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Thread: How to properly slug a barrel question

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
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    53

    How to properly slug a barrel question

    First off let me state I have never done this. How do you do this and what is the preferred method.

  2. #2
    Boolit Mold Bill8914's Avatar
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    Sep 2020
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    Tenino, WA out in the woods
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    I dug thru my fishing weights until I found one larger than the muzzle. Put an oiled patch down the barrel, started the weight into the muzzle w/ a hammer handle. I used a short section of dowel to get it started in good. Then more six inch long pieces of dowel until it fell out of the chamber. Mike it out and there you go.
    That is my way.

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    May 2018
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    MN
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    don't work with a muzzle loader!

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    May 2013
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    over the hill, out in the woods and far away
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    10,171
    Go read the sticky on making a pound cast. Size bullets to fit throat, not the barrel.
    The ENEMY is listening.
    HE wants to know what YOU know.
    Keep it to yourself.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master

    leadhead's Avatar
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    May 2006
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    Western Pa.
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    982
    And DON'T use wooden dowels.... They can shatter in the bore
    and then you have a real problem. I speak from experience.
    leadhead

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
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    4,556
    As Outpost alluded to, you don't want to slug the bore from the muzzle. You slug it at the chamber end (revolvers the rear of the barrel). And the slug is not driven the length of the bore. Just go enough to get a good impression of the chamber mouth, throat and the beginning of the rifling, then drive it back out the chamber. This is the critical area for fit of cast bullets.

  7. #7

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    sw pa
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    900
    a pound cast is MUCH better than slugging a bbl.

  9. #9
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Posts
    53
    Thanks for the link.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master


    gbrown's Avatar
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    Jun 2011
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    S.E. Texas
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    Rotometals makes chamber cast alloy. See advertisers top center of page.
    One of my father's favorite statements: "If I say a chicken dips snuff, look under his wing for the snuffbox" How I was raised, who I am.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    VT
    Posts
    1,849
    I have slugged numerous barrels and the results have worked fine for me.
    I find a slug a few .001" bigger than the bore and pound it through the barrel, preferably from the breech.
    On occasion I have made slugs using an improvised mould (drill a hole in a block of wood for a quick and dirty slug).
    Lube your slug up, use a brass rod of the proper size to drive it down the barrel (a .25 cal casing on the end of a 1/4" steel rod can work for .30 cal barrels). I HAVE NO DOUBT that the pound cast method is superior, but I have found this method more than adequate for my needs. I then load boolits .001" or more larger than the slugged bore measured (groove diameter). You certainly can't do any harm with this method, if you go at it correctly.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
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LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check