A TERRIBLE mess trying to slug my revolver

[nbkgh12]

I have lurked on this site and kept reading about slugging a barrel to see if my cast bullets are the correct size. I cast a few .38' wadcutters yesterday out of pure lead and decided to slug it tonight.

I grabbed a bullet and tapped it into the muzzle with a plastic mallet. I held the cylinder to keep it from moving. The bullet started in, but was swaging quit a bit as it went in. I tapped a bit more and finally quit when it was about 1/8" from entering the barrel completely as I felt it was getting too difficult.

To my dismay, I discovered that I had picked up one of my wheel weight cast bullets! To my further dismay, I discovered that although I had been firmly holding the cylinder, it had moved back and forth enough to mar the frame at the front and back of the cylinder.

Now I have a bullet lodged into the muzzle and no idea how to remove it. I thought of trying to press it in with a c-clamp, but even if I succeeded in getting it in, I would have to do more pounding which would cause more damage.

I wish I hadn't attempted to slug my gun :-( I feel sick at what I've done. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help. George

[Box13]

My first thought is if the gun is worth anything...take it to a local gunshop or gunsmith and ask for help.If you insist in doing it yourself you might be able to close the cylinder and wrap the gun tightly with a cloth that will allow you to hold it firmly in your lap.Then you can drive the slug the rest of the way into the bore.You might have to use a punch that is much smaller then the bore being careful to not mar the rifling.I use a wooden dowell but at this point you might need a firmer punch brass might be enough.Once the slug fully enters the bore it will be much easier to push down the barrel so dont go too far untill you unwrap the gun and swing out the cylinder.Then you can finnish driving it out using a wooden dowell.
First look around and ask for help locally if you can it may save you from further maring the gun...Robin

[PatMarlin]

Did you oil the barrel first? Also- did you keep your cylinder open, and swung out.

I'm not an expert on this, but what I would do is use a 1/4 steel rod- wrapped with masking tape, no more than a inch longer than your bore. Put a pad in the frame to protect it.

Oil the bore from the cone and set the handgun on a padded rest, like a chair and use a large mallot or dead blow hammer. You should be able to hold the the pistol up with your hand in the frame, not the cylinder and send that boolit through.

[PatMarlin]

I also use a rag to pad the inside of the frame and wrap around the cylinder to keep it from banging around.

[missionary5155]

Good morning nbkgh12 & WELCOME !!
+1 what Pat said. Do not panic ! You are not the first one who decided you CAN and discovered you may need a little help.
If I had a list of all the "OOPS" stunts I pulled I could author a book and send ya a copy.
You can do this...
Mike in Peru HE is Risen !

[rhead]

+1 on the above.
Also, use an 1/8 in drill and caerfully drill a hole through the length of the bullet. this will give the lead somewhere to colapse to. I have used that on jacketed bullets.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Rotometals.com and midway both sell a low temperature bismouth alloy designed for slugging a chamber or barrel. It sells as Cerrosafe with midway and rotometals calls it something else.

After you get the lead out of your barrel etc, and you are ready to slug the barrel:

Make sure the barrel is clean, oil the barrell with a lightweight oil, do not skip this step. Then take a cleaning patch, oil it up and stuff it into the barrell about 3 inches down towards the forcing cone. This will prevent the alloy from travelling further than you want.

Heat up the cerrosafe {or rotometal stuff} in a empty tuna can or whatever. It will melt at less than 200 degrees, and then carefull pour some into the muzzel of the revolter. You might want to make a cone/funnel out of a piece of paper, this will keep things neat and tidy. You are only going to have to use a tablespoon of so of this stuff and it is reusable for later.

Once it is poured in let it set for 10 minutes or so. It should come with directions etc. After it cools it shrinks a mite allowing you remove it by gently pushing it out with a short piece of dowel from the forcing cone. You could also slug the forcing cone first as it will be easier to remove the alloy by pushing from the muzzel end.

This will give you and idea of the size of the forcing cone as well as the bore and depth of the grooves.

Once this is done you might want to slug the cylinder/chambers by repeating the procedue on each chamber again by oiling a patch and pouring melted alloy from the muzzle end of the cylinder, letting it cool and pushing out the oiled patch and slug from the recoil shield end of the cylinder.

When working on a rifle chamber use the same procedure but be careful not to get any of the alloy spilled in the receiver or locking lugs or whatever as that will make the removal of the slug very difficult.

My Brit SMLE has a nominal bore of .303 but when I slugged it from the chamber I found an area just ahead of the end of the boolit that slugged at .316. It then went down to .314 for a bit and finally slimmed down to .303. When I measured the outside of the slug on the grooves it measured .311.

That oversized chamber and large depth of the grooves caused lousy accuracy when I just used a cast boolit of .308 diameter. I now size my boolits to .316 and the Smelly just keeps on getting better and better.

Some of the Ruger Blackhawks in .45 Colt have chambers cut small at .449 or .450. Then the squeezed down boolit jumps the gap into the forcing cone at .452 or larger and hits the bore at .453 or bigger and just leaves the trail of lead and gives lousy accuracy.

