Collecting and Shooting the Mil-Surp Rifle - Slug, Measure, & Match: Using the Right Bullet for

the Ri... Page 1 of 10

Using the Right Bullet for the

Right Barrel Diameter
By Mark Trope & R. Ted Jeo
The world of mil-surp collecting is like the proverbial box
of chocolates, “You never know what you’re going to
get”.

A Little Bit about Cleaning

At a gun show the first thing one normally does is take

out his bore light and peer down the bore of a rifle. If
there is a copious amount of rust, or the rifling & crown
is so worn it’s all but non-existent, the rifle goes back on
the table and one moves on. However, let’s say the
rifling is strong, with sharp lands, which follow out to the
crown. The rifling may be a tad dark, although that in of
itself means little. The crown is in good shape, so far so
good. The rest of the rifle is clean, the safety works, the
trigger pull crisp, and the stock sound. Negotiations
ensue and soon a happy buyer is on his way with a new
treasure.

A responsible owner will field strip a new acquisition and

give it a complete cleaning prior to shooting it. The
barrel requires special attention. Most mil-surp barrels
have amazing amounts of gliding metal & coupro-nickel
jacket material and powder fouling. These materials are
usually built up in alternating layers on both lands and
grooves. A quick brushing with standard solvent will not
get it anywhere near clean!

Stronger medicine is needed. One can either use a

commercial or homemade electro-chemical cleaning
device. These devices work well, and take out a lot of
the “elbow grease” required for cleaning. Strong
chemicals designed to aggressively dissolve fouling are
another option. Products like Sweets 7.62 or Barnes
CR10 work extremely well. Their instructions must be

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followed to the letter, and repeat treatments may be

required. However, eventually they will get under the
accumulated gunk in a barrel. One other option
remains, mechanical cutting by means of a product like
J-B Non Embedding Bore Cleaner. This last option
requires a lot of handwork, and, if not done correctly can
excessively wear rifling in that all important crown area.

Be forewarned, some milsurp barrels, even after all the

jacket and powder fouling is removed will still emit tiny
black specs when soaked in standard solvent after a
range session. Smokeless barrel steel from 50+ years
ago and older was mostly chrome moly. The steel has
many impurities in it from the original manufacturing
process of the time. These impurities will leach out
during the cleaning processes once the balance of
jacket and powder fouling is removed. I have a Turk
Mauser, which is a very good shooter, but it emits black
specs every cleaning. So, some barrels will never be
spotlessly clean! Very old black powder rifles have soft,
mild steel barrels which should only be used with cast
lead bullets, jacketed bullets will wear them out in short
order.

Enough about cleaning and such for now. Realize that

the technique described below will start out with as
clean a barrel as you can get.

Why We Need to Know the REAL Diameter?

Now let’s address an issue that many mil-surp

RELOADERS run across once they have cleaned up
their new toy and are looking to reload for their rifle. You
go to look for bullets and you pick up 8mm (.323”)
bullets for that Mauser. This one is pretty common and
easy to find. Okay, I am sure that many of you realize
that 8mm Mauser is actually 7.92mm. But, how about
that 6.5mm Carcano? “Normal” 6.5mm is .264 inches.
The 6.5mm Carcano is actually .268 inches. What
happens when you fire .264” bullets in a Carcano? Well,
some people have reported anything from good to down
right terrible shots. (See the “A Carcano Comes a
Knocking” article). The No. 4 Enfield is another rifle
that should be .303” (right?). Many of the barrels are
anywhere from .310 to .314 in diameter. One more for
you. The M95 Steyr straight pull action rifle says “8mm”.
Is it 7.92mm like the Mauser? Nope. It actually runs
about .329” which is 8.36mm. There are more examples
out there, including some Mosin-Nagants whose
7.62mm (.308”) barrels may range from .307” on the
small side to .313” on the large side . The biggest issue
of using the wrong bullet (too small) is a loss of

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accuracy. DO NOT EVER USE TOO LARGE A

