slugging my barrels

[jballs918]

well all i slugged my m38, and my k31. well my k31 slugged out at .307. from what i read that is pretty normal. then i slugged my m38. the bore was .305. alot smaller then what i thought. with these numbers what would you guys say i need for a mold. is there a mold that would cover both of them. please tell me what you all think

[Frank46]

May I suggest lyman 314299?. The body casts at .314 and the nose around .303-.304. Try using wheel weights with about 2% tin. And air cool them. They will be soft enough to slug up with about 20grs 4759 in the M38 & K31. You can size them down easily. Hope this helps. Frank

[Buckshot]

"................then i slugged my m38. the bore was .305. alot smaller then what i thought."

........I'm a bit confussed. I have a handle on the K31 thing, no problem. I'm assuming the 'M38' is a Rooski in 7.62x54R? So the bore is .305", what is the groove?

I have a M1909 Argentine that has a .314" groove, which is acceptable as that is just what some measure. Although I do have a couple M1891's that are .300x.311 and .301x.312". Nice :-) The problem with THIS M1909 is that the bore is a chubby .304". Lucky you if a Lyman 314299 comes in with a nose that fat.

So I had this .304x.314" barrel and nothing to feed it. A couple times trying to 'bump' size noses up a good couple thousand met with differing and inconsistant results. I finally thought heck, I'll use a slug next up the caliber chart of those I had and went to the 8mm.

I used the Lyman 323470 which is a 165gr Loverin. Lube-sized it to .323" and then sent the poor cringing thing up through a Lee .314" size die. Perfection! I now had a 165gr all body slug of a few tenths over .314". I loaded up a couple 20 over some suitable charges and fired them off. My reward was some pretty gratifying shooting, where before 'random dispersal' would have been a good choice of words.

...............Buckshot

[jballs918]

ok buckshot, i think i have a .305x314 or so maybe .313. i have a rcbs 32-170-fn. so im wondering if i do the same thing if that would help. what you think

[Buckshot]

ok buckshot, i think i have a .305x314 or so maybe .313. i have a rcbs 32-170-fn. so im wondering if i do the same thing if that would help. what you think

.............It will if the lube groove is deep enough. If the floor of the lube groove is larger then the ID of the bore, so the lands bottom in the lube groove then all bets are off. Also on the bore rider RCBS you may be moving too much metal on that nose possibly? What does the nose mike?

The beauty of the Loverin is the multiple skinny drive bands and lube grooves(makes sizing down easy). With the RCBS boolit you'd probably end up with a long engraving area and just the 2 (now smaller shallower) lube grooves way at the back.

You could sure try some though. Nothing beats a try but a failure. I'd sure put some tumble lube on that slug before sizing it down.

.................Buckshot