How to tell if lead fouling is light or severe? New to boolits

[clytle374]

So I'm working up loads for boolits I've cast for the first time. I have no experience shooting lead. Had some issues in the beginning with OAL and the lee 356-125-2r mold boolit that fit the gun(Ruger P95) I worked the load up with and nothing else. So I started over and worked up again. I'm sizing to .357 due to a few Sigs that slug to .356. I was worried that this would cause trouble in the barrels that slug .355, but they seem fine with it. I know my lead is a little hard being mixed as hardball alloy as I wanted a universal alloy. I wanted to get some more boolits cast, sized, loaded today but I get lead streaks on the grooves(larger diameter) right behind the rifling in the Sig, sadly I don't know if this is light or severe leading. The XD9 leads quite a bit less.

Can anyone describe, or picture, what normal leading looks like?
Cory

[IT Hitman]

http://reloadingtips.com/pages/leading-degrees.htm

that should give you a basic idea. There are varying degrees of leading. minor leading wont affect accuracy much if any, moderate leading is when you want to start thinking about cleaning because it goes downhill quickly from there.

[clytle374]

Thanks, I really like this Sig 938 for everyday carry...But it always seems to run on the high pressure side. Firing pin dents in the primer are usually about flat, even on factory ammo. I'm loading 6.2g of HS-6 and getting mostly flat primers, The radius on the edge of the primers looks fine but the firing pin dents flatten out. I had the 5" XD9 at 6.5g and was getting 1175fps with no signs of pressure. Just ran 60 rounds through the gun, I'm going to take it apart and look it over comparing it to the pics. Cory

[clytle374]

It's was real bad. I had found thishttp://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Chapter_7_Leading.htm, but without pictures. Most of the lead was "Streaks, following the rifling. " as described in the link. And I brushed out quite a bit of little hairs from the back side of the riffling.

My lead is mixed 92/6/2 for a hardball alloy. I can't easily do anything but add some pure lead back in since the tin came in 2lbs ingots, plus it is intermittently raining so I'm not going to fire up the large pot outdoors. So I'm thinking about adding lead at a 1 to 5 ratio..Sound like a good idea?
Cory

[clytle374]

50/50 is closer to WW, gonna try that

[btroj]

Size your bullets to .354 and shoot em slow and with low pressure. About 25 of those and you will know what bad leading looks like.

trust me, get bad leading once and you will never forget the looks of it

[DrCaveman]

Im with Btroj, i think you will know for sure when your leading is 'severe'

You may even have a panic attack and think you've ruined your gun. Especially after you have scrubbed it and scrubbed and soaked and scrubbed again and barely made a dent in the mess. Yeah, it totally sucks!

Maybe dont go so far as btroj says as to intentionally induce severe leading (or maybe DO, so you understand the difference), but he is right, youll not forget the appearance or the experience

P.s. It is why so many folks swear against shooting lead. It is enough to make a weak individual give up

[RobS]

If it's affecting accuracy and apparent in the bore > Severe
If it comes out in chunks and bits and pieces > Severe
If it takes more than a 5 or so strokes with a bore brush > Moderate
If there is only slight streaking, could be antimony wash, > Mild/Slight May not even affect accuracy

Here is a 9mm sticky:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121607-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

[facetious]

When I first started loading I tried a soft swaged bullet from Speer over some 4227. Fifty rounds and I had lead wires sticking out the end of the barrel.:shock:

[clytle374]

I had to scrub for quite a while brushing to remove. I tested the load in my friends 938 and had little lead threads in the barrel after only a few shots, I haven't slugged their bore so I don't know it's size.

I mixed it 50/50 with pure lead and casted a couple hundred boolits. Will try to test them out today, they casted much easier than the hardball.

[gefiltephish]

This bullet (http://accuratemolds.com/bullet_detail.php?bullet=35-125C-D.png) sized to .358 works great in my 938, lubed or powder coated. BHN 10-13. Zero leading. It's a clone of the Lee 120 CN but with a larger lube groove. Long boring story short, turns out a groove that large wasn't really necessary though.

[clytle374]

I'm hoping that the softer boolits will help. The bore slugs at 356 and I'm using a 357 sizer, mold is throwing about that size now with the softer lead. Guess I could lap the mold out some. Glad to hear from someone shooting a 938,I was starting to worry that a large enough boolit wouldn't chamber. Might need a different expander if I have to go larger