BULLET. This can result in high pressures and could
result in injury, to you and your weapon (as shown in
Figure 1).
How Can Lead Affect Your Health
The effects of Lead are the same whether it enters the body
through breathing or swallowing. The main target for Lead toxicity is
the nervous system, both in adults and in children. Long-term
exposure of adults to Lead at work has resulted in decreased
performance in some tests that measure functions of the nervous
system. Lead exposure may also cause weakness in fingers, wrists,
or ankles. Some studies in humans have suggested that Lead
exposure may increase blood pressure, but the evidence is
inconclusive. Lead exposure may also cause anemia, a low number
of blood cells. The connection between the occurrence of some of
these effects (e.g., increased blood pressure, altered function of the
nervous system) and low levels of exposure to Lead is not certain.
At high levels of exposure, Lead can severely damage the brain and
kidneys in adults or children. In pregnant women, high levels of
exposure to Lead may cause miscarriage. High-level exposure in
men can damage the organs responsible for sperm production.

Surplusrifle.com's Site Disclaimer

Figure 1. Three rifles that have “weird” bore sizes. From top,
M95 Steyr, No. 4 Enfield, and M38 Carcano.
So, why do we see these odd sizes that fit the
standard? Well, one of the reasons is that many mil
surp rifles were made with rather casual tolerances in
the chamber and barrel. For military purposes this is a
good thing. Ammo may have to be fired in the frigid
winter or very hot summer, and still produce safe
pressures. Some ammo was designated as dual
purpose, having to serve both the rifleman and light
machine gunner. Making a rifle chamber and barrel on
the large side of the specifications kept pressures down
and make it easy to chamber a round.

The “How To” of Slugging a Barrel

How do we find the best size bullet for a barrel? The

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answer is, Slug, Measure & Match. Best of all, this

process is quite simple and inexpensive (of course!).
The materials are available from a hardware store, a
home center, or even a discount department store and a
fishing tackle supplier (as shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2. Nothing very special with the items that you need. A
few dowels, a few lead sinkers. Total cost (assuming you have
the tools) less than $5 from your local hardware and sporting
goods store.
Materials

1) A couple of hardwood dowels just under bore

diameter. It must be long enough to go completely
through the barrel, with at least 4 inches sticking out
when the bolt is closed. A 1/8” diameter dowel can be
used for 6.5mm and a ¼” diameter dowel can be used
for 6.5mm and up.

2) A lead egg shaped fishing sinker slightly over groove

diameter. 1/8” diameter (size #10) can be used for
6.5mm and ¼” diameter (size #9) for 7.62mm and up
sized barrels.

3) Gun grease (Shooters Choice High Tech Grease as

an example) and/or gun oil.

4) Old soft towel.

Tools

1) A micrometer will be required to measure our test

slug. Most micrometers are accurate to .0001”. A caliper
can be used, however none are accurate to more
then .001”.

2) A soft faced plastic or rawhide mallet. NOTE: a small

metal tack hammer MAY be needed at times,
depending on how pure your lead sinker is.

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3) Tape measure and marker.

Start out by clamping the rifle firmly in a vertical

position. Realize that you will be literally pounding one
end of the rifle, so make sure it is very secure. Place the
towel around the base of the rifle to catch the lead
sinker. You want to avoid dropping the slug as it
deforms easily (as shown in Figure 3).

Figure 3. Clamp your rifle in really good. The rifle being used
as example is a M95 Steyr carbine in 8mm (or is it really?)
Note, dowel is sticking out barrel, ready to be marked and cut.
With the bolt closed slide the dowel rod into the barrel
until it hits the bolt face. Now with the tape measure
decide where to cut the dowel so its end is about 4 to 5
inches into the barrel. Remove the dowel and make that
cut. Take a second dowel (usually around 36” long and
cut it into 6” lengths. If you were to use a 1/8” or ¼”
diameter dowel in very long sections, it would surely
break. By using it in short non flexing 6 inch pieces it is
less likely to break) (as shown in Figure 4).

