slugging questions

[skeeter1911]

I'm just getting started and have some fundamental questions. I got some Hornady soft lead round balls (sold for blackpowder use) to use for slugging/measuring the barrels of my handguns. Bottom line, I'm trying to figure out what sizing dies to need for a used Star I picked up. I will be casting for .45acp, .38spl, .357mag.

1. Do you drive the ball all the way through the barrel or just in an inch or two and back out the same way?

2. Do you start it in at the muzzle or the chamber end?

3. For revolvers, I've read that you slug each chamber in the cylinder and the barrel. What is the logic of this? Is it just to see if all chambers are the same dimensions? Which measurement would one use in this case to base choice of sizing die from?

[captaint]

Welcome Skeeter - You need to drive the slug all the way through the barrel. If possible, start at the chamber end, use a wood dowel, no metal. You need to slug the chambers so you know if the chamber mouth is smaller than the groove diameter - it does happen. Chamber mouth ideally would be same as, or 1 thou larger or so than the barrel groove dia. If the chamber mouth is smaller than barrel groove dia, then the boolit gets swaged too small for good accuracy in the barrel. Hope that was understandabull. Welcome again & enjoy. Mike

[Beekeeper]

Captaint,
Why no metal?
Have used a metal rod covered with shrink tube forever.
Didn't know it was a no-no.


beekeeper

[skeeter1911]

Thank you captaint!

[JIMinPHX]

Most people slug the entire length of a barrel. I usually only slug the first inch or two of the rifeling from the chamber end, since that is the area that the boolit needs to form into. If I have a suspect barrel that I think may have a restriction or something, then I also slug the entire length.

For revolvers, I use a C-clamp to press the slug into the chamber end of the barrel, while protecting the muzzle with a piece of soft pine. Once the slug is started into the forcing cone, I then use a short wooden dowel with the C-clamp to push it in further.

The reason that you slug the cylinder throats on a revolver is because the boolit will be necked down by a tight throat & regardless of how big the boolit started out, if your throats are smaller than the groove diameter of your barrel, then you will never have boolits that end up fitting the barrel correctly. In a perfect world, your throats will all be the same within about .0002" & the groove diameter of your barrel will be about .001" smaller than the smallest throat. If that's not the case, then you have some decisions to make. Things like hollow base boolits with lite loads can sometimes make up for minor dimensional problems.

Whatever you do, make sure that you lube up your barrel & slug before you stuff that thing in there!!! I use grease. Other people use oil, boolit lube, graphite & probably a dozen other things that I don't know about.

When using round balls for slugging, I find it best to first roll a ball between two pieces of steel flat bar until it turns into a cylinder that is about .010" bigger in diameter than what I expect the groove diameter to be. If the ball is too far oversize, then it takes A LOT of unnecessary effort to get the job done.

Don't forget to lube.

Jim

[skeeter1911]

Thanks Jim.

[cajun shooter]

Skeeter1911, The info given by Jim is right on. You do need to have both measurements because some bbls are larger in the chamber end than they are at the muzzle. The measure of just the bbl will not show this if it's present so do both.

[44man]

Brass rods work fine.
You can put electrical tape around a rod too.

[Dennis Eugene]

This thread is full of great info. Good job Gentelmen. Dennis