velvalco

so a leaded barrel means my loads are too hot or the lead is too soft?

I loaded up some 125gr LRN 9mm's with 4.5gr of bullseye....took forever to get the lead out of my 9mm's.

kim

They're probably a mite warm and the lead could be soft too. Get some bullets from Matt Dardas at Dardas Cast Bullets and some Wipeout bore cleaner.


Molon Labe

Kim

gunman42782

Probably the lead is too soft. I once bought some gun store lead 9mm bullets of unknown make real cheap. Found out why real quick. The lead was so soft that you literally would push chunks of it out after shooting. It soured me for along time from shooting lead in autoloaders. I never had that trouble with revolvers. A few years back, I started shooting lead in my .45s, and then again in my 9mms. Have had no issues at all. But, you do need to follow the load data for lead bullets, and not jacketed when loading lead bullets. Otherwise, it will do the same thing.

Machinist

The worst leading I have had was from too light a load with too hard a bullet. I used to buy cast 240 grain lead SWCs for my .44 special loads. Seven grains or more of Unique worked fine but when we tried dropping to 6 or 6.5 grains we had heavy leading in two different S&W Mod 24s. We dropped to 6 grains with no problem using swaged bullets that were softer but these had been cast hard for use in .44 Magnum loads it seemed and we got gas cutting at the lower loads.

I am taking it for granted you were not shooting them in a Glock or other polygonal barrel.

tx gun runner

+1 on Mac's post .... Pure lead melts at a higher temp than a lead alloy . So making bullets harder is not the answer in most cases . If you are shooting copper and lead bullets in the same gun it's going to lead everytime you shoot it . Bullet lube and sizing is very important . The book in paste is a good start to find your answer and a must have for cast bullet shooters . It also has cast loading data for over 300 different calibers .

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/de ... ber=796528

Machinist

I was thinking that you were the right one to comment on this. Thanks. Good to see you!

gunman42782

I must admit, I have never heard of a lead bullet being too hard, and that could cause leading.

deputy125

lets combine this one article

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellCommentsCBAlloys.htm


with some thoughts from this one thread

http://rugerforum.net/reloading/30924-l ... ssues.html

44s Rock

Very interesting info guys!!

Machinist

We normally fired about 300 rounds each using this bullet and 7 or 7.5 grains of Unique at each session and never saw significant leading in thousands of rounds but when I dropped the load we had terrible leading in the cylinder, forcing cone, and barrel just from a small number of test rounds. This happened with both revolvers. Those lighter loads gave no problem when I tried them with a softer swaged bullet, I think I went down to less than 6 grains of Unique just to test, though I normally used Bullseye or WW231 for light loads.

Nice resources, Deputy. Thanks.

Bountyhunter

The bullet wouldn't swell and fill the barrel, allowing gas to escape around it and melt it causing the leading problem. Iowegan explained that to me a long time ago.

Machinist

I believe this is why silver bullets don't shoot accurately, too hard.

Bountyhunter

I've never seen a real silver bullet, but my guess is it would not be a great flying bullet. I wonder if it would melt the way a hard lead bullet does?

Tom W.

If your bullet is a tad too small, or your lube is improper, you'll get leading. Too hard of a bullet will be a factor, too.

If you'll look over at the cast boolits forum
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/
you'll find loads of help to eliminate your problem. One thing that I found was Carnauba Red lube from White Label lubes. It's cheaper than most lubes and works great, at least in my firearms. All I shoot is cast in my handguns.

XLCH

Richard Lee’s book Modern Reloading, Second Edition has info in it about matching bullet metal to chamber pressure.
Lots of other good info on casting and loading
http://www.midwayusa.com/Search/#Modern ... -4_8-16-32

Machinist

It is not the flight characteristics that are the problem. Artillery projectiles are steel and they fly accurately for many miles. It is the inability to obturate that causes the problem. The steel shells and shot use soft driving bands to do that. In some cases they were even pregrooved for the rifling.

The hot powder gasses will even erode the steel of the barrel but the silver bullet would not have to leave deposits for the accuracy to suffer.

tx gun runner

This is the best book EVER , I said EVER printed on cast bullet [ bar none ] .... It is out of print I think , you will pay $50 to $100 if you can find one .......



The Lyman Cast Bullet book Midway has on sale is a must have book for a lead shooter .. http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/de ... ber=796528

Bountyhunter

Makes sense. Things we don't normally think about when reloading.

XLCH

Yes Harrison book is out of print. I have the Harrison book, the Lyman book, the Lee book, and the Beartooth technical guide and find them all informative for the cast bullet shooter.

velvalco

wow, thanks guys that's a ton of information. I guess if i'm going to continue to use cast bullets in my semi's i'll need to get my reading glasses on.