Slugging your barrel

[Rangeball]

Busta's quote got me thinking. For his info to be usefull one needs to know the ID of the land and grooves of their barrel.

I know this involves sending a big chunk of lead down your barrel, but was wondering if someone that's done it could go through the process, start to finish.

Thanks

 

[Lee 9]

There are a number of ways you can do this including pouring a slug in the barrel but for your purposes it would be better to avoid the heat and shrinkage problem.
This is what I would do get some lead balls of the proper caliber flatten them in a reloading press or a vise enough to be just a bit bigger than the groves in your barrel use some thing like a 1/2 inch doll and a plastic hammer [DO NOT USE METAL,if you scarf up the button your gun will loose accuracy] drive the lead into the barrel till it is sliding fairly smooth turn the gun over take out the breach plug and push the lead slug out the end of the barrel and measure it. It is going to give you the most accurate answer if you are as gentle as possible and have oiled every thing involved and only put the slug as far down the barrel as is needed if you push it all the way through it will be a bit smaller than the actual dimension. Lee

 

[Semisane]

Here's what I do for a .50 caliber in-line.

First, take out the breech plug and make sure the bore is squeaky clean and well oiled, and take the barrel off of the stock.

Get yourself a 7/16" by 36" hardwood dowel from your local hardware store and cut in into two pieces, one 12" and one 24".

Lay a piece of heavy cloth down on a solid surface like a concrete patio or carport.

Put the barrel of the gun muzzle down in a vertical position on the cloth.

Drop the 12" dowel section down the bore from the breech end.

Drop a soft lead .490 or .495 ball down on top of the dowel.

Drop the 24" dowel on top of the ball and pound it with a hammer so as to flatten and expand the ball between the two dowel sections and into the grooves of the rifling.

Remove the dowels and push the ball out with your ramrod.

 

[Rangeball]

Thanks fellas