Silly! Now I don't mind a guy callin me stoopid but silly? Them's fightin words Buddy!
To Anybody that cares: Under the general heading "Overkill".......
I know, I know. I already admitted that I am just a tiny bit OCD. Just a tiny bit. Really a microscopic amount....er....Anyway
here is the mold for the rod. A section of 1" x 2" 6061 Aluminum bar stock 3 inches long. Split down the middle into two halves each approximately 1/2"x2"x3". The first half drilled and tapped in two places to fit a 5/16"-18 bolt and the second half through drilled oversized in two places to allow a 5/16 in bolt to slide through without catching to facilitate opening the mold.
A 5/16" (0.3125 inches) rod to slug a barrel that is theoretically 0.323 inches in diameter. Careful to drill the mold hole down the split line between the halves and 2 1/2 inches deep. The 2 1/2 inches was so there would be enough rod to show the end of the throat and beginning of the barrel so that I could determine the maximum OAL for the rifle.
Second pic shows the split mold and some cast lead rods (carefully remembering to spray the mold with AeroKroil
BEFORE pouring the stupid lead in. Absently rubbing the sore spot on my forehead where I bitc% slapped myself while peeling that first rod out in pieces that had been cast with no bond breaker
)
and the last pic is of the "plugged case" throat slug.
I started casting rods with what was in my pot - a 92-6-2 mix that makes great boolits but makes rods that are harder and a little too brittle than they need to be to slug a barrel. So I started melting a dipper full of lead at a time in a Lyman dipper using a Mapp gas torch. The resulting pure lead rods were better for slugging the throat and barrel. All of this in support of gathering information on how to modify the Karabiner and Maximum boolits to fit a Yugo M48A.