Barrel slugging

[Thomassen]

Not sure if this is the forum, but here I go.I wantto slug the throat of my 1899 Krag. I will nee to cast my own barrel slugs. I will use a wood mold. Any suggested dimensions? The barrel at the muzzle slugs at 308.

[HiVelocity]

Thomassen, this is a piece of cake to do. Go find a piece of "0" buckshot. Everywhere I read these to be .32 caliber, or .319.

You'll need a piece, or pieces of, dowel smaller than your .308 barrel to make this work. I found a package of 12 12" pieces in the arts and crafts section at Wally World for .97 and it fits in the bottom of my cleaning kit easily. I sprayed Kroil in the muzzle, and on the piece of buckshot and tapped the buckshot down flat into the muzzle. Now take one piece of dowel, place on top of the buckshot, and keep tapping til it starts moving downward. Apply more Kroil! Continue tapping the dowel down til its even with the muzzle. Now grab another piece of dowel and continue. With a piece of paper napkin in the open action, continue tapping the buckshot down til it falls out onto the napkin. "Viola! You've slugged your barrel!" All you have to do is get your handy "Micrometer" out and mike your slug.

How'd I do guys? Did I miss anything?

HV

[rogn]

Always be extremely careful to not overload the dowel w/ oversized slug or rough barrel. Using a brass rod or good quality fitting cleaning rod is better. Splitting and wedging a dowel in the bore will ruin at least one day.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
It is one thing to know the groove of a barrel. Far better is to know the throat diameter so a properly fitted boolit can begin the journey down the barrel straight and sealing the hot expanding propellant properly.
Having owned a few Krags and still having some do not be suprised to find some fat throats... .315 is not uncommon.
Mike in Peru

[stubshaft]

I usually fill an empty case with lead and let it cool off. Put it in the chamber and lock it in place. Put a smaller slug in front of the case (from the muzzle) and use a brass or aluminum rod to upset the slug. DO NOT USE A WOODEN DOWEL!!! Eject the case and push the upset slug out of the chamber.

[ukrifleman]

62295I use candle wax to slug the bores of my rifles, you can make them as long as you want and you get a chamber cast into the bargain.
ukrifleman

[blackthorn]

Post #5 wins the prize! Slugging the barrel from the muzzle back will not provide a picture of the chamber/leade. For those measurements you need to do either a chamber "cast" as set out in Post #6 (although I question how accurate using wax would be) or do an impact slug as set out in #5.

[Thomassen]

Regarding wax as a casting medium, how do you get it out without deforming?

[Phoenix]

I have filled a rifle case full to the neck with lead. Let it cool. Then seat an unsized boolit in the case so it is touching the previously poured lead. This should make a boolit that is several thousands longer than the max OAL. I do all this with soft lead. Put the case in the rifle and close the bolt (note this only works really well with bolt action rifles, I am sure you could do it semis but just havn't tried yet) If you use pure lead it will normally eject just fine on its own, if not I use a brass rod to drive it out. This give two measurements that have been usefull. The length from the bolt face to the beggining of the rifling which can be very handy and also tells the diameter of the rifling at where they start. This method has worked very well for me so far. if the slug does not show the rifling clearly then I try again with a larger slug.

I do realize this is the complicated method to do it. But I am meticulous that way. The only thing better would be to cast the chamber.

[Texantothecore]

My slugging outfit is a cheapo aluminum rod from Ace Hardware. I liberate a fired brass case from the local range that fits over the end of the rod but which is smaller than the bore. I slip the fired case onto the end of the rod and tape it in place. I then oil the barrel, freshen it up so to speak, and use an oversize roundball, oiled well and pound it down the bore. A roundball goes much easier than an oversize bullet and the whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

At some point I am going to slug the barrel when it hits about 140 F and see how much it closes down as the heat increases. Should be interesting.