Slugging a match barrel?

Hello-

I need to slug the barrel on a match pistol chambered in 32.
Is there any particular trick to doing this and eliminating any chance of damaging the crown.

I have as instructions to just use a oiled soft lead shot of slightly over bore and hammer in till flush at crown with a leather hammer.
Then- the slug is tapped through bore and measured.

Thats it?


The objective of this exercise it to select diameter of cast bullets which best suit the barrel.


Thanks

Some of this you may know, but if not. Thoroughly clean the barrel. Oil the barrel before slugging. If you can access the chamber end of the barrel, I usually slug from that end also. Some barrels have a choke or taper to them, so this is a good way of finding it, as you would feel the tightness increase towards the muzzle. If so, one thought is to size your bullets to the chamber end diameter. Have some soft way of catching the slug as it comes out so it doesn't get damaged. Use a rod or tip that just fits the bore, ideally a smooth hard steel that wont flex or deform. The flexing wastes the energy that should be pushing the slug. You don't want the rod to try to push thru the slug. I do muzzleloader barrels, after removing the breachplug, and some take a bit of pounding to get the slug moving. A heavy lead or shot filled hammer works well without a lot of banging, nice smooth movements.

Thank you for taking the time to write that out.
The barrel is chambered for 32 S&W long in wadcutter.

Easy button is to cut open a 00 buckshot or if you have a friend into black powder guns get a slightly oversize ball from them
You need soft/ pure lead
As stated above clean and oil the bore

Milgunsmiths info is dead on

I had thought about that and did look through the shot shells I have on hand- some four shot is the largest I have so am stumbling around looking for a single soft slug ....

Buckshot usually has Tin or another hardening additive in it, some are even copper or Nickle plated. Try to find a pure lead slug or ball. Muzzle loading suppliers sometimes sell small sample begs of balls for trying for the right bore fit.

Thanks- I just phoned a friend who is a muzzleloader- he is going to get me set up.