How to slug a revolver... HELP...

[Etienne Brule]

How to slug a revolver... HELP...

I just bought a 41 cal Gasser dutch type antique revolver.

I want to buy a mould and I want to know what SIZE ?

- exactly the bore dimension ?

- exactly the groove dimension ?

- the groove dimension + 0.00x inch ?

- something else ?

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Etienne Brûlé

[andremajic]

You will need to have a couple things on hand to slug your bore:

A Dial or Digital Caliper
A soft lead slug, slightly larger than your muzzle opening. (Some people use fishing weights)
Some Grease
A Hardwood dowel
A mallet

Take your soft lead slug and grease it up so it's nice and lubed.
Using the dowel and mallet, drive it through your muzzle opening backwards thru the rifling.
Measure your slug when it comes out. Measure the circumference between the Grooves that your rifling has cut, and also measure the outside diameter of the slug.

Here is a tutorial online: http://62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSlug.htm

Post your results on this forum and I'm sure that you will get plenty of suggestions for mould possibilities.

Andy

[Down South]

Make sure the barrel is clean before slugging. Run an oil soked patch before slugging too.

[runfiverun]

don't forget your cylinder throats if your bbl is 412 and your throats are 410
you are gonna have problems.
easily fixed but you will have problems untill they are opened up.

[MtGun44]

Measure the throat diameter (front opening in the cylinder) with gauge pins,
either buy a set for about $60 from Enco, or if you will only do this rarely, find
a friend that is a machinist and have him measure your cyl throats with his
gauge pins. These are very accurately made steel pins in a set with step size
of 0.001". The one that will just fit into the throat is the size.

Ideal dimensions would be a throat of the same size or .001-.002" smaller than
the bullet dimension, and a barrel the same or .001-.002" smaller than the
cyl throat diameter. The results in a boolit that is guide well at the start and
runs straight and true through the throat (not canted due to undersize) and
then hits the barrel square and is slightly larger or the same size to seal the
bore well and avoid gas cutting and the subsequent leading. If the throats
are smaller than the bore you get undersized boolits rattling down the barrel
and gas melting the sides of the boolit - leading.

Some old revolvers are hopelessly mismatched on sizes and the only real
solution is a very soft boolit and or often better, a hollow base which lets the boolit
adapt to widely varying diameters with some aplumb. This is a common fix for old
revolvers with bad dimensions and no way to fix them or the desire to keep
them original. The hollow base is easily upset to fit any reasonable diameter and
can also be squeezed back down if required. Limits velocity, but these old guns
usually are very low velocity anyway, and in many cases the hollow based boolit
is how the original ammo worked.

Good luck!

Bill

[scb]

I use Cero-safe to "slug" my bores. Just plug the bore and pour it in. a 1 inch long section is all you need. Cero-safe melts at just about the boiling point of water, and from my understanding was made for doing just this sort of thing. It's a little expensive but you can re-use it indefinitely.

[jahela]

Ideal dimensions would be a throat of the same size or .001-.002" smaller than
the bullet dimension

I thought, the throat has to be .001 bigger than the bullet

[NSP64]

I thought, the throat has to be .001 bigger than the bullet

Ideally, The throat(front portion of the chamber in the cylinder) should taper down .001". Then the forcing cone(rearmost portion of the barrel, closest to the cylinder) should be smooth and bring/aline the boolit to the barrel dimensions(preferably smaller than the throat) i.e. 44mag .430>.429>.428-.426
The opening to the forcing cone should be bigger than the boolit and the throat dimensions but should taper down to the barrel grove dimension. Kind of like 2 funnels placed together (> >). Like stated above when the 'funnel' dimensions are not correct (> <, < <) you get accuracy/leading problems


I use a pure lead slug/oil the barrel,pound it all the way through. Then another bigger slug and pound it half way into the muzzle, then pull it back out. Gives me 2 dimensions, so I can tell if the barrel is tighter where it goes through the frame.

[Bass Ackward]

I thought, the throat has to be .001 bigger than the bullet

The idea has merit. Especially if you want to shoot heavier bullets that will need to actually enter the throat on the strong caming action what will soon end up being an arthritic thumb.

Has to be? There are those folks that shoot cast and want rifle like conditions in a handgun "IF" .... the gun has enough strength to handle that method. I sometimes do it myself. Especially with light bullets, ensuring that I get good enough ignition to replace what case neck tension I had to lose belling the case. I also believe that some designs benefit from more .... central alignment if the chambers are .... generous in size too.

With some bullet designs, and loads usually too light or too slow of a power, this technique is outstanding. With some designs, and loads the same size throat ruins the theory. Bet you heard that before huh? No matter what, you better have good alignment and strong bullets cause there will be no wiggle room for that slug to turn and it will have to rotate the weight and inertia of that cylinder far enough to get'er done until it eventually cuts a new path in your cone. In the mean time, it will be flier city.

[bbogue1]

Somewhere I read you can make a slug for straight casing (9mm and 38 Special come to mind) by melting fishing weights in the new or previously fired case (spent primer) after depriming and the primer hole is plugged. Then after the lead cools dump it out and there is your slug already sized the size of your cylinder/chamber. Good idea? or not.

[mozeppa]

that would be very difficult as the 9mm is a tapered case (not much ...but it is)

and other "so called straight cases" aren't straight either.
they get sized, re-sized, expanded, belled and fire formed.

after all that there is no such thing as a straight case...then pouring melted lead into a brass case is the best way i can think of to "solder" a case up solid.....it would never "dump" out freely or easily...you'd have to melt it out again.

[gwpercle]

I have used bell type fishing sinkers , they are pear shaped , round with a smaller top end and bigger bottom.
An assortment from the tackle shop can get the closest size needed. Being soft lead with a small end they drove into the bore easily. Have used them 6-7 times with perfect results.
Gary

[gnostic]

You will need to have a couple things on hand to slug your bore:

A Dial or Digital Caliper
A soft lead slug, slightly larger than your muzzle opening. (Some people use fishing weights)
Some Grease
A Hardwood dowel
A mallet

Take your soft lead slug and grease it up so it's nice and lubed.
Using the dowel and mallet, drive it through your muzzle opening backwards thru the rifling.
Measure your slug when it comes out. Measure the circumference between the Grooves that your rifling has cut, and also measure the outside diameter of the slug.

Here is a tutorial online: http://62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSlug.htm

Post your results on this forum and I'm sure that you will get plenty of suggestions for mould possibilities.



Andy

Never ever use wooden dowel, it'll break and you'll be screwed...

[44man]

Never ever use wooden dowel, it'll break and you'll be screwed...

True, brass or copper rod ONLY.
I slug throats by starting a round ball just over. Then put a brass rod against the ball and upset more with another rod against it with a hammer. tap it out. Use a good mike not calipers.
I also have a method to upset a ball into the rifling of revolvers and get it back out. No screws in the ball.

[Drew P]

Lots of good discussion here UNLESS your gun has odd number of grooves like my old colt. It only has 5 grooves. Now, that's a whole nuther story!