Westlake armscor

[Dannywayoflife]

Dromia thanks for that ill get researching

What is slugging the barrel though?

[dromia]

In its simplest form it is driving a soft lead slug through the bore to get the exact bore and grove dimensions, read Texas Mac's article in the library.

[FredB]

I have cast my own bullets for more than 40yrs. Like re-loading, it is an integral part of the hobby. On occasion, I also make my own bullet moulds although I would not recommend this unless you have a good lathe and a milling machine. In the days when we all shot revolvers, bullets had to be cast hard to avoid premature expansion causing a lead build up on the forcing cone. The UK cast bullet suppliers still provide hard bullets and this is usually the wrong solution for a rifle. An undersized hard cast bullet allows gas leakage before the bullet has set up to fully fill the rifling: a softer bullet (about 25:1 lead to tin) can be slightly undersized, as it will set up instantly. Ideally, groove diameter or a thou or so over is optimum and this is why slugging the barrel is important. If you have an equal number of lands and grooves, no problem---drive a soft slug into the throat area of the barrel and measure it. Note that it is the throat area diameter which is important. If you have an odd number of lands and grooves, measuring the slug diameter is near impossible: rotating the slug in a micrometer will not give an accurate reading. So, use the following method: find somebody who has a lathe and chuck up a piece of scrap metal. Drill a hole which is undersize----the bullet will not enter it--- and then carefully enlarge the hole with a boring bar. When the bullet will just gently push into the hole, measure the hole size with an internal micrometer and you have your groove diameter.
Fred

[Dannywayoflife]

Thanks Fred. I can see this latest acquisition fast becoming a hobby in its self!

[IsleShoot]

I've got a Westlake Match and Standard Armscor MLR and I've been having some trouble with mis-fires on both.

Whilst I think some of the problem has come from me not always ensuring the cylinder is correctly seated and the cylinder release not fully forward, this causing an off centre strike of the firing pin onto primer, it's started to occur more often even though I thoroughly check the cylinder position before firing, you can also see the indentation of the pin on the primer but still no bang?

My thoughts are that it is how I am storing the primers that could be an issue? Currently they are locked in a steel safe in an unheated room. Is it possible that the humidity and/or cold is effecting them?

I'd also be interested to hear how other people are getting on with their Westlake Armscor MLRs?

[Sim G]

You'll probably won't like me saying it, but it sounds due to Westlake trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...

Great idea, but why use such a low budget base gun?