Dumb leaded barrel question

[tames]

I had an issue while trying to get the perfect lube. I either had some badly mixed lube or underlubed bullets and I got a LOT of lead deposited in my barrel (in a very short amount of time). I have had the hardest time removing the lead deposit. I tried two commercial 'lead solvent/lead remover' products to no avail. I hesitate to do anything corrosive. Does anyone have any suggestions for a lead remover or solvent?

Thanks

Tommy Boy

[462]

Cut a piece from a copper Chore Boy pot cleaning pad and wrap it round your bore cleaning brush. Usually, a few passes through the barrel are all that's required to remove the lead. Others use 0000 steel wool or bronze wool.

[stubshaft]

Copper chore boy wrapped around a loose fitting brush. I spritz some Kroil in the barrel then run the "bob" of copper wool through the barrel. You'll feel the lead coming out of the bore.

[BulletFactory]

Yep, chore boy, make sure you get the pure stuff, not the plated kind. When Im done with that, I use a different brush wrapped in 000 steel wool with a copper solvent, then I patch, rinse and dry. Badly leaded to factory new in 3 or 4 minutes.

I've had lots and lots of practice.:-?

[maglvr]

And if you're feeling lazy, shoot 3-4 rounds of jacketed bullets through it, clean as a whistle ;)
And before someone says it... "NO, it can't possibly ""iron"" lead into your steel barrel".

[a.squibload]

Long ago I got a Lewis Lead Remover, basically the same thing,
uses a brass screen on a plug to scrape the lead out.
If it ever wears out I'll get some Chore Boy to replace it.

[jcwit]

Copper chore boy, available at WalMart and many large grocery stores. Take a magnet alon to test is not plated steel.

Ya many say to shoot it out with a jacketed bullet, I'm not positive about but it just doesn't make sense to have a partially clogged "read leaded" barrel and then shoot a jacketed round thru it.

Do as you wish, your gun, your hands.

[geargnasher]

There's a "sticky" at the top of the Cast Boolits, all kinds of good ideas.

Gear

[Matt1911]

When I was working up a load for my .45 I would knock out the leading by slugging the bore. I took a .50 cal muzzel loader ball and drove it through the barrel with a dowel it worked great.

[Bret4207]

And if you're feeling lazy, shoot 3-4 rounds of jacketed bullets through it, clean as a whistle ;)
And before someone says it... "NO, it can't possibly ""iron"" lead into your steel barrel".

I think that's one of those "depends on" question. It may not "iron it in", but it may well glide over the lead in the corners of the rifling and that may be dependent on rifling design. If you were to shoot a jacketed design with a sharp leading edge to act as a scraper then I can see a more positive result. In most cases every time some says it can't happen in this game, it does, just not often.

[kbstenberg]

Tames I have a question for you. Have you used the same kind of bullet before, an have you gotten leading before? Just thinking it could be the bullets that don't fit the gun rather than a lube prob.

[Char-Gar]

When it comes to leading, the lube should not be the first suspect. There are a numbers of other "persons of interest".

[geargnasher]

The way I see it, the first suspect in a case of leading is loss of obturation. Gas leaks cause most leading issues that aren't related to pure abrasion from rough gun surfaces. Lube is the most minor of all components related to obturation, although it does play a definite and crucial role as a dynamic gas seal.

Obturation is controlled by having a properly dimensioned gun, properly fit boolits, and a balanced load that maintains that proper fit all the way out the muzzle. Appropriate powder, primer, alloy, and loading techniques all work in harmony (or AGAINST harmony) to get the boolit out of the case, into the rifling, down the bore, and past the muzzle crown without leaking gas or getting slumped, bumped, or damaged. If you do that, accuracy and lead/powder/lube fouling in the bore will be what they should be.

Gear

[stubert]

Sometimes shooting a gas checked boolit will get out the lead. It acts like a scraper.

[MBTcustom]

I have heard that Kroil will help lift the lead out of the barrel IIRC.

[btroj]

I find the Xhore Boy or some 4 O steel wool run on a brush DRY works best for me in getting rid of lead.

I agree with Char-gar and Gar that lube is not the most common cause of leading.

I am with Gear that poor dynamic fit is the most common cause. Run a hard, undersized bullet thru your barrel and you quickly discover how true this can be.

[Char-Gar]

Gear... I very much lean to your point of view as to the principal culprit in leading. I am also astonished how often leading won't rear it's head in a really and truly smooth barrel.