[qajaq59]

Also, use an 1/8 in drill and caerfully drill a hole through the length of the bullet. this will give the lead somewhere to colapse to. I have used that on jacketed bullets. This will really help.

[44man]

First, it is always best to remove the cylinder from the gun.
Drill the boolit and use a close fitting brass rod or a taped steel rod.
Use a HEAVY hammer, it will move the boolit without peening it more.
Once it starts to move it will go easy.
Pour a little oil in the bore first.

[nbkgh12]

This is a new gun (3 months) and I don't know if I have the nerve to put a drill bit into it. I wonder how I could remove the cylinder from the gun. I don't see any sort of screws or pins.

That alloy that pours into the barrel sounds really good, especially now.

Hope I didn't weaken anything by allowing the cylinder to move past it's normal wiggle room enough to actually hit the frame and nick it.

Thanks for all of the help. I wonder how much a gunsmith would cost to remove it. Hopefully not as much as a dentist wants for an extraction :?

George

[Down South]

To remove the cylinder we need to know what brand and model the revolver is. Removing the cylinder is always the best idea, besides if you are slugging the barrel then it will be easy to slug the cylinder throats.

[clintsfolly]

post your location and maybe someone is close and will offer to help! been there done worse have faith clint[smilie=s: Welcome to the board

[OBXPilgrim]

To remove the slug from the end of the barrel, just go to the hardware store and buy some round metal rod (even a good hardwood will work - once).

Cut them the length of the cylinder and wrap tape 1/8" back from each end, but not enough so that the rod won't go into the bore. Drop them one at a time into the cylinder end of the barrel until there is some sticking out of the barrel.

A flat piece of brass, maybe 1/2" thick that is long enough to stick out each end of the gun by quite a bit, when laid across the rod will be needed.

You can hold the gun barrel in one hand (gun barrel pointed down), push one end of the bar up under a workbench, and smack the other end of the brass bar with a hammer to get the slug out. Don't hit the frame with the hammer.

[mooman76]

Don't feel bad. You are new and made a couple minor errors. veryone here has given you good advice. If you ever deside to work up the nerve to try it again here are a couple things. I have slugged a few barrels and it isn't that hard. When slugging a barrel the bigger area of bearing surface of coarse is going to make it harder to do. If you use a WC bullet that makes it harder to do but you could cut it in half to make it easier. The best or easiest slugs are something like a round ball or one of those egg shapped sinkers, pure lead of coarse. It doesn't have to be pure but pure is best and easiest. Also like mentioned drill a hole in the slug before you start. Gives the lead some place to go when squeezing down. Don't worry about it too much, It will work out in the end just take your time and don't work out of frustration.

[MT Gianni]

When slugging a bbl Veral Smith's advice is to use a big hammer 3-4 lb, and small taps. Using a 1 lb or less it is easier to have the bullet swell rather than move. I like to use a gas check to follow the slug and put a cold rolled steel rod down then a hammer.
I would wrap the gun in several layers of leather and put it in a vise. Turn it down and put some light oil down the bbl and leave it for a day. Invert it and put a small amount of oil down the front sight side and then tighten the vise firm enough to hold it without marring anything and then pound it through.

[nbkgh12]

I poured some Liquid Wrench penetrating oil down the barrel, and let it soak for a couple of hours. Then I got brave and took out a sharp 1/8" drill bit and drilled through the center of the bullet.

Since the barrel is only 1 7/8", I could look through the chamber end and see that I came through the bullet exactly in the middle. This gave me confidence to drill with a couple of larger diameter bits. I took out about half of the lead this way.

I took a dowel rod and cut it so it would stick about 1/2" out of the chamber, and used a chisel handle to lightly tap the dowell three times. It slid right out on the third tap!

I think that I'm going to take the easy route and order some of that Cerrosafe alloy to do my future sulgging.

I just got done loading another 100 38's, and will make it to the range today after all.

Thanks for all of the help and encourgement.


George

[Maximilian225]

Here is a link to Cerrosafe usage from Brownells. It should be allowed to cool for an hour before taking measurements.

Brownells hints for using Cerrosafe (http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/General/DisplayPDF.aspx?f=bt002015.pdf)



-Max:Fire:

[Grampie not Grumpie]

One my Ruger SA's I remove the cylinder and clamp a piece of 1 x 3" board in a vise with about 3 - 4" sticking out one side narrow side up. I slip the revolver over the board with barrel up and forcing cone resting against the board. I drill an 1/8" hole in the "slip sinker" and then using a plastic mallet I tap the sinker in the oiled barrel. As it is driven flush with the barrel the excess will be shaved off. When it is flush I slip a wooden dowel inside an old bullet casing that is smaller in diameter than the bore and then drive the slug down to the forcing cone. When it reaches the forcing cone you can remove the revolver from the 1 x 3 and one tap and it will drop in your hand.

Grampie not Grumpie

[35remington]

Sorry to hear you buggered your frame. Lesson learned the hard way. I presume you must have been cradling the cylinder while it was swung out of the frame, and the back and forth motion of tapping the hard slug with the cylinder open bashed the frame. Also sounds like it may have been an aluminum frame.

