leading questions

[winchester85]

i hope i dont get blasted for posting a question like this. i did a search but gave up after reading quite a few posts.
i am new here, but have been shooting cast bullets for quite some time. i do not cast my own. i load cast in 45-70, 45-75, 45 colt, 44 mag, 30-30, 357 mag, 9mm, 348, 45 auto, and 405. oh yeah, and 375 winchester. for most of my loading i have had minimal leading issues, even up to 2300 fps. BUT one of my 44 mags is a stainless RBH 7.5". the bullets are 240gr semi wad cutters, hardness i dont know, lube i dont know, only running them about 1000 fps. the bullets have one lube groove, the lube is purple. i bought them quite some time ago and i am now out of the bullets. not sure of the manufacturer. before i buy more bullets, i need to become more educated about what to get. the leading is pretty bad and hard to remove, it starts at the forcing cone and continues about 3 inches or so. from my measurements my bore is .428, the bullets appear to be .430. what do i do?

[mooman76]

Slug your cylinders. Sounds like you need a larger bullet. Leading starts at the forcing cone for the first few inches and it is eventually bumped up enough that the leading stops.

[southpaw]

What does your cylender measure? My supper black hawk measures about .432 and if I don't get them atleast that big I have leading issues. Just a thought.

Looks like mooman beat me to it.

Jerry Jr.

[44man]

Lots of reasons. Poor fit, boolit too soft and skids, poor lube, maybe a slight out of line cylinder that smears the shoulder on the boolit.
Throats too small.

[williamwaco]

I have had very poor results with commercial hard cast bullets with hard lube. and for some reason, the worst leading appears to occur at around 1000 fps. slower or faster not so much.

You are describing a classic case of a bullet that is too hard, too small, and lubed with a hard lube.
You didn't mention how you measured the bullets or the bore but I will bet you a Big-Mac against a peanut that your Ruger bore is not .428.

If you are going to buy the bullets, get the softest you can find. You will probably not be able to find any softer than around 18 BNH but if you can, at 1000 fps even BNH 8 would be fine.
Order them .431.

When you get them, If they still lead like you are describing, Tumble them in Lee Liquid alox. It is not necessary to remove the old lube, just tumble them as-is.

See:

http://www.reloadingtips.com/pages/lla_bullet_lube_2.htm

for a short description of "repairing" commercial cast bullets.


.

[Larry Gibson]

The SWCs are too hard and the hard wax "purple" lube is not good at the lower velocities you are running them and I'll bet they have a bevel base too. Nothing wrong with your revovler, it's the lube and the bullet at the lower velocity you are pushing them. If you want to use them with a low end load try tumble lubing them in LLA as per the instructions, it works for me most of the time but sometimes not.

Larry Gibson

[winchester85]

i measured an unfired bullet and it measures .430. sure sounds like the bullet is undersized. i had a bullet stuck in the bore last week due to no powder charge, i measured that bullet after i got it out. if it did it right, the groove diameter is .428. i measured it several times across different "grooves". what should it be?
yes, they are bevel base.