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Slugged my first two bores today. Both 8mm Mauser. The current ammo situation has made me realize I actually need to start reloading! Im focusing on big bore rifle and working down from there. Welded up a little micro lead smelter and drilled holes into scrap wood to act as a cast to get my preformed lead slugs a little over bore diameter (.340"ish) 8mm theoretical dia is .323. Both the M48 and Zastava M70 measured out to essentially the same thing, hooray! .323/.3225ish. Im looking to focus on lead casting for 8mm for now as I still have a few thousand surplus rounds. Any pro tips? Ive never reloaded before. Also, what cast size should I go for? Im guessing .324 ideally or .325 max. Thanks, scrounging forums and Youtube to figure this stuff out. I used a digital and manual micrometer, hence the double measurements. I trust the manual one more.

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Been reloading for almost 20 years but now looking at casting rifle bullets for a milsurp and am curious about slugging the bore...

Is it just pounding a lead bullet through the bore and measuring it?
 
I do barrel slugging differently. I use a soft lead fishing weight just under bore diameter and a dowel just under bore diameter. I position one dowel to hold the slug in place [ just ahead of the rifling] and from the muzzle end tap the second dowel to make it deform and fill the grooves. Then drive that slug out the breech. Do that again near the muzzle , and a third will be pushed all the way through the bore. [ this sounds more complicated than it is]. With the three slugs measured they should all be very close in diameter. But the measurements will tell me if I have throat erosion, muzzle wear, or a tight spot down the barrel. And help me pick a bullet diameter that will work best.
 

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