Slugging Question

[Hick]

I didn't have any lead fishing weights or such handy, but I did have a few plain-based cast bullets around, so I tried slugging with the CB. I'd be interested in comments on whether my results look good or not.

Model 94 30-30: I put a 0.309 CB nose first into the barrel and drove it through with a rod. There were a couple of spots that seemed maybe a little tight, but it pretty much required the same force all the way through. The CB is now all shiney everywhere except the nose. All the bands have been smoothed and the rifling has made very distinct grooves in the CB. the CB went in at 0.309 and came out 0.3075-0.308

Model 94 32 WS: Same process. I put a 0.322 CB nose first into the barrel and drove it through with a rod. The force required to drive the CB was very consistent-- no tight spots but also no loose spots. The CB is now all shiney everywhere except the nose. All the bands have been smoothed and the rifling has made very distinct grooves in the CB. the CB went in at 0.322 and came out 0.321 or slightly smaller.

If I properly understand what I've been reading here about fitting the CB to the bore, I think this is showing a pretty good fit (CB about 0.001 or so over the bore and grooves). I don't have any place yet where I can cast my own so I'm looking to use commercial like these. I would appreciate thoughts on this.

157651

[Boolseye]

Sounds good to me. I've slugged barrels in much the same way. I've heard people talk about "spring back" when slugging with alloy as opposed to pure lead, but the results have worked OK for me.

[geargnasher]

I take a different approach. The only time I ever slug a barrel is when I'm needing to pinpoint a suspected tight spot. For bullet selection, I make an impact impression of the chamber and throat and typically (not always) use the largest bullet that will chamber. For band sizing, usually just a half-thousandth or so smaller than throat entrance diameter is the criteria. Groove diameter is pretty meaningless to finding the bullet size that will shoot the best, and bore diameter is only useful when using long-nosed bore-riding bullets that need to be a certain size for function and accuracy. Just poke the bullet nose in the muzzle to get a feel for bore diameter with any particular bullet you can actually get your hands on.

Gear

[Wayne Smith]

You have proven that those boolits will shoot in those rifles - not your bore or groove size. There is springback but it is measured in the thousands, not tens of an inch. Unless you are using a micrometer you may not see the difference.

[Hick]

Thanks guys. My major interest was in whether these bullets seem the right size for my bores. I'll go do some testing now.