just a thought. has anyone ever used the wax bullets used for single action practice to slug/measure a revolver bbl? seems like it would be a lot easier than pounding an egg sinker fishing weight down the bbl if done real easy.

If the wax is stout enough to form a solid measuring surface then it work.
However, do not use fishing sinkers; they are often not pure lead. Use a pure lead round ball of any size greater than the groove diameter of your barrel. Lightly oil it. Smack it into the muzzle with a plastic or wood hammer. Drive it out from the breech; you can drive it through the bore with a Brass rod if you want to; it won't be difficult as once it is formed, there will be little resistance to it.

i was advised to use a fishing weight on one i did years ago. oiled it etc. liked to never drove the damn thing thru. probably wasn't pure lead. thanks

Fishing weights can be anything and today they may even be zinc!

Take a cast bullet you are wanting to shoot. Just lube it without sizing or even a gas check. This is providing that it's not so oversize that the cartridge will chamber. If you're shooting a standard cartridge like 308, 30-30, 30-06 load it with two grains of Bullseye. They get a cardboard box that is at least 15 inches square or so. Stuff it with rags of any sort. Pack it, but not rock hard. Elevate your rifle with the cartridge in it so that it positions the small amount of powder down against the flash hole. Level it off gently aiming at the center of the box and fire it. It won't be that load. The rags will stop. Sort through the rags and recover your bullet. Unless it was pure lead the rags won't damage the bullet. I've done this for years to get a quick gauge of the bore and groove. Takes less time they explaining it here. Only thing you're wife may bitch about the pop if you do it in the basement.

its for a revolver but i get the gist of it. thanks

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:
its for a revolver but i get the gist of it. thanks

Same thing for a revolver John, except maybe little less Bullseye especially accordingly to the case size.

Pure lead works best (meaning no tin or antimony). The last bbl that I slugged was a 7x57 AI that I sent to Veral Smith to give me PRECISE bore dims. It worked. He does know his business even if his political opinions are not appreciated by the upper class (like having a problem with paying taxes? Hell, I don't like paying them either but that is what we call rent for living here.).Back on the subject, his wife still sells the lube + the slugs. If he is still in stir, send some business to his wife that will help with groceries,etc.

My apologies; I never sent the rifle;e; only the chamber cast

I re-read what you said in your original post and you mentioned a single action revolver. I can tell you that you don't get a good representation of the groove diameter by pounding a bullet down the muzzle as more often the crown scrapes the bullet going in. You can do it from the rear by removing the cylinder and starting a slug in through that way using short rods in session to popping it out of the barrel. A real good set of vernier calipers can also give you a very close estimation by measuring the grooves at the muzzle. You do know that Hornady has soft lead round balls for various caliber cap n ball pistols and muzzle loaders right?

quote:

You do know that Hornady has soft lead round balls for various caliber cap n ball pistols and muzzle loaders right?

yea but they don't sell just one. or two.

Do you have any soft lead at all? If you do find a drill bit that is a tad larger then your bore/groove. Drill some holes in some Oak or Hickory to the depth you want. I temper those holes with the flame off the tip of a propane torch. Pour your molten lead and let cool. The way I get them off is place a folded up towel next to my vise and I wack that board over the vise and inertia pulls the slugs out. Make sure they are completely cool. Towel catches them and prevent any damage on them. I use these for all sort of things especially chamber pound casts if you know what that is.

i have a few lbs of flashing i have smelted down over the years. i like the idea of loading a soft cast slug over some trail boss cheerios and popping it off into some sort of soft medium better though. i live in the country so hearing a gunshot around here is as common and 9 mils being fired held sideways in chicago. nobody will care.

Yeah that will work so will about 1.5 grains of Bullseye. Bunch of old towels or rags work well to, doesn't take much. Remember a fired through or push through slug is only Representative of the tightest portion of your bore. When you do a push through with a rod you can feel those tight and lose places.

Alternatives for Barrell lapping is using approx. 7 G. of 700X + fire the chamber. That being said, if you choose not to use cerosafe + (do it the right way), cast yourself a slud of pure pig (lead) + just slug your bore. Real elementals lead will give only minor obstructions. Besides you can push them out with a cleaning handle.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Alternatives for Barrell lapping is using approx. 7 G. of 700X + fire the chamber. That being said, if you choose not to use cerosafe + (do it the right way), cast yourself a slud of pure pig (lead) + just slug your bore. Real elementals lead will give only minor obstructions. Besides you can push them out with a cleaning handle.

Are you two pm'ing or something? I don't see where he was asking about fire lapping.

randy likes to cover all the bases. he knows a lot too. plus, i told him i dont have any old towels to shoot into so hes saving up all his old chonees for me to use. he says they got so many holes now that the slug would probably just pass thru!

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:
randy likes to cover all the bases. he knows a lot too. plus, i told him i dont have any old towels to shoot into so hes saving up all his old chonees for me to use. he says they got so many holes now that the slug would probably just pass thru!

So why is he talking about firelapping and also about Cerosafe? I too have much experience. Let's get all the data here. First what brand of revolver are you talking about and next what caliber is it?

if you wanna know about firelapping and cerosafe ask him.
pistol is a smith 29. HOWEVER, my question was really about slugging IN GENERAL. i have several revolvers i cast for and i am not going to list them here or anywhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:
if you wanna know about firelapping and cerosafe ask him.
pistol is a smith 29. HOWEVER, my question was really about slugging IN GENERAL. i have several revolvers i cast for and i am not going to list them here or anywhere else.

