How to properly slug a barrel question

[wywindsor]

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

[Bill8914]

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.

[RichardB]

don't work with a muzzle loader!

[Outpost75]

Go read the sticky on making a pound cast. Size bullets to fit throat, not the barrel.

[leadhead]

And DON'T use wooden dowels.... They can shatter in the bore
and then you have a real problem. I speak from experience.
leadhead

[charlie b]

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.

[Conditor22]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?356251-Pound-Cast-instructions-(for-rifle-chamber)

[porthos]

a pound cast is MUCH better than slugging a bbl.

[wywindsor]

Thanks for the link.

[gbrown]

Rotometals makes chamber cast alloy. See advertisers top center of page.

[Boolseye]

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.