Current Lead Sinkers and Slugging

[DeadWoodDan]

Picked up some egg sinkers/ Water Gremlin brand, in the hopes of slugging a few new to me rifles going forward. 1/4size measures .350" and I am working with .30 cal. rifles; 2 MN carbines and 2 Marlin 336. I know approximately what groove dia. they "should" be. so I'm attempting to make these smaller to push down the barrel using two pcs of steel and rolling them between. Have gotten them down to 0.320" and I think that will do.

My question is I tried the finger nail check and I can barely get a faint scratch. Was curious if anyone knows what material they are made of ? I'm a little leery on using them b.c. I don't feel they may be soft enough. I've only slugged one other rifle and being new to it did it successfully. don't want to end up with a useless rifle with sinker plugging the bore.

[opos]

Probably a zinc mix..I have gotten lead sinkers from a smaller tackle store but seems all the big box stores are being politically correct with non lead sinkers...I found that the ones that have a "name" cast into them are probably zinc and the old dark and plain ones are probably lead. I get what they call a #9 as I recall..it's a sliding sinker (egg shaped) and I gently squeeze them in the vise to make them a bit fatter and rounder..then drive them from the crown with a plastic mallet until they start...then drive them with a rod.

[DougGuy]

I found the walmart egg sinkers to be the right stuff. If you can't readily dig a thumbnail into it, you can forget slugging with it as the springback will throw off any measurements you get.

Edit: The ones I got from wallyworld are the Water Gremlin brand. Maybe yours are cast differently?

[DeadWoodDan]

That was my concern at this point. guess my next move will be to try and make my own slugs

[2wheelDuke]

I just made my own. I have a sinker mold with about 8 different sizes of egg sinker. I read somewhere on here about rolling between a piece of steel and an anvil, so I used the anvil section of my vise and a piece of flat stock, and measured after every couple passes.

[cajun shooter]

I have some modern sinkers that have a BHN of 16, not your fathers lead for sure. I was given a box of them to make my bullets with about 4 years ago. They will never be put in any smelt of mine. Be careful and either do your own out of lead or depending on caliber, use BP round lead balls as they are pure lead and sold in many different sizes. Later David

[Leslie Sapp]

My question is I tried the finger nail check and I can barely get a faint scratch

I've dislike the idea of using commercial sinkers for just this reason- you have no way of knowing what the manufacturer used for "lead".
Boring the appropriate sized hole in a 3/4" hardwood board and filling it with pure lead has always worked for me.

[Garyshome]

"Boring the appropriate sized hole in a 3/4" hardwood board and filling it with pure lead"
+1

[RogerDat]

Old caster/reloader at a gun show made what sounded like a good suggestion for slugging a barrel. Use a cast bullet for that caliber. You can always add a few thousandths to the diameter by squishing the bullet down a little if you find the as cast size is not quite large enough diameter for slugging your worn or oversized barrel.

tapered nose to feed in and get it started and if the goal is to find out how a certain bullet will "fit" your bore seems like it would make sense to work off of one. Even have lube grooves to apply some lube to the process.

Any reason this would not be a good idea?

[SlippShodd]

Use a cast bullet for that caliber... add a few thousandths....by squishing...Any reason this would not be a good idea?

I hope it's a good idea... it's what I do. Fired up a small pot of pure Pb and cast a few in each caliber mould I had on hand. Keep some around for slugging new/friend's guns now. They don't have to be entirely perfect except for the driving bands.

mike

[DeadWoodDan]

I did the drill a hole in some wood method and used almost pure lead. Worked excellent. I think holes drilled deeper will work better. going to try and cast some RD311-165 with pure lead for checking the remainder 30cals. this has a nice tapered nose to start and one cavity is PB so even better.

[62chevy]

Old caster/reloader at a gun show made what sounded like a good suggestion for slugging a barrel. Use a cast bullet for that caliber. You can always add a few thousandths to the diameter by squishing the bullet down a little if you find the as cast size is not quite large enough diameter for slugging your worn or oversized barrel.

tapered nose to feed in and get it started and if the goal is to find out how a certain bullet will "fit" your bore seems like it would make sense to work off of one. Even have lube grooves to apply some lube to the process.

Any reason this would not be a good idea?

That is what I did last year for my rifle with lead pipe.

[xringshutr]

How about pouring pure lead in the mold that you will be shooting out of it, but only filling the cavity about 1/2 way or so. Then squeeze in a vice or thump it with a hammer to "fatten her up". Proceed to slugging operations......