dmclark523
09-23-2012, 10:07 PM
Hello everyone, So I may be jumping the gun a little, but I just experimented and I think I found a really awesome way to slug your barrel without going to the trouble of buying ball ammo and shoving it down your bore.
The whole concept of slugging is that you use a soft lead ball that is just slightly bigger than your barrel so that, after you jam it in and remove it, you can measure the grooves and figure out what exact size your barrel is. This can help, of course, in figuring out exactly what mold you need to buy as well as what sizer you need to get.
So, after looking at my M1911, I found that, when the case sits in the chamber, the only thing stopping it is the fact that the case itself is just a hair wider than than actual bore. So i got the idea that if I can get a lead mold of the casing, I can use it to slug my barrel.
So I took some of the Wheel Weight stickies, which are almost pure lead (nice and soft), melted them down, skimmed the dross, and then poured them into my .45ACP bullet casing (primer still inside, of course).
48009
After cooling them down, I used my bullet puller to extract the perfectly cylindrical
lead from the casing. You can sit it about 1/3 of the way in due to the expansion of the case after firing it (Or maybe it's just the design of the casing). In any event, the extracted lead is tapered.
48010
48011
You can now lube it up a little and use it the exact some way you would any other slug. What do you guys think of this method?
I'm not sure, but I bet there is some way you could do this for rifle cases as well. I bet it would work for all pistols, however.
The whole concept of slugging is that you use a soft lead ball that is just slightly bigger than your barrel so that, after you jam it in and remove it, you can measure the grooves and figure out what exact size your barrel is. This can help, of course, in figuring out exactly what mold you need to buy as well as what sizer you need to get.
So, after looking at my M1911, I found that, when the case sits in the chamber, the only thing stopping it is the fact that the case itself is just a hair wider than than actual bore. So i got the idea that if I can get a lead mold of the casing, I can use it to slug my barrel.
So I took some of the Wheel Weight stickies, which are almost pure lead (nice and soft), melted them down, skimmed the dross, and then poured them into my .45ACP bullet casing (primer still inside, of course).
48009
After cooling them down, I used my bullet puller to extract the perfectly cylindrical
lead from the casing. You can sit it about 1/3 of the way in due to the expansion of the case after firing it (Or maybe it's just the design of the casing). In any event, the extracted lead is tapered.
48010
48011
You can now lube it up a little and use it the exact some way you would any other slug. What do you guys think of this method?
I'm not sure, but I bet there is some way you could do this for rifle cases as well. I bet it would work for all pistols, however.