Well John I'm going to try to help you out. First off the more important thing is the diameter of your cylinder throats, then the groove diameter of the barrel. You always want to shoot a cast bullet that is at least groove size, preferably larger. Now let's say you get your groove diameter and find out it's larger then your cylinder throats diameter. That's not good. You want that throat at, preferably a tad larger then the groove diameter. Okay let's say you get your slug to measure. How are you going to measure it John if you don't have a V mic? Smiths are five groove rifling and you can't measure a slug from them in a regular flat anvil mic.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
Yeah that will work so will about 1.5 grains of Bullseye. Bunch of old towels or rags work well to, doesn't take much. Remember a fired through or push through slug is only Representative of the tightest portion of your bore. When you do a push through with a rod you can feel those tight and lose places.

what is the benefit of knowing the tight and loose places in the bbl if you can't correct said places?

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:
if you wanna know about firelapping and cerosafe ask him.
pistol is a smith 29. HOWEVER, my question was really about slugging IN GENERAL. i have several revolvers i cast for and i am not going to list them here or anywhere else.

Well John I'm going to try to help you out. First off the more important thing is the diameter of your cylinder throats, then the groove diameter of the barrel. You always want to shoot a cast bullet that is at least groove size, preferably larger. Now let's say you get your groove diameter and find out it's larger then your cylinder throats diameter. That's not good. You want that throat at, preferably a tad larger then the groove diameter. Okay let's say you get your slug to measure. How are you going to measure it John if you don't have a V mic? Smiths are five groove rifling and you can't measure a slug from them in a regular flat anvil mic.

well. my assumption is, and its just an assumption, i would acquire a set of plug (pin?) gages and measure the throats. or take it to a smith and have him do it. that'd git er done, no? but i understand and agree with ur explaination of the importance of the diff measurements of the bbl and throats.

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:

quote:

Originally posted by john c.:
if you wanna know about firelapping and cerosafe ask him.
pistol is a smith 29. HOWEVER, my question was really about slugging IN GENERAL. i have several revolvers i cast for and i am not going to list them here or anywhere else.

Well John I'm going to try to help you out. First off the more important thing is the diameter of your cylinder throats, then the groove diameter of the barrel. You always want to shoot a cast bullet that is at least groove size, preferably larger. Now let's say you get your groove diameter and find out it's larger then your cylinder throats diameter. That's not good. You want that throat at, preferably a tad larger then the groove diameter. Okay let's say you get your slug to measure. How are you going to measure it John if you don't have a V mic? Smiths are five groove rifling and you can't measure a slug from them in a regular flat anvil mic.

well. my assumption is, and its just an assumption, i would acquire a set of plug (pin?) gages and measure the throats. or take it to a smith and have him do it. that'd git er done, no? but i understand and agree with ur explaination of the importance of the diff measurements of the bbl and throats.

John you should be able to do this stuff yourself. For the throat find a fat cast bullet, and if you don't have one tap on the nose of one on the anvil to compress the bullet some, then tap this through your cylinder throat from the case side of the cylinder. Clean your throats and cylinder first. Preferably do this to get all six throat dimensions. Do you own a standard 0-1 inch mic?I can pm you a drawing on how to make a V block to change it into a V mic.

another thought. and its just that, not n opinion or statement. cast bullets require lube. wax bullets (a type of lube) leave wax in revolver bbls. so rather than brushing etc out the wax bullet residue, why not shoot some cast after a wax shooting session? win/win?

That'll work John as I've done it. You can't do a lot of them though.

well, i wasn't speaking in lieu of lubing them, but in addition to.

vzerone, sorry if you feel I overstepped my bounds. Only throwing some info that I understand. I'm sorry if you found the knowledge inapplicable to your current query. I will get off on a tangent here for a minute. In my college years, as we all know we were all broker than a blind pickpocket in a nudist colony. So to keep our skills (aka interests) we would take cases (mostly 45 L.C.) prime them only then do a cookie-cutter routine by tutting the case mouth in a pad of paraffin + thus we had a test projectile that would work indoors at a copy of Moby Dick that we propped up + adhered a dollop of homey to attract the prey (flys) Get your practice w3here you can + must still admit that this was a very good exercise. C'mon, popping a fly with a revolver at 30+ feet is a lesson in accuracy.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
vzerone, sorry if you feel I overstepped my bounds. Only throwing some info that I understand. I'm sorry if you found the knowledge inapplicable to your current query. I will get off on a tangent here for a minute. In my college years, as we all know we were all broker than a blind pickpocket in a nudist colony. So to keep our skills (aka interests) we would take cases (mostly 45 L.C.) prime them only then do a cookie-cutter routine by tutting the case mouth in a pad of paraffin + thus we had a test projectile that would work indoors at a copy of Moby Dick that we propped up + adhered a dollop of homey to attract the prey (flys) Get your practice w3here you can + must still admit that this was a very good exercise. C'mon, popping a fly with a revolver at 30+ feet is a lesson in accuracy.

I don't feel that at all!!!

Good to hear we are still friends.