slugging question

[Theo]

All right, here's the deal. I finally screwed up my courage and took a hammer ( plastic faced ) and tried to slug the barrel on my mid 70's vintage model 94. Using a 36 cal lead ball I started it into the muzzle end, got a nice doughnut of lead where it entered. Now comes the odd part. I take a dowel and start to shove it on through and, after about an inch, it just drops to about an inch from the chamber. Is this normal???

The rifle shoots very well ( under an inch at 75 yds with a 150 grain fngc Lee bullet driven by 9 grains of Unique, and under an inch at 100 yds with factory loads. No scope, just a peep.) Whats up?? Any suggestions??

Confused, as usual,

Theo

[Heavy lead]

Well obviously the barrel is bigger in the middle than on the ends, but...................sounds like it shoots ok anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it one bit, don't fix what's not broken.

[mooman76]

I have heard of some guns that when they install the sites it can tighten the barrel at that spot. Sounds like it to me but just an educated guess. I would also think that it wouldn't shoot as good or at least shoot cast as well but if it shoots good it shouldn't be a problem.

[geargnasher]

Many guns are tight at the muzzle due to the sight, most pistols have a restriction where the barrel is screwed into the frame and this can cause leading due to overswaging the boolit and gas cutting from the point where the bore gets bigger. Your gun probably is tight near the chamber due to the half-page of script stamped into the left side of the barrel. Don't worry about a tight muzzle, ususally doesn't hurt anything, I usually only worry about contrictions further toward the chamber. If it shoots straight, it shoots straight and don't ask too many questions! If it shootst straight and leads, then worry about it.

Gear

[stubert]

size the bullets .001 - .002 over your slug and you should be good to go.

[largom]

The tight muzzle would not concern me too much. The tight spot ahead of the chamber would be my concern. You say it shoots good so I would let it be, size your boolits .002 over as suggested and have fun. However, IF you really wanted to take out the high spots you could fire a doxen or so firelap boolits.

Larry

[Theo]

Thankx for the info guys. I shot yesterday trying some of the Hornady Lever evolution rounds and hit the gong at 200 yds twice ( the second one was to prove that the first was not a fluke) free hand. So, it does shoot well.

I'll try some sized to 310 and see what that does.

Thankx again,

Theo

[hiram]

One more suggestion--

Do not size the bullet, insert it in an empty case and see if it chambers. If it chambers, then tumble lube a few bullets with LLA, load, and shoot.

As far as the gas check is concerned, run the bullet 1/4 or 1/3 into the sizing die just to get the gc to stay on.

What size is the non-sized bullet??