What do you guys use to slug your barrels?

[Rickf1985]

I want to slug the barrels of several of my older guns, most of which are 30 cal. but the AK which is supposedly .310. I cast some 311359's in solid lead since they are a short boolit but I realized real quick that was not going to work. I am not going to use a hammer in this process!

[PJEagle]

As long as the boolit is pure lead it should work fine. Make sure the bore is clean. Lube the barrel and the boolit. Then use a Plastic tipped hammer to drive the boolit into the barrel. Use a cold rolled steel or a brass rod to drive it the rest of the way through. You can wrap tape around the leading end of the rod to protect the barrel. Don't use a wood dowel.

[CastingFool]

when I slugged my 30 cal barrels, I used a sharp 5/16" drill bit (.312") to drill a series of holes 3/4" deep into a piece of fine grained oak. (maple would probably work, too) then poured molten plumbers lead into the holes. When the lead solidified, I split the piece of oak and removed the resulting slugs. I tapered one end, to promote entry into the bore.

[schutzen-jager]

any soft lead buck shot pellet that is slightly oversize for bore will work perfectly -

[gnoahhh]

No point in slugging the bore. Do a chamber casting to include an inch of bore. It'll tell you all you need to know - primarily throat diameter which indicates bullet diameter, and you can mic the bore section of the casting to get groove diameter too if you really need to know that. It's not voo-doo or black magic to do.

[schutzen-jager]

casting chamber + short section of rifling leaves out some the primary reasons for slugging the bore - some of which being detecting tight spots + invisible internal bulges that are not seen externally - slugging does more than determine diameters -

[Minerat]

I use lead egg sinkers or BP round balls.

[Hick]

I use the same bullet I plan to shoot-- as-cast before sizing. I find it easier that way because the bullet nose is easy to insert into the muzzle. Then I drive the bullet through the bore nose first. I realize some prefer to use soft lead, but normal bullet alloy isn't going to hurt the barrel. And, since the bullet is only a few thou larger than the bore, it's easy to drive and gives a good result.

[GhostHawk]

A I started out same as you. Slugging barrels.

B Once I happened across a post about doing a pound cast of the chamber from neck through leade/forcing cone and into the rifling.

My next new gun I tried it, saved the cast, and when I had received all my components remeasured and used those to setup my dies. Made a dummy and kept advancing the boolit in the case until I had rifling marks on a chambered round. Backed my dies off a quarter turn and loaded. Best starting load and group I ever had.

C I have not slugged a barrel since then. I have done a few pound casts when needed.

D When I was doing slugging hitting a soft lead slug with a hammer is pretty much required. Or you are not going to get it to expand enough to be helpful. IMO.
Sure you can tell where the tops of the lands are. But the information you need is where the bottom's of the grooves are. And I try to size everything 2-3 thousandths bigger than that. Fit is king. Lots of variables but fit rules the roost, again IMHO.

[Hick]

A I started out same as you. Slugging barrels.

B Once I happened across a post about doing a pound cast of the chamber from neck through leade/forcing cone and into the rifling.

My next new gun I tried it, saved the cast, and when I had received all my components remeasured and used those to setup my dies. Made a dummy and kept advancing the boolit in the case until I had rifling marks on a chambered round. Backed my dies off a quarter turn and loaded. Best starting load and group I ever had.

C I have not slugged a barrel since then. I have done a few pound casts when needed.

D When I was doing slugging hitting a soft lead slug with a hammer is pretty much required. Or you are not going to get it to expand enough to be helpful. IMO.
Sure you can tell where the tops of the lands are. But the information you need is where the bottom's of the grooves are. And I try to size everything 2-3 thousandths bigger than that. Fit is king. Lots of variables but fit rules the roost, again IMHO.

Driving the bullet through the bore with a rod causes all the expansion of the base of the bullet that you need-- it fills the grooves just fine. When I slugged my barrels with a slightly oversized bullet the bullet took the full form of the grooves. When I first tried it I coated the entire bullet with black and it came out with the entire surface shiney-- which shows that the lead was rubbing in the bottom of the grooves. And, on every one of the rifles, once I sized to that diameter plus 0.001" I have never again seen any leading. Nothing wrong with using dead soft lead if that's what makes you feel comfortable.

[charlie b]

I am another that just does the 'pound cast' of the throat area. Never needed to check the rest of the barrel since I buy them new. I take a cast bullet and 'squish' it a bit in the vise to increase the dia a tad, just in case the throat is too big. Brass rod and hammer do the rest. It does help a little bit to oil the slug.

[schutzen-jager]

charlie b , new barrels can have bore defects also - i bought a new .22 Winchester years ago that had a very pronounced tight spot center of barrel below sight dovetail that had serious effect on accuracy - very apparent when slugged + Winchester replaced it promptly

[Uncle Grinch]

Egg sinkers are good for me too. They come in a variety of sizes.

[ascast]

egg sinkers or lead balls BUT really do cerosafe casts - easier, chamber cast, muzzle cast all good

[georgerkahn]

I want to slug the barrels of several of my older guns, most of which are 30 cal. but the AK which is supposedly .310. I cast some 311359's in solid lead since they are a short boolit but I realized real quick that was not going to work. I am not going to use a hammer in this process!

For my most-common-calibre arms I use "Barrel Slugging Kits" from Meister (https://www.meisterbullets.com/slugyourbarrelsdetails.asp). Before I got these, and for calibres of which, say, I only have one arm (e.g., my .22-250), I cast a bullet or two or three ;), and do not size these. I put them in a machine vise and squench them down a turn and one-half of vise handle, which makes them just increased-diameter for slugging. I clean barrel, followed by a couple of passes of an oil-dampened patch. I then, from muzzle end, tap-tap-tap the bullet down to receiver using a brass rod, on which I have applied heat-shrink tubing to protect barreling. I will add, as a suggestion, DO NOT USE WOOD to tap bullet through!!!! (Don't ask how I learned this tidbit ;))
After tapping at least three bullets through, I then take my micrometer -- NOT a caliper (albeit I have a fairly good Mitutoyo one) -- and take measurements. Be it springback, my ineptness at taking measurement, or ??? -- I measure the three bullets, and generally my results are all within 5 10th-thous' of each other -- close enough for me.
Note I also do a 3-slug test with the Meisters. And, as a btw, if you check out their site -- they have pretty fine instructions.
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