I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to go about slugging my barrel? I want to start shooting hardcast out of my .444, but since I wont be casting my own I wanted to figure out what size I needed without buying a bunch of diffrent sizes.Also are the mid-kansas hardcast good bullets? I want to use them on whitetails, and I dont want alot of expansion.
Thanks, jt

Usual way is to put a soft lead slug on the muzzle and smack it with a plastic hammer or rubber mallet, finish tapping it into the bore with a short length of wood dowel or brass rod and push it through with a cleaning rod, catching it in a soft rag. You then measure the slug for diameter and order bullets a couple of thous over. A .440 or .445 RB for a muzzleloader would be ideal.

Alternately, you could skip the whole process, get some .432 cast gaschecked bullets and have a 95%+ chance that they will work just fine. The gaschecked is important. I can't see you getting accuracy and hunting velocity in a .444 with a plain based bullet.

Someone with more experience than me with the .444 will have to tell you what the heaviest bullet you can use is, but a 255 grain GC worked well for the tiny bit I have done and I suspect that 300 grains is the upper limit if your rifle has the 1-38" twist.

Thanks leftoverdj,

The rifle I have is a winchester black shadow, I can't remember off hand what the rifling is, but I'm pretty sure it is quicker than that.
Can you recommend someplace to get some bullets, Id order beartooth, but I'm not real excited about waiting 6 months for them.
jt

[ 11-12-2003, 07:00: Message edited by: JT ]

FWIW, my Winchester Black Shadow has a .431" groove diameter and a 24" twist. I haven't worked with it much yet. I am setting up for a .432" bullet to start with.

JT, start a topic here "WTB .432 xxx grain Bullets". Some of the posters here have licences and do some custom casting.

Might as well keep your money in the family.