The really operative thing to know is cylinder throat diameter. Also, whether or not there is a constriction at the frame threads in the barrel. These two things are really of far more valuable information than a barrel slug.

Armed with this knowledge, you'll measure the right thing next time.

[JIMinPHX]

I would have used a C-clamp & a 5/16" wooden dowel & a padded socket to remove the stuck slug. A little Kroil (the oil that creeps) would be a good thing to dribble on there an hour or so before you start messing with it. I would have cut the dowel to the same length as the barrel. Then inserted the dowel from the rear (forcing cone end) of the barrel (in 2 pieces if necessary). Then put the padded socket over the muzzle & use the C-clamp to push the stuck slug out. If you don't feel comfortable with a padded socket, then you could also drill a 3/8" hole in a piece of inch-thick pine & use that instead.

When I slug revolvers, I use the C-clamp trick & push the slugs in from the rear of the barrel. then I tap them out with a dowel from the front. I always try to measure the area of the barrel just forward of the forcing cone since that is where leading is usually the worst with an undersized boolit.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

WHY, would you ever try to drive a slug down the bore into a cylinder ????:confused: I guess if I live long enough, I will see or hear
most things that I assumed would be self evident not to do. Wrong:roll:

[windrider919]

My experience in revolvers taught me that the cylinder throat was much more important to good accuracy. For example: many revolvers mike .361 to .364! So a jacketed .358 or a cast .359 will be 'ratlin' after it leaves the case until it hits the forcing cone. I actually had a Ruger Speed-Six that had cylinder throats that miked .368 right out of the box. Needless to say that revolver scattered bullets all over the range. Ruger said it was within SAMMI spec and would not make it good either. I traded it off the next gun show and bought another one that had good throats. That revolver would produce 2" groups at 25 yards with any ammo. And the proper reload halved that group. Seen the same thing with a Tarus and with a Dan Wessen. And in a M29 Smith .44 Mag that after the cylinder was replaced became a match accuracy revolver.

[Bret4207]

George, just so you don't feel so bad, I've done similar things in the past. Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from mistakes.

[JIMinPHX]

Yes, as Bret implies, experience is the ability to recognize your mistakes when you make them...again. Mistakes are the high price of tuition you pay in acquiring wisdom. You are not alone in that one.

[44man]

I have fooled around with Cerro-Safe for years and only find it useful to see what a chamber, etc, looks like. Not once has it given accurate measurements close enough for cast boolits. As the diameter of the place to be measured changes, so does the amount of error.
A bore slug is always more accurate. One upset in the bore area you want to measure is even better. Shaving lead when pounding it in the muzzle can also change the accuracy. Depends on how close you want to get.
Try it once, make a casting of, say a .45, wait the required expansion time and measure. Then upset a slug in the same spot and measure it.

[tomf52]

With the slug stuck at the muzzle and being so accessible , it can easily be removed with a small electric soldering iron by repeatedly melting out the core of the bullet thereby relieving the compressive bind on the barel. When enough of the core is removed the bullet will slide right out with a wooden dowel.

[markinalpine]

Just wondering. If you oiled the chamber end lightly and plugged the bore as described for using the Cerro-safe, shouldn't you be able to get good bore, throat, and chamber dimensions? Of course you'd have to carefully measure the casting since it would be soft, but it might work. And a revolver would require more casting to measure the cylinder chambers.
I don't know, just a thunk. :???:
I might just try this with a spare 1911 barrel. I'll post the results, good or bad, if I do. :Fire:
Mark :coffee:

[markinalpine]

I got a mold of the end of the chamber and the beginning of the bore. The edge between the chamber and bor was quite distinct and sharp, and I was able to VERY gently measure the groove and land dimensions, .4515 and .4500, but the mold is very soft, so a delicate touch is needed.
I was able to get away with this because it was a 1911 barrel, which is easy to manipulate. I had to use a wooden carpenter's vice to pop the mold loose with a 7/16" dowel through the muzzle. It wouldn't just come loose pushing by hand, but it finally released without being torn or deformed.
Pictures attached, but they aren't very detailed. I'd need a macro-lens for my digital camera, and I'd rather spend my money on gun stuff. :Fire:
Mark :mrgreen:

[Bill*B]

Guys, the lazy man's way to check your cylinder throat diameter is to go to McMaster Carr (on the web) and order out a few PLUG GAUGES that are about the size you think it ought to be - i.e. for a .38 special you can get five gauges one thousand apart in 0.355" to 0.359" size - and then in a couple of minutes you will know quite precisely. McMaster Carr sells single "replacement" gauges for less than three dollars apiece. Regards, Bill.

[fourarmed]

Here is how I do it: REMOVE THE CYLINDER FROM THE GUN AND SET IT ASIDE, insert an aluminum or brass bar through the frame opening, and support both ends of the bar on the open jaws of a bench vise. With the breech end of the barrel resting on the bar, tap the slug into the muzzle using a heavy hammer and drive it through with a metal rod slightly smaller than the slug but longer than the barrel.

[Leftoverdj]

No need to have the cylinder open until the last half inch. Mark your drive rod where you want to stop.