Slugging a rifle barrel

[Gundogblue]

I want to slug the barrel of my 1894 Marlin in 44 spl / 44 mag, I’ve never slugged a barrel before, so I figure it’s hi time I learned. I have on hand some .454 lead balls I shoot out of my 1858 Remington clone. Are those lead balls to large to use for slugging a .44 barrel?
Thanks
Paul

[quail4jake]

Take a look at Veral Smith's slugging procedure on his website for LBT. Pushing a soft lead ball through your bore won't give you the information you really need to fit a boolit to the throat to maximize concentricity and groove diameter fit. I've pound slugged all of my rifles and the results from a proper fitting boolit are well worth the effort!

[pietro]

I have on hand some .454 lead balls I shoot out of my 1858 Remington clone.

Are those lead balls to large to use for slugging a .44 barrel?

It can be done, but IMO you'd do better via pressing the EASY button & use a small fishing lead sinker that's just under bore size, and upset it inside the lightly oiled bore by supporting one end of the sinker while the other end is smacked with drift rod/ hammer (no love taps, here).

After the sinker is upset (hard) into the rifling, it's pretty easy to gently tap it out for measuring.


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