I have one of the new Lipsey's Ruger 45 Flatop sixguns. I have been loading 45 Colt rounds with cast bullets since 1964 or so. This Ruger barrel won't even show even the slightest trace of lead no matter what I put through it. It really is amazing and I have had a half dozen Ruger SA sixguns in 45 Colt over the last 25 years. None had a barrel even close to the smoothness of this one. I don't know what Ruger is doing, but they are good at it.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Try turpentine with your chore boy, AMAZING!

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Have done many of the methods listed above. All work, the GC boolit at low vel. is easiest & cheapest, next best for me is the Lewis Lead Remover, which you can buy at Brownells.:Fire::Fire:

[Bret4207]

The way I see it, the first suspect in a case of leading is loss of obturation. Gas leaks cause most leading issues that aren't related to pure abrasion from rough gun surfaces. Lube is the most minor of all components related to obturation, although it does play a definite and crucial role as a dynamic gas seal.

Obturation is controlled by having a properly dimensioned gun, properly fit boolits, and a balanced load that maintains that proper fit all the way out the muzzle. Appropriate powder, primer, alloy, and loading techniques all work in harmony (or AGAINST harmony) to get the boolit out of the case, into the rifling, down the bore, and past the muzzle crown without leaking gas or getting slumped, bumped, or damaged. If you do that, accuracy and lead/powder/lube fouling in the bore will be what they should be.

Gear

The only thing I would add is that the use of the obtruation should not imply the type of obturation we think of when we talk about smashing a boolit into putty so it will swell to fit the bore. Having that happen the whole length of the barrel would lead to leading, not the other way around. Orturation in this case is blocking the pressure from escaping, which is what the word actually means. I simply cannot recall this mashing of lead alloy into puddings correct terminology.

Hope that clears any confusion.

[ku4hx]

I always found elbow grease to be an effective lead remover.

[Sasquatch-1]

And if you're feeling lazy, shoot 3-4 rounds of jacketed bullets through it, clean as a whistle ;)
And before someone says it... "NO, it can't possibly ""iron"" lead into your steel barrel".

I took my Super Blackhawk to the range just a few days ago and fired about 40 cast through it. After I was done I fired 5 jacketed through subscribing to the old wives tale that it would clean the lead out.

When I got home and cleaned the gun I still got a considerable amount of lead on the cleaning patch. I was using a wooden dow with tightly fitting patches that I actually have to drive through the bore.

[Wally]

For those that advocate using/shooting jacketed bullets to clean out lead in a bore--has anyone ever done so and then tested the process using an Outers Foul Out to see if the lead was all removed..just curious?

On barrels that lead up..I suggest that after so many rounds that you run a brush/Chore Boy thingy through the barrel to remove most of the built up lead. It takes but a few passes and but a few seconds. I prefer a jag tip with a cloth patch and a piece of aluminum fly screen. It's not that the Chore Boy doesn't work...I have found that for me the screen patch is just easier. Will the aluminum, damage the barrel....never has on mine and consider this---most home made Gas Checks are made of aluminum.

[Wally]

I took my Super Blackhawk to the range just a few days ago and fired about 40 cast through it. After I was done I fired 5 jacketed through subscribing to the old wives tale that it would clean the lead out.

When I got home and cleaned the gun I still got a considerable amount of lead on the cleaning patch. I was using a wooden dow with tightly fitting patches that I actually have to drive through the bore.

I have a SBH that does the same thing---I've used different sized bullets, lubes, powders, etc..it just leads up. my solution--use home made gas checks. If I use lead I will use a jag tipped cloth patch with an aluminum patch on top--push through a few times and the lead is removed--a cheap Lewis Lead remover. Best to do this after so many shots --- it is quick and effective.

[fcvan]

For a brief time I was buying cast bullets from the store for my .45ACP. Hard blue and hard red lube and neither seemed to get the job done as leading was mild but ever present. I would shoot about 500 rounds per week. I would check the bore every 50 rounds. By the end of the day there was a consistent amount of lead but it never seemed to build up. I cleaned my guns at the range so before I went home I loaded a magazine of FMJ, swabbed the bore with Shooter's Choice, fired a shot, swabbed the bore, etc., and after about 5 rounds the bore was clean. Within a few months I was casting my own boolits and lubing with Javalina which ended my leading issues. Over the years I occasionally have something lead up and I use Shooter's Choice and a gas check boolit. I agree with the above statement that the gas check seems to scrape better as leading is removed more quickly than with a full-jacketed bullet. Frank

[odfairfaxsub]

i did it with my old 9mm and shot the fmjs after lead and it worked, for a while. then it scattered lead particles into the barrel that was harder than pushing daisys for a dead guy to remove. eventially i decided to never do it (perhaps a low quality barrel was to blame but w/e) again and just try to correct the problems of leading.

