Slugging a barrel? How?

[davcar45]

How do you slug a barrel and what do you need to do it?

Lead balls forced down the barrel?

Where do I get the lead balls and what diameter ball is needed to slug 45ACP barrels?

[MtGun44]

Soft lead egg shaped sinkers (some are not straight lead nowdays) will work. I use
.45 cal lead balls from Hornady (cap and ball revolver ammo) for most of my slugging,
altho I have some 36 cal for smaller calibers. Tap it into the muzzle, which may cut a
ring of lead off, then start it with a brass rod. I have a 1/4" diam steel rod with a .25 ACP
case permanently hammerd on to the end as a brass shoe to avoid bore damage.
A couple of wraps of tape keeps it off the bore. The brass case end goes against the
ball. Smaller bores will require different sizes, but do not use a cleaning rod, they
break.

DO NOT use wooden dowels, these can fracture into long wedges which, when pounded
together are VERY, VERY difficult to remove from the barrel without damage. Some
have gotten away with it multiple times and think it is safe. One time should be
convincing and we have had several folks put up threads asking how to undo this mess.

Lube the bore with an oily patch before doing this and be VERY careful not to ding the
crown of the barrel. Of you are doing a semiauto pistol, remove the barre. If a revolver
cylinder, remove the cyl and support well on nonmarring material like wood or plastic.
You can seriously damage the crane in a revolver if you pound on it.

Bill

[Catshooter]

MtGun44 has given you good advice.

Just know that you can use any reasonably soft (like wheel weights or softer) round ball or just a boolit.

I use a quarter inch brass rod and I don't hesitate to use a 45 caliber boolit for a .32 caliber bore.

I wouldn't try to measure the resulting slug with calipers unless they were a high quality set. I like a micrometer, and be gentle, don't squash the slug. It's soft.

Welcome to the site by the way.


Cat

[davcar45]

Thanks for the replies.

So if I get these:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=140700

Which are Hornady 45 (.457 dia) muzzle loader bullets I will be able to force it through the barrel?

They show a 44 cal (.454 dia) which is confusing to me. Isn't .454 diameter 45 caliber? http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=699672 Would this one be better to slug 1911 barrels?

The other Hornady lead balls in 45 cal all show diameter of less than .451. In fact .440 and .445 which I would think are 44 caliber not .45 Never shot a muzzle loader so I don't know anything about them.

I have both dial calipers and a micrometer so I can measure the results easy enough. I would have never thought something .457 would go through a bore that was .451 or .452 more than likely.

If my bore is .451 should I size cast boolits to .452 or .453? .001 or .002 larger than the bore. Shooting light target loads in .45ACP. I have 4 1911's so I am going to try to find one size I can use in all if possible.

I never knew there was so much to this. Thanks for helping me out.

[MtGun44]

These old muzzle loading revolvers called themselves .44 cal, but the ball used is usually
about .454, which is modern .45 cal, sorta. Don't worry, you are going to hammer it to
fit, so who cares a few thousandths. Well oversized will work just fine, like a .375 ball into
a .308 bbl, no sweat. If the ball is undersized, put it on a flat piece of steel and give it a
gentle bump with a hammer to swage it wider.

If your .45 ACP bbl turns out to be .451 (and most are .451 to .4515) then a .452 to .453 diam
would be great. I size my .45 boolits to .452 and they work in all my 1911s. Actually, if there
is one gun that is a bit more consistent on barrel diam I'd say that the 1911s are pretty much
good. Some calibers and guns are all over the map, like 9mm Para, but 1911s and S&W .38s
are very often right where they are supposed to be.

Welcome to the asylum.

Bill

[davcar45]

Thank you very much for the info.

I will buy the .457 diameter balls then just to make sure. I should be able to slug a .44 mag revolver with it too.

I guess I will get some for my .38 and 9mm as well.

I always wondered why my 9mm never shot very well with a lead bullet. Since I started reading here I have found out many need to be sized at .357/.358 and some larger than that. A normally .355 or .356 diameter bullet is much to small in some 9mm bores.

[Wayne Smith]

You can buy the balls if you want but a sinker is cheaper and you typically can buy it locally and not have to wait for delivery. That is, unless you live in a desert.

I assume you don't have a C&B revolver to use the rest of them. Of course, the rest of a box of balls is a great reason to buy a gun. Gotta use them somehow, right?

[davcar45]

I have a Bass Pro shop about 15 min from my home. I think I can either buy sinkers or the lead balls there. I guess I will have to go over there tomorrow and see what kind of sinkers they have and hopefully they are pure lead or something close.

How will I know if the sinkers are anywhere close to the right size? I don't want to try to force a .500 diameter sinker down a 45 barrel ???

And no, no cap and ball revolver and no plans to buy one. I figure once I slug the barrels I'd throw the slugs in the smelt. I'll check out the sinker thing.

[dromia]

Try this link to a how to on a You Tube video.

The thread is in the Classics and Stickies forum.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=57556

[Wayne Smith]

I use a hard plastic mallet to begin driving the lead into the muzzle. I will use a .50 cal ball to slug a .30 cal barrel, the excess just cuts off as a ring of lead. Once that ring is a thin layer over the muzzle I switch to the brass push rod and push the slug through the barrel.

[Hippie44]

Go to lbtmoulds.com Veral has a good write up and you can order push through slugs.

[yobohadi]

Here is a youtube video by ammosmith on how to slug a barrel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR_WiL8Dkgw

[arjuna70]

I'm not sure how a sinker would work. Both videos show lead balls. The sinkers I see are all odd shapes. How can you use those to go down the barrel and get an accurate measurement?

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?cmCat=MainCatcat20166-cat20176&id=cat20295

[MtGun44]

Hammer to fit.

Bill

[gunlovingsob]

Dont order slugs, make your own! I have learned alot, then I come here and realize how little i know! This is how i slugged my beretta, give me some feed back and tell me what you think.

Its on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNoo4m6jso

Im no gunsmith, but It worked nice, now onto my revolver

[Bob J]

Awesome ideas.... I've been using as cast soft lead bullets for my slugging but this is a great idea for any straight walled case....

Only thing I would add is lubing the barrel before driving the slug but that is just me.....

Thanks for sharing and I'm eagerly awaiting your revolver video.....;)

[Bob.]

Dont order slugs, make your own! I have learned alot, then I come here and realize how little i know! This is how i slugged my beretta, give me some feed back and tell me what you think.

Its on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNoo4m6jso

Im no gunsmith, but It worked nice, now onto my revolver


Now that was simple !
Good ideal !

Bob

[patsher]

Here's a great explanation and easy method for slugging your barrel.

Its on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNoo4m6jso

Thank you, "gunlovingbob"! IMHO this out to be part of a sticky! 45Nut, how about it?

Pat