Slugg a muzzle loader????

[abunaitoo]

I'm sure this has been asked before.
How would you slugg a muzzle loader bore????

[pietro]

.

Upset a soft lead boollit near one end of the bore & push it through/out to the other end.





After it's un-breeched, of course.


.

[rodwha]

What I've read is placing a piece of brass rod in the barrel and then hammer a ball in. Then flip it over and bounce the rod on the ball until it gets pushed out. Not sure who has a brass rod lying around though...

[mooman76]

You can use a soft steel rod or other metal as long as it is heavy enough to get the slug back out. Just wrap it good with tape first.

[Walkingwolf]

Drive the slug home, use air compressor or CO2 unloading tool to blow the slug out. Though if you are using minis it is not that important as they expand to fill the bore. If using patched ball adjust the thickness of the patch.

[oldracer]

Driving a ball is a good idea but most time the ball diameter is smaller than the bore? Then you have to ask, what if I can't blow it out and that requires a removal of the breech plug to drive it through. The way I do mine is with Cerrosafe and I use a short 22 caliber cleaning rod with enough patches to make a very tight fit. I stand to barrel as close to vertical as I can get and pour in the Cerrosafe. Once it hardens I pull the rod and casting out. If the barrel is even bore all the way down this works great and if the barrel is choked then you get the smallest diameter which is what you want. The only issue is if the number of lands is an odd number then you have a bit of work to do.

[59sharps]

find someone w bore gauges.

[Good Cheer]

How accurate do you need your results to be? Sure, perfection is best but I'm going to suggest the means I frequently use when I don't have other tooling or sizer dies to create slugs to use as "go / no go" gauges.
So here's my ball park method...

Using soft cast boolits that are bigger than the bore, hold one end with a pair of pliers, channel locks, an epoxied on handle or somethin' other. Trying to be as steady and keeping it as straight as you can, twist the boolit into the bore using the rifling as a machine tool to turn down the OD of the boolit. Measure the resulting diameter to see what you get for the largest. Do it a few times until you are confident of your technique and to compare the results of multiple samples.

It isn't going to be perfect but the info you develop can be usable.

[59sharps]

How accurate do you need your results to be? Sure, perfection is best but I'm going to suggest the means I frequently use when I don't have other tooling or sizer dies to create slugs to use as "go / no go" gauges.
So here's my ball park method...

Using soft cast boolits that are bigger than the bore, hold one end with a pair of pliers, channel locks, an epoxied on handle or somethin' other. Trying to be as steady and keeping it as straight as you can, twist the boolit into the bore using the rifling as a machine tool to turn down the OD of the boolit. Measure the resulting diameter to see what you get for the largest. Do it a few times until you are confident of your technique and to compare the results of multiple samples.

It isn't going to be perfect but the info you develop can be usable.

yep over sized minnie 1/4 turn remove and mic it.

[bob208]

why bother ? just try a ball of the recommended size and patch thickness. then keep going up in thickness. and see how it shoots. if you get it going good maybe try a ball.005 bigger in dia.

the main problem with muzzleloaders is every one keeps thinking cartage guns. first thing new shooters should do is buy the lyman book on muzzleloaders. there is a section in every lyman loading manual.

[curator]

Drill a hole in an over size ball, insert a 10X32 screw so you can screw it into your cleaning rod. With the screw started into the cleaning rod, drive the ball into the bore then pull it back out. You should have a perfect "cast" of both land and groove diameters. It helps to provide a thin coating of oil before doing thes. Obviously, the best of all worlds is being able to remove the breech plug but this is not always possible. I always slug new barrels before I breech them. That way I have a record of bore and groove diameters if the breech plug becomes stubborn.

[Geezer in NH]

Brass weight rod pound soft lead into the muzzle 3 inches and turn rifle upside down hitting the rod on the lead. Catch the lead in a soft towel them measure I have been dong that for decades.

Why make it harder than it has to be?