Problem trying to slug my revolver

[plaz]

I tried to slug my S&W 629, 44 magnum revolver, today for the first time. This was my first experience slugging any gun. I used a cast bullet and hammered it through the barrel with no problem,. However, when I tried to measure the diameter of the lower flats on the bullet I found that they were not 180 degrees apart. Therefore, there was no way that I was going to obtain the diameter of the applicable flats that you measure when you slug a gun.

Am I doing something wrong?.

[HDS]

S&W's have five grooves so you cannot measure them with a caliber or micrometer. You need a special tool called a V-anvil micrometer, with a 108 degree angle, they are many hundreds of dollars. Possibly a well equipped gunsmith will have one.

[Bass Ackward]

Hammered through?

One of the most telling things is how evenly it pushes through. Once the barrel is right, it should push through with two fingers and your thumb when dimensions and finish are correct.

For measuring, you can learn to rotate to the highest spot for measuring and get close. But how necessary is that really? I mean, it's just a number. The feel was everything for me.

So take the slug you created and try it in each throat. If it goes, you are good to go. Try to wiggle it and see how much play you have. Cause you can slug a (each if you are smart) throat and have that to measure. And all you need to do is be bigger than the bore really.

You also can wrap something around the slug of a uniform thickness and measure, due the math, and then you are close too.

99% of the time with a bore slug you will either be right on or small with a Smith. Everything is in the feel really. Difficulty pushing or skipping is not good. I mark my slugs with a magic marker so I can index them and try them again every 500 rounds so I can see (feel the change) the progress. Then I make a new slug and save it.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

If you do decide to slug the cylinder . . . remove the cylinder from the gun, do not rely on the crane to hold it.

I just twist the boolit slowly and get the high spot . . . also your cast boolit you use to slug should be very soft lead (like pure) or get a sinker, if it is too hard, it will not fill out the grooves all the way.

[mooman76]

You can measure the slug buy wrapping a piece of metal like aluminum from a beer can around the slug and measuring and subtract the difference. You do what you want with the beer.

[plaz]

Additional information.
When I put the cast bullet in to each chamber of the cylinder it just fell through all six chambers with no friction whatsoever.

I used a Lee 429 diameter mold to cast these bullets that I used to slug the gun barrel.

[Blammer]

don't use the cast boolit for they cylinder, use the slug you used to push through the barrel in the cylinders, if THAT one slips through, you're fine.

[dubber123]

Additional information.
When I put the cast bullet in to each chamber of the cylinder it just fell through all six chambers with no friction whatsoever.

I used a Lee 429 diameter mold to cast these bullets that I used to slug the gun barrel.

If it's really casting at .429", it stands a very good chance of being too small. You may have to beg, borrow or otherwise get some fatter slugs for your testing. Maybe you could Beagle the mould to get some bigger slugs. Btw, you aren't using wheel weight alloy for your slugging are you?

[Changeling]

A lot of people will tell you to use a oval fishing sinker witch is fine, IF it is pure lead or nearly so. Not all fishing sinkers are pure lead though. Some are literally hard as hell! Better to request some help on this forum (if in doubt) and get some pure lead slugs of the correct size. Check out the bullet swapping section, towards the end of the forum threads.

I suggested the above because of your statement "hammered it through".

[Edubya]

Additional information.
When I put the cast bullet in to each chamber of the cylinder it just fell through all six chambers with no friction whatsoever.

I used a Lee 429 diameter mold to cast these bullets that I used to slug the gun barrel.

Plaz, Congratulations on trying to do it correctly. What I did was to cast some pure lead (or almost pure) and slugged the cylinder. I had etched in "I"-"VI" on the flat base so that I could compare cylinders. I also marked the cylinder wit a magic marker the first cylinder. I coated each boolit with Castor oil. BTW, my boolits measured .4332 before slugging the cylinder. When done they all measured within .0004 of .430. I still have those boolits but the magic marker is long gone from the cylinder.

I ran a couple of extras through the cylinder and used them to slug the barrel. I used a short piece wood dowel to get it started from the breech end. I had to use a length of flat soft metal (I think that it was brass) to lay on the dowel, and through the open cylinder and by holding one end and hitting the other side with my mallet and then as the dowel became to short to leave any room I would cut a new piece. After the first inch or so the only resistance was friction, not swaging.

Now, I look back on it and think that slugging the barrel is really not necessary. The cylinder sizes you boolits nicely to fit your forcing cone and the forcing cone sizes to the barrel. This of course is the way it works if you have a quality gun like the S&W and a cast boolit that was properly sized to fill out the cylinder in the first place.

From what you have reported, I would suggest that you read the "Leeminting" sticky and do some modifying of your mould.
Good luck,
EW

[mooman76]

You can set a bullet on end and tap it with a hammer to make it slightly larger. Yes, I did say tap.

[StarMetal]

Take a strip of steel 1/8 thick by 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide, and 1 3/8 inch long. Bend it in the middle to a perfect 90 deg angle. Now at the outside corner of that bend file it flat as you dare to, not so that you weaken it, and make the flat you file is perfectly horizontal to the the two V legs point up. Now take a 44 caliber jacketed bullet and mic it. Write that down. Now mic the 44 jacketed bullet again but have the V tool you just made between it and the anvil of the
mic. In other words the bullet is inside the V tool. Subtract that number from the number where you miked just the bullet. This is the number to remember and keep...write it down. Now measure the slug you just slugged your five groove Smith barrel with. Put it inside the V tool and mic it. Next subtract that number I told you to save from the measurement you just got. That number will be your groove size.

I had the tool drawed up but didn't save. Seeing the picture explains it very easy.

I did a quit picture here it is if photobucket is up and running:
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg51/starmetal47/V-Tool.jpg

[AzShooter]

http://lbtmoulds.com/

You can get slugs from LBT and Veral will measure them for you . You do want to slug the barrel to see if there are any restrictions in it. Especially where there is stamping and whhere the barrel has been press fitted.

These can be removed by usintg light loads and Veral's polishing compound. You can also use JB Paste but I've done a lot of work with Veral's stuff from LBT and am very satisfied with it.

By the way get his book " How to get jacketed accuracy from cast bullets". Takes a few reading to understand everything but you will learn a lot.