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Figure 4. Using a mini miter box and saw is not required, but
nice straight edges on the dowel are nice.
We have already cleaned our barrel clean as per the
previous discussion. Give interior of the barrel a light
coat of gun oil. This will help our sinker slide out. Slide
the long piece of dowel rod back into the barrel from the
breach, then replace & close the bolt. Using the grease,
cover the sinker with a generous amount. Also add a bit
around the inside of the muzzle. Take the soft lead
sinker and tap it into the muzzle with the mallet.
Depending on the purity of your lead sinker, you may
have to CAREFULLY use a metal tack hammer to get
the sinker going into the barrel. Keep going until it is
flush with the muzzle. If you are using the metal tack
hammer, STOP using it before you hit the barrel itself. I
have switched to using a large brass punch to carefully
finish off the last few millimeters of the sinker going into
the barrel. (as shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7)

Figure 5. Liberally grease around the lead sinker to help it go

down the barrel. Lightly oiling inside the barrel will help also.

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Figure 6. Starting the lead sinker. Try to start it out straight.

Note the grease around the base.

Figure 7. The sinker is nearly all the way into the barrel. Note
the shaving of lead at the muzzle. Seeing this assures that we
have a snug fit. From this point on, use small cut sections of
wood down to move the slug down the barrel.
A small ring of lead shearing off is what we want to see.
This tells us it is going tight into the barrel. Take a short
piece of dowel rod and use it to drive the lead sinker
until it hits the long dowel. Tap it hard until it has fully
set into the grooves of the barrel. Open and remove the
bolt and remove the long dowel. If it sticks a bit tap the
short dowel and the long one should slide out. Using the
short sections of dowel, gradually tap the lead slug
through the length of the barrel, adding another dowel
section as you get near the muzzle. Eventually, the slug
will drop out of the chamber and (hopefully) be caught
on your soft towel (as shown in Figure 8).

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Figure 8. Note the slug resting on the cloth. Also note the
short sections of wood dowels.
Gently clean off the slug and examine it. You should
see grooves and lands that correspond to the barrel’s
rifling. Using your micrometer or caliper, you should
measure land to land (that is ridge to ridge) to give the
correct diameter of the barrel. If you measure groove to
groove, this will be too small. With the correct diameter
known, store the slug in something that will keep it from
being damaged and write down the groove and land
diameters, as well as rifle identification. You should only
have to do this once, however, you could do it two or
three times and make sure all measurements are
repeatable. (Figure 9, 10, 11, 12)

Figure 9. An up close of the slug. Note the grooves in the

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slug.

Figure 10. Measured land to land, this is the widest of the

slug. This would be the correct size bullet to use in the barrel.
This is for the M95 Steyr rifle.

Figure 11. Slug measured groove to groove.

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Figure 12. The slugs are stored in labeled gem stone padded
containers.

Bullet Selection

If you desire to use jacketed bullets then log onto the

various bullet makers sites and select a bullet, which
matches exactly with your barrels groove diameter. In
the case of the 6.5mm Carcano (actually .268”) Hornady
has recently come out with specific jacketed bullets in
exactly this diameter. Graf and Sons carries them.

However, let’s say your rifle has a odd size barrel, for
which no bullet is made, or the barrel has seen
considerable use and is worn a bit larger then nominal.
Suppose your rifle is a black powder only rifle, which
requires lead bullets? The answer is cast bullets. Many
companies sell pre-cast bullets in various diameters and
weights. You may need to get a bullet sizing set up to
correctly size a cast bullet to the actual size you want.
An example would be that you buy .338” bullets and
size them down (and lube them) to .329” for the M95
Steyr. Some companies provide correctly size/lubed
bullets in all sorts of diameters, not requiring any
additional sizing.

A second choice would be to take up a little side hobby

and cast your own bullets. Lee Precision has
economical equipment which allows you to cast
excellent bullets (see recent casting articles on this
website).

In addition, Lee has recently added a universal flair die

to their line up. When seating a cast bullet it is
necessary to gently flair the case mouth or lead will be
shaved. It comes with interchangeable plugs; so, one
die can be used for all calibers. The plugs have a
“floating” feature, which allows the plug to self-center in
the case mouth. Other companies make flair dies,
however they are caliber specific; one is required for
each family of bore sizes, and they are rigid.

Using the procedures we have outlined here anyone

can learn in a few minutes if they are using the correct
size bullets for their individual barrel. Great increases in
accuracy can result from this simple, inexpensive
process.

Copyright 2003© Jamie Mangrum

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