Slugged my barrel by shooting low speed boolit

[MSGO-Hammer]

Have any of yall done this?
I wanted to slug my barrel on my 1911. I had a .454 round ball for a cap 'n' ball pistol.
I started to drive it down the barrel, then had a thought. What about loading a very low power round and firing it and recovering boolit for measuring.
So, I loaded two 230 gr. RN boolits over 1 gr. of Titegroup and fired them into the dirt pile. In soft dirt, they penetrated about 1 inch. I recovered both, and found no obvious issues with them, such as out of round, dents or the like.
I cleaned them, and measured them with a digital caliper. Both measured .4505 all the way around. Seems like a good way to slug a barrel to me, rather than pounding a slug down a barrel.

anybody else done this?

[Marvin S]

Several people do it that way as have I, just be careful ya don't put yer eye out.

[Blammer]

yep, I just shoot it straight up into the air and catch it when it comes down. :)

HA! just kidding.

[HammerMTB]

Have any of yall done this?
I wanted to slug my barrel on my 1911. I had a .454 round ball for a cap 'n' ball pistol.
I started to drive it down the barrel, then had a thought. What about loading a very low power round and firing it and recovering boolit for measuring.
So, I loaded two 230 gr. RN boolits over 1 gr. of Titegroup and fired them into the dirt pile. In soft dirt, they penetrated about 1 inch. I recovered both, and found no obvious issues with them, such as out of round, dents or the like.
I cleaned them, and measured them with a digital caliper. Both measured .4505 all the way around. Seems like a good way to slug a barrel to me, rather than pounding a slug down a barrel.

anybody else done this?

I have, but not with that as my purpose.
When I was setting up my Progressive press, I was having trouble with it, and got a short charge in a load. I didn't know it when I loaded it, but when I shot the load, it did not cycle the action of my Glock. The guy standing next to me said, hey the bullet is 3 feet in front of us.
So we looked for it and there it was.
Not sure I want to try to duplicate that, but it happened.
I'm making up a rubber mulch boolit catcher, and hope I can stop full power loads without damage. If so, no need to load 'em down. :drinks:

[bowenrd]

Won't the impact into dirt cause the round ball to flatten slightly giving an oversized false diameter?

[GaryN]

I've taken under size pure lead bullets and lightly tapped them with a hammer and measured them. You can make them grow by doing that so that they will fill the barrel. I would be afraid that shooting them might make them a little fatter.

[303Guy]

Works fine with a rifle even is the nose gets a little dinged. The problem is it does not tell us where the tightest part of the bore is. There are softe mediums than sand or dirt for catching a boolit without upsetting it's diameter for measuring. Any abrasive matter in the dirt would reduce the diameter if anything. Using a hard alloy would be good too provided it started out larger than groove. One cam check the size by slipping the fired boolit back into the muzzle. You might even find it only 'slips' in when the correct barrel land to boolit impression are aligned.

[Longwood]

Won't the impact into dirt cause the round ball to flatten slightly giving an oversized false diameter?
With 50g of black powder my soft lead balls turn inside out, are then about 7/8" diameter, and look like a miniature ashtray when shot into soft blow sand.
I will stick with the driving it down the barrel method.

[303Guy]

With 50g of black powder my soft lead balls turn inside out,

You mean like this? :mrgreen:
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/MVC-452F.jpg

This one is from a 303 Brit but the effect is the same. Yup, 50gr BP is a bit more than a 'light load'. :roll:

[Bret4207]

The only issues I would have are that you don't KNOW that boolit is expanded to full groove diameter and that the boolit didn't expand slightly on impact. Those tight and loose spots are another issue too. If you want a really accurate idea of your barrels dimensions then the old method is still best I'm afraid.

[Calamity Jake]

I like to upset a soft boolit in the throat then size accordingly.

As bret says, firing one slowly doesn't mean it will slug up to full groove dia.

[MSGO-Hammer]

Won't the impact into dirt cause the round ball to flatten slightly giving an oversized false diameter?

It will. I was using a 230 gr. RN boolit.

I know the boolit started out larger than the barrel dia. The boolit measured .4535 before firing down the barrel. Shooting into soft dirt did not cause the boolit to expand. I measured the diameter of each boolit just forward of the front driving band, and this measurement did not change after shooting them.

[243winxb]

Eanybody else done this?
Yes, works well if you start with an oversize bullet. Alloy is unimportant.

[Doby45]

If you want a really accurate idea of your barrels dimensions then the old method is still best I'm afraid.

Spoken for truth..