[flounderman]

never tried it but I have always thought if you cut a jacketed bullet off square, or flat, and shot it, it would scrape the lead out. shooting paper patch will put a mirror finish on a barrel.

[geargnasher]

The only thing I would add is that the use of the obtruation should not imply the type of obturation we think of when we talk about smashing a boolit into putty so it will swell to fit the bore. Having that happen the whole length of the barrel would lead to leading, not the other way around. Orturation in this case is blocking the pressure from escaping, which is what the word actually means. I simply cannot recall this mashing of lead alloy into puddings correct terminology.

Hope that clears any confusion.

I can't recall the term for pressure deformation of the alloy either, I don't think there ever was one that was commonly agreed upon because people began misusing "obturate" to mean that. "Bump up" I think is mostly what's used, but that confuses the term with intentionally bumping boolits in a sizer to alter their shape.

Here's why I think the term "obturate" is so appropriate:

ob·tu·rate   /ˈɒbtəˌreɪt, -tyə-/ Show Spelled[ob-tuh-reyt, -tyuh-] Show IPA
verb (used with object), -rat·ed, -rat·ing.
1. to stop up; close.
2. Ordnance . to close (a hole or cavity) so as to prevent a flow of gas through it, especially the escape of explosive gas from a gun tube during firing.

So, a boolit doesn't "obturate" to seal the bore, it "bumps up" to obturate the bore if the lead is soft, the boolit undersized, and the pressure curve correct to achieve that. Otherwise, a properly fit and launched boolit will obturate the bore all by itself, no "bumping" required.

Gear

[Iron Mike Golf]

+1 on gear's description of obturation. Going back to my Bradley Fighting Vehicle days, the 25mm M919 APFSDS-T cartridge has an obturation band,

In this picture: http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/cv/weapon/25mm/M919.png

The white band is the obturator. It is pliable, like silicone rubber. It is there to act as a seal for propellant gasses.

[a.squibload]

The band is on the projectile, right?
Like a paper-patched boolit!

[geargnasher]

A fellow I used to work for owned property at the end of an ancient and long-defunct local artillery range, I believe it was an army range. He had collected an impressive pile of fired practice shells, all of them were steel and approximately bore diameter with a lead obturation band cast around them to take the rifling and cork the gases. Judging by the engraves in the band, those 105s gave new meaning to the trade-mark "Micro-Groove". Every time I run into him in town I try to talk him out of one for a doorstop, but he just grins and shakes his head!

Gear

[rogn]

Verifying the Kroil use. Ive found that inSS soaking the barrel a bit with Kroil wil loosen or float the leading so that a tight cotton patch will remove every visible bit of the leading. I think it "wets" the barrel metal and "floats" the leading loose. Nevrer tried it on CM.

[Wolfer]

I can't remember where I read this so take with a grain of salt. The writer said he would load a flat based jacketed bullet backwards over a medium charge and shoot one of these every 20 Rounds or so. I don't have any leading issues but I believe this would work if it was done before it got to bad

[Bret4207]

I can't recall the term for pressure deformation of the alloy either, I don't think there ever was one that was commonly agreed upon because people began misusing "obturate" to mean that. "Bump up" I think is mostly what's used, but that confuses the term with intentionally bumping boolits in a sizer to alter their shape.

Here's why I think the term "obturate" is so appropriate:

ob·tu·rate   /ˈɒbtəˌreɪt, -tyə-/ Show Spelled[ob-tuh-reyt, -tyuh-] Show IPA
verb (used with object), -rat·ed, -rat·ing.
1. to stop up; close.
2. Ordnance . to close (a hole or cavity) so as to prevent a flow of gas through it, especially the escape of explosive gas from a gun tube during firing.

So, a boolit doesn't "obturate" to seal the bore, it "bumps up" to obturate the bore if the lead is soft, the boolit undersized, and the pressure curve correct to achieve that. Otherwise, a properly fit and launched boolit will obturate the bore all by itself, no "bumping" required.

Gear

I think it's something like "ablade" or something that sounds like that. It's an engineering term and I've looked for the posts covering it, can't find them.

[Harter66]

1 more for for Kroil set an hour ,steel wool . Theres a thread on lubes that discusses why some lubes make better flux/tinning solutions than lube too.

[Sasquatch-1]

for a dead guy to remove.

Gee Odie, you have dead guys clean your guns? That's taking the Zombie thing to a whole different level.