Leading in the Grooves - what does it look like

[Cane_man]

i shot 50 or so 200gr boolits in my 10mm, took out the barrel... ran a patch through it to take out any loose powder...

the lands were shiny clean with no streaks, but there is "stuff" in the grooves, looks like gray burnt powder... what does leading in the grooves look like? these boolits were tumble lubed with 45/45/10

[runfiverun]

streaks and blotches.
oddly similar to lube streaks and blotches.

[DrCaveman]

I can only tell for sure when I get little silver streaks on a patch. And this only happens for me after soaking the bore with solvent, running a brush, then running a tight fitting patch with a jag.

I can't seem to tell just by looking

[cbrick]

You could well be seeing leading. We could give you a better idea if knew what the 200 gr boolit was sized to, what the charge is and how hard the boolit is.

Rick

[Cane_man]

this boolit was sized to .402, bore slugged at .400, 7.7gr of Longshot at 1150 fps (firm load but not nuclear), lead was 12 bh range lead bought here on the cb, plain base WFN no gas check

[cbrick]

I expected to hear commercial hard cast sized too small. So much for that theory. Does it clean easily with a patch & bore solvent? If so it's probably lube/powder fouling, possibly with a little antimony wash. If cleaning it shows streaks or specks of silver on the patch you have some leading but after 50 rounds I it can't be too bad. Did continued shooting degrade accuracy?

Rick

[popper]

Use a chore boy and look for shiny specks on the patch. Recluse lube didn't do well in my 40SW, pretty much got what you describe. Might need a little harder alloy at that speed. I use ATF, Kroil & kerosine mix to clean when shooting lead. Save the #9 for copper.

[fourarmed]

Lead shows up first against the "front" edge of the lands, which means it is easier to see if viewed from the breech end of the barrel. Much harder to see from the muzzle, because it's on the wrong side. I find that if I run a patch with Kroil through the barrel and let it sit for a minute or two then run another one through (on a jag, not a loop) lead particles and streaks will show up clearly on the patch.

[Cane_man]

scrubbed the bore last night with a copper chore boy and some bronze wool on a brush... it was snowing little fine pieces of lead out the muzzle!

guess i now know what leading looks like in the grooves!

a little Kroil, and the bronze wool got it out, but i had to scrub it for about 10 minutes :(

[Bent Ramrod]

Another clue to lead in the grooves shows up if you look into the cleaned bore the next day. The formerly shiny bore will have the odd dull patches and streaks because the lead has had a chance to oxidize. Another tight patch through the bore usually takes this out because in the interval the bore solvent will normally have penetrated under the lead and loosened it.

[popper]

Minor leading like you got mixes with the lube & powder residue, doesn't look very sparkly. Most will come out with a soaked and tight patch, then use the chore boy if needed for lead stuck to the bore.

[williamwaco]

More pix here.


http://reloadingtips.com/pages/index-leading_problems.htm


clicking on the photos will expand them.

[Cane_man]

^^^ thank you sir, that is awesome

from these pics, my barrel looked something like this "moderate" leading:

http://reloadingtips.com/allimages/lead_fouling/lead-med-everywhere.jpg

[nspector]

That is exactly what the barrel looked like in my Springfield Range Officer. Forgive my noobie question, but why does the lead seem to accumulate only after the chamber rather than the full length of the bore? Also, if one were to accidentally use Scotchbrite copper coated steel cleaning pad rather than Chore Boy, what would damage look like, if you had any? [smilie=1: