of .40 case fired in your gun. This will be the max diameter of a boolit that might chamber in your gun. I say "might" because it may not fit in the throat. A throat slug aka "pound cast" would tell you this. May end up being a jacketed only barrel

[adanymous]

Thats an idea. I could do that. I guess I had a pound cast as I cast the chamber to about 1/2 inch of rifling with cerrosafe. I emailed lone wolf, Id be surprised if they didn't replace it as they guarantee against defects in material and workmanship and I would think this would count. If not I can buy another barrel, they're pretty cheap, and ebay this one as a jacketed only barrel. Id hate to sell it to a guy who wanted to cast bullets. Funny thing is, it shoots jacketed bullets pretty well. even el cheapos which is what I plink with quite a bit.

[adanymous]

Ok, Im shooting from the hip here, so If I'm wrong please tell me

for the 2 9mm and the 357 sig, I can use the lyman .359
for the 357 mag Im thinking the lyman .358, given that the guy who checked my measurements is much more likely to be right than me.
And for the 300aac Im thinking .311

[RobS]

I don't know about the cerrosafe to be honest with you, I much prefer to use a pure lead slug so there is no wondering about if the medium you are using to slug your barrel is giving you correct dimensions. The 40 S&W LW barrel is not even close to spec. if that is what you really have. Do you have any pure lead to try and slug a barrel with so you can compare?

[adanymous]

I don't know about the cerrosafe to be honest with you, I much prefer to use a pure lead slug so there is no wondering about if the medium you are using to slug your barrel is giving you correct dimensions. The 40 S&W LW barrel is not even close to spec. if that is what you really have. Do you have any pure lead to try and slug a barrel with so you can compare?

That is what I have! Id be glad to post a pic of a slug if it makes it more believable. Cerrosafe (or the rotometals knock off rather) is supposed to be at .0000 accuracy after an hour, which is when I measured it. I do have pure lead, but Id think that the consistency of the other barrels to their given specs is close enough to assume the barrel is the issue not the cerrosafe or the measuring devices. Again, I don't know what Im doing, so if I am wrong or wrong headed just tell me, Im fine with being wrong, I just want to get it right in the end.

[petroid]

Call lone wolf and see if they will replace it. Do a pound cast on the blackout. Same deal measure id of fired case mouth and go .310-.311 as long as it will chamber. My lee .309 sizer actually puts out at .310 which works fine

[RobS]

That is what I have! Id be glad to post a pic of a slug if it makes it more believable. Cerrosafe (or the rotometals knock off rather) is supposed to be at .0000 accuracy after an hour, which is when I measured it. I do have pure lead, but Id think that the consistency of the other barrels to their given specs is close enough to assume the barrel is the issue not the cerrosafe or the measuring devices. Again, I don't know what Im doing, so if I am wrong or wrong headed just tell me, Im fine with being wrong, I just want to get it right in the end.

I'm not saying that what you did isn't right or that I don't believe you what I'm saying is you could use a pure lead slug and use it as a comparison to the cerrosafe. This will give you another means to look at things in another light. Maybe the cerrosafe is performing as it is suppose to, maybe it is not but I tell you a pure lead slug there is no questions to it. You probably only need to do one barrel to make a comparison and I would do the 40 LW barrel because it's bigger and easier to work. If your results are quite a bit different than your cerrosafe slug then the other barrels may need a look too.

You say that you have pure lead then all it takes is a piece of wood that you can drill a hole a bit larger than the bore diameter and about 1/2" deep. Pour so there is a sprue, similar to a mold so you have something to grab a hold of to pull it from the wood. Then simply trim off the sprue, cleanup the slug a bit from the wood, oil up the barrel and slug then slug the barrel. I've used a cut off top pop can to melt down some straight lead with a torch and takes no time at all to make a slug then slug a barrel, 10 minutes.

[Harter66]

Mous,
I would say your measurement and the Machinists reflect technique and toolin differences. It looks to me like a pretty stable .0007-8.

Being me I'd go 359-60 for all of the 357/9mms .(actually I'd no size at all)
I'll be doing some casting this weekend and I happen to have an LBT 405-180 I I want to run some for a friends 40 so I could run a few extra and send them your way if you'd like . PM if you want .
The 300 looks like 311 ought to do.

[adanymous]

Thats really cool of you. Sure Id take a few to see how they work. PM sent.
And thanks for the advice on the others. IF I dont size will I have out of round or other issues?

[Harter66]

Mous,
I would say your measurement and the Machinists reflect technique and tooling differences. It looks to me like a pretty stable .0007-8.

Being me I'd go 359-60 for all of the 357/9mms .(actually I'd no size at all)
I'll be doing some casting this weekend and I happen to have an LBT 405-180 I I want to run some for a friends 40 so I could run a few extra and send them your way if you'd like . PM if you want .
The 300 looks like 311 ought to do.

[adanymous]

Update on that Lone Wolf Barrel, I used the chat function on their site and spoke to a guy about my issue. He asked my measurement and I gave it to him, then he said "I thought SAAMI was .410" I said no man, I think its .401 and linked him to the saami page, and he said, you're right, send it back well get you another one asap.

So other than a minor heart attack on the .410 part (which was seriously just a mistake, Im sure the guy has saami specs for a million calibers in his head). Id say they have pretty dang good customer service. Hopefully the return goes smoothly too.

Thanks guys at Lone Wolf

[petroid]

Update on that Lone Wolf Barrel, I used the chat function on their site and spoke to a guy about my issue. He asked my measurement and I gave it to him, then he said "I thought SAAMI was .410" I said no man, I think its .401 and linked him to the saami page, and he said, you're right, send it back well get you another one asap.

So other than a minor heart attack on the .410 part (which was seriously just a mistake, Im sure the guy has saami specs for a million calibers in his head). Id say they have pretty dang good customer service. Hopefully the return goes smoothly too.

Thanks guys at Lone Wolf

Good to hear you're getting somewhere at least hopefully