G day gents
A muzzle loading shooting friend has a .38 cal Slug gun. He obtained it 40 years ago, did bugger all with it, and now has no idea where the false muzzle for the rifle, is. The barrel makes me think that someone was missing a truck axle at the time it was made.
Since I own a lathe I have been approached about making another false muzzle.Lucky me!. I have endeavored to post as much info as I can in the hope you guys are able to assist.
The barrel mikes out at 28.65 mms ( thats 1.128" ) diameter. I have a piece of 43 mm ( 1.69") diameter cold rolled round steel bar, so the current rush of poo to the brain, is to counter bore the said 43mm bar so it drops over the muzzle and stops short of the front sight that is set some 32 ( 1.25") mm back from the muzzle face.
I have a couple of slugs he cast for it and they measure 9.32( .366' ) and 9.33 mms diameters respectively.x26.5mm ( 1.04") long flat nose rounded top and 6 grooves.
The rifle bore ( measured with a telescopic gauge ) is 9.44 (0.371") .The rifling grooves are hard to measure but I'm guesssing 0.005" deep
I am supposing that the discrepancy shall be made up with paper patching.
I did some internet searching and found one .38 cal slug gun that was patched with freezer wrap. I have raided my ladys roll of freezer paper for a sample and if measures very thin at .03mm. If I haven't bolloxed up the conversion I think thats around .001".
I dunno,maybe I have the wrong freezer wrap.
Another question is boring the false muzzle.I have been requested to make it the same diameter as the slug. Not sure as to drill it and finish with a lathe tool or just ream it. If I could get my sticky fingers on a suitable adjustable reamer ?
Nobody down under seems to shoot them any more and the old blokes who shot them aren't with us any more. Me and my mate, now being bona fide old blokes are qualified in that respect to take on this project.It will keep us from getting into mischief.
If you have some slug gun information and comments you think may be of use to us ,I sure would like to hear about it.
Thanks
Whitesmoke