Mold for Slugging Bores

[GregLaROCHE]

Why doesn’t someone produce a mold with several different diameters to use for making slugs for slugging bores? A four or six cavity mold with the diameters slightly greater than the most common calibers would be nice to have. The slugs could be a little bit tapered in the beginning, to help them start. I guess you could buy one of Lee’s un machined molds and do it yourself. Accuracy wouldn’t be that important, since it’s only for slugging. Maybe that way more people will be encouraged to slug their bores.

[725]

Not a bad idea.................

[Dusty Bannister]

Gang mold, tapered reamer? Cheap used 2 cav mold and polish out with a tapered spindle with sand paper attached. Or leave the bullet nose full diameter and just drill the body a little over sized. Great idea, not too difficult to fabricate.

[MrWolf]

I've taken a piece of fired brass from the gun I want to slug. Poured some dead soft lead in it, peeled off the brass and used that to slug. Might have to squish it some but very basic. I've only slugged a few times but it works for me. Good luck.
Ron

[Jack Stanley]

Greg , you can take a cast bullet larger than the barrel you want to slug and roll it between two pieces of steel to reduce it . Also , you can use a bullet for the caliber you want to load . Cast from soft alloy , place bullet on hard surface and bump it with a hammer . It might take a few tries but the idea is to expand the body enough to do the job.

Jack

[Bent Ramrod]

I use round lead balls that I’ve cast for muzzleloaders. The circumference is easy to swage or press off when slightly oversize by tapping the ball into the muzzle with a delrin punch. Adjusting the diameter up for a larger bore is done by putting the ball on my vise anvil and tapping with a hammer.

I can’t imagine the market for special slugs for bore measurements would be very large. The only guy I ever heard about who was doing it all the time was Bill Calfee, the rimfire .22 BR gun builder. He would buy his barrel blanks extra long, and painstakingly slug the bores to find the minimum inside diameter by “feel.” He would cut and face the barrel off at that point for the muzzle end. The “choke” that resulted was one of his trade secrets.

This took a fair number of lead slugs (and a sense of touch few have), but he had a pal at an ammo company get him a few pounds of swaged .22LR bullets, so he was set for life.

[Mk42gunner]

I use swaged lead roundballs meant for muzzle loading. I sit a suitably oversized one on the crown of a lightly lubed bore and give it a whack with a rawhide mallet to get things started, then push it through with a metal rod.

I know someone is going to recommend a wooden rod, very bad idea.

Robert

[Rapier]

I use "as cast" pure lead bullets. If you put chunks of pure lead in a pour dipper sitting in your casting pot, it will melt and you can pour an over size bullet. If you need a bigger bullet, put a piece of tin foil on each side of the mould to open it up, foil keeps the lead in at the cavity, works well enough to give you an over sized slug. Heard of folks using foil tape on the mould face. Does the same, just need to clean it off.

[Bigslug]

Probably a six cavity format with the larger diameter closest to the hinge end for greater leverage? Slugs sufficiently tapered to start in a range of calibers:

.48 - ish, to cover all the permutations of .45

.44 - ish, to get down to the .416's and .40's

.38 - ish, covering .375's, 9.3's, and all the .35's

.34 - ish, gets us down through the .30's and .32's

.29 - ish - .270 and 7mm

.26 - ish - down to the .22's

The slugs would want to be long enough to fill a throat in the pound-casting process.

Anybody deal with Lee directly on casting gear? Think they'd be down for it?

[mdatlanta]

Why doesn’t someone produce a mold with several different diameters to use for making slugs for slugging bores? A four or six cavity mold with the diameters slightly greater than the most common calibers would be nice to have. The slugs could be a little bit tapered in the beginning, to help them start. I guess you could buy one of Lee’s un machined molds and do it yourself. Accuracy wouldn’t be that important, since it’s only for slugging. Maybe that way more people will be encouraged to slug their bores.

Great idea. I wonder if NOE would do it?

[blackthorn]

I made a bunch by drilling various sized holes through a 3/4" piece of scrap plywood. Clamped the wood to a flat iron plate, filled the holes with scrap roof vent lead, let it cool and punched the "castings" out, done.

[MT Gianni]

I made a bunch by drilling various sized holes through a 3/4" piece of scrap plywood. Clamped the wood to a flat iron plate, filled the holes with scrap roof vent lead, let it cool and punched the "castings" out, done.

I did the same with a 2x2. You don't need many for what we use them for. I used to use South Bend egg sinkers but they stopped making them from soft lead.

[megasupermagnum]

I never understood what is wrong with just using a bullet. I use a round ball if I have one the right size, but I understand not everyone is into muzzleloaders and buckshot. Egg sinkers can be an option too if you want to buy them. I just use whatever bullet mold, and cast them of pure lead. It doesn't have to be perfect either. I've used a 44 caliber mold to slug a 45 caliber barrel, I just smooshed the bullet a little in a vice.

This is one area I think people have way over complicated it for nothing, kind of like that thread about some guy filling up a cleaned fired case with lead and pulling the slug or some nonsense. Just cast a bullet of pure lead and get on with your day. What is way more important is getting a good rod for driving them through. Cheap wood dowels as commonly recommended are garbage. Hardwood might work. I use 1/4" and 3/8" brass rod I bought from the hardware store. Wrap the end in some electrical tape, and have at it.

[Duke3026]

I use egg sinkers. The molds for them can be found on flea bay. Last one I tried to order, they wouldn’t ship to my area.

[gwpercle]

They do ... take a look at Fishing Sinker Moulds .
I like to use Bell Sinkers , Pear Sinkers or Egg Sinkers .
A co called Do-It Moulds ... link might be www.do-itmolds.com
I think that is it ... anyways sinkers come in a variety of assorted shapes and assorted sizes , I have used Bell , Pear and Egg shapes to slug bores ...find a sinker just a little over bore dia. and it's easy to slug .
Two big advantages ... sinker moulds do Not cost an arm . leg and first born male child ( Don't tell the boolit mould makers) and you can still cast fishing sinkers with them ... and fishing sinkers are starting to get expensive !
Gary

[Gobeyond]

Group buy ? @GregLaRoche

[Chaparral66]

I made a 3 cavity mold for 45 ACP, 40 S&W and 9mm. Sadly I screwed up the diameters for two of them. Time to go back to the machine shop.

[redhawk0]

I beagle a mold for whatever caliber...it's usually 0.004-0.006" over. Gives plenty of overage to get good measurements.

redhawk

[JSnover]

Something like this might work for a couple of sizes. Or you could beagle one of your molds.
https://www.harborfreight.com/double...4aa805ffb86355

[Hannibal]

Drill a hole a bit oversized in a piece of aluminum. Fill out doesn't need to be anywhere near perfect.

No need to over-think or complicate this.