Question about 'slugging' a barrel

Re3iever

Re3iever

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I have an 1894 Winchester (mfg date 1897) chambered in 38-55 , the rifling is visible but the bore is quite dark - I would like to 'slug' the barrel. My question is would I be ok to use a .451 lead round ball to slug the barrel? Or do I need something smaller diameter? Looking for recommendations / suggestions.

Thanks, Retreever
 
That will work if you have a big enough hammer and heavy rod. It will swage down or shave off the circumference to fit.

The smarter trick is to work it with the hammer on an anvil or something to get it close to the right size before jamming it in the bore.
If you have a mold cast a bullet of pure lead and bump it or the nose to make it slightly wider if it's too small.
 
When I slugged my 38-55 I made up a slug to .382 or whatever by taking a short piece of 1/2"copper pipe 2" long and filled it with lead. I then stuck it in a lathe and turned down a piece of lead for the slug approx. 1/2" long. I put a bit of a taper on it with a file and then cut it off. I then drove it through the bore with a piece of 3/8" brass rod. It does help if you have access to a lathe though. As you hammer it through the slug will expand to fill the groves if you are a bit small.
 
I have driven lead slugs through a couple of mine. I bought a box of .375 Hornady Round Balls for that purpose. Set on muzzle - barrel solidly held vertical in vice or tang on floor - tapped with hammer - ball mushed out and the muzzle cut the plug. Finished with a brass punch smaller than the bore. Leaves like a donut of lead behind. Then used a .250" steel rod - I have electrical tape wrapped about every three inches so it does not rub on the rifling - never was too much fuss to drive through once I learned to dribble some light oil through there first. "Dark" bore under bore scope is almost always pitted - might be "rougher" than usual to drive a plug through. Might want to consider one just inch or two into muzzle, then back out, as well as all the way through - lets you know how your muzzle area is doing compared to rest of the barrel.
 
if you don't have a soft lead ball around .40", but do have a lead pot and a ladle; try plugging the barrel near the muzzle with a piece of paper towel then pour enough lead in on top so that you end up with a cylinder roughly the same length as the diameter. Drive it down with a 6 or 8" length of brass rod and a hammer then the rest of the way with a 5/16" brass rod if you can get one or with a steel rod and electrical tape like described by Potashminer

cheers mooncoon
 
I would just use one of the lead projectiles I intent to shoot. Place one on a hard surface and give it a good swat with a hammer. It will be oversized enough and won’t require excessive force to start in the bore
 
If you only have an oversize lead ball, you can roll it to slightly over bore size by placing it between a hard surface like a work bench and rolling it back and forth under a large flat file until it is the diameter you need. Then lube it and tap it into the bore.
 
Slugging is wasted effort.
Get yourself a Vernier caliper, carefully spread internal jaws of the instrument in the muzzle end of the bore. Perform 2 measurements one on the lands and one on the grooves.
Groove measurement will give you max bullet diameter you can use in this particular bore. And that is the diameter fired bullets will leave the bore.

if bore is rough or pitted one can choose bullet in 50% difference diameter between lands and grooves and will give satisfactory results.
Slugging is good for measuring particular part of the bore, where ring is or where damage occurred, but it will not give accurate bore diameter.
 
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