casting slugs for sluggin bore

[semtav]

How does anyone make slugs to slug their bores?

I drilled some holes of various sizes in a bar of aluminum and poured some soft lead in them. now trying to get them out.

any suggestions, better ideas ?

[captaint]

sem - your idea certainly is not the worst I've heard. In fact I would like to have some myself. A lot of guys buy lead egg shaped sinkers. I guess they'er pure Pb??? Let us know how you make out. Mike

[mooman76]

I have heard of some drilling into wood and using that. I use lead from roundball moulds for BP. they work exceptionally well.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Perhaps a small run of 6-hole moulds with holes such as a 22+ caliber nose and a 25+ caliber base and so on . would be especially useful. It might even require a 2 mould set of blocks for the very sophisticated. Some entrepreneur could sell moulds, others cast from them, etc..

BvT

[semtav]

maybe I'll clamp two pieces of aluminum together and try to drill the hole at the parting line.

[mooman76]

I bought a rounded headed jig mould to use for odd sizes that I don't have. It has very small sizes all the way up to 1/2". I just trim of the little tabs.

[Cactus Farmer]

maybe I'll clamp two pieces of aluminum together and try to drill the hole at the parting line.

Drill and then ream the holes .They will be much smoother and more likely to allow the slugs to "fall" out. Do all this drilling and reaming on a drill press with some coolant/lube to make a smoother job. Lineup pins would be a thing to do first for ease of use.

[Edubya]

I just cast some boolits in straight stick on WW.
semtav, if you do the two pieces of aluminum mould thing, remember, aluminum conducts heat real good!
EW

[Mk42gunner]

Since I have a few cap and ball revolvers, I normally use the swaged balls for them.

Since it doesn't require perfect boolits for slugging; you can use just about anything to cast a few soft slugs; I lkie the idea of drilling holes in a piece of pine then splitting the slugs out.


Good luck


Robert

[Rocky Raab]

I've slugged a lot of guns in my time. I always used pure lead swaged roundballs (Hornady). Start with a ball much larger than you need. I generally used .50 or .45 balls.

Gently tap on a roundball with a very light hammer, rolling it on a steel surface until it becomes a round cylinder. Roll it between two pieces of glass or smooth steel to get it as smooth and round as needed. Stop when it is just a bit larger than the bore, measured by setting it into the muzzle.

Lightly oil the slug and the thoroughly cleaned bore. Start the slug into the muzzle by gently tapping it. When it is flush with the muzzle, start pushing it in with a short dowel, and then a long one (just as you'd use a short starter and ramrod with a muzzleloader). Catch the slug on a folded towel when it come out of the breech.

[monadnock#5]

A couple of years ago I bought two round ball moulds. One .360 and one .460. Then I cast up a bunch of each since "pure lead" doesn't age harden. Those two sizes cover 90% of my needs for slugs.

It doesn't seem to me that it would be too difficult to drill some chamfered holes in a piece of steel for the purpose of swaging and stepping down a .360 ball to .330 and/or .315 for 8mm and .30, I just haven't gotten that ambitious yet. :rolleyes:

[Gunlaker]

I used to use lead sinkers until one day I found a package that was quite a bit harder than pure lead. (not the new steel ones though :smile:).

I decided to take a bullet cast in 20:1 and gently "bump it up a couple of thousandths" with my precision hammer :smile:. It seemed to work very well.

Chris.

[dromia]

Bore slug mould thread here:

Bore Slug Mould Thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=69409)