P95 Leading Problem

[sigep1764]

Ok Gentlemen, I would very much appreciate your collective knowledge. I have a Ruger P95 that is leading and shooting all over the place. I use a .358 sized 120 grain TC boolit. Tried LYMAN NRA 50/50 and SUPERMOLY lubes. Pulled the boolit from a case, it's not getting swaged down thanks to the powder through funnel lathesmith made for my SDB. I seat it at 1.065 with just enough taper crimp to take the bell off the case. Its a bit of a tight fit with a 358 sized boolit, but these demensions work perfectly in my Kahr and CZ pistols. I slugged the bore and it came out .3555/.3560. The charge is 3.7 grains PB with a CCI small pistol primer, although I just ran out of PB and am now onto RED DOT. Nothing but ladder charges loaded with RED DOT so far. With the boolit seated that far down, I did back off the recommended charges of PB listed in Lymans 49th edition. It's seated that far down to pass the plunk test in all three barrels, although as stated above, it is a tight fit in the P95 barrel. Never has a problem going into battery or ejection. There is absolutely no leading whatsoever in the other pistols. What do you think might be the issue, gents? Thank you in advance.

[sigep1764]

Forgot to mention the alloy is 50/50 wheel weight to pure water dropped, sized lubed immediately, then aged for a couple weeks.

[captaint]

sigep - Looks like you did cover most of the bases. You might try going to straight WW metal. I had to do that for my 9mm. Also, where is the leading showing up in your barrel ?? That can matter too.....

[tomme boy]

Post a picture of the throat of the barrel. Lay it on a table with a flashlight shining in the muzzle at a little bit of an angle to take the pic. Need to see what the throat looks like.

[sigep1764]

129613

[sigep1764]

It actually has a throat fellas. I was very surprised the first time I saw it. I'll try to get a better pic this evening, was a little rushed this morning

[popper]

I know, a pain but try 357. Solved it for my XDs even PCd. Got to get past that sharp step without shearing lead.

[tomme boy]

I have to run 0.359" and almost all COWW water dropped to get mine to not lead. It has a smooth throat also. Where is it leading at?

[MtGun44]

This is surprising, you have most of the "good things". I would first try some without
water dropping, - softer. I never harden my boolits and never get leading.

Bill

[sigep1764]

Leading goes all the way down the barrel on the right side of the grooves. I wonder if I need to seat it longer to get it closer to the grooves so as not to let any gas blow by in the throat. Definitely would ruin the one load for three guns tgat I was going for. I can't go to .359, the chamber is about as tight as I'm comfortable with right now.

[edctexas]

You might consider a slightly slower powder than Red Dot. Unique is good but scarce in my area. I have been using HP-38 and Green Dot. Slightly slower push seems to help. The 9mms are fussy. I need larger for one and smaller for the other, but Red Dot gives me a few sparkled of lead near the start of the rifling (just past the leade).

Ed C

[MtGun44]

Softer.

Bill

[sigep1764]

I can definitely go softer. I have about 20lbs of roofing lead. You think 2/1 with ww should do it? These boolits were all loaded with PB powder, 23 down on the burn rate chart. I just ran out, but have been sitting on 8lbs of red dot thanks to a heads up from here on the forum.

[62chevy]

I would try the Red Dot first with a starting load. if that doesn't work do what MtGun44 has suggested.

[hpeach]

My sympathies. Been there and done that. the solution for me was to powder coat the bullets, everything fell into place after that effort. Good luck

[MtGun44]

I think that if you just stop water dropping you will have a good start on getting a different hardness,
(softer), without having to mix up new alloy. Do the powder change first, it is trivial to test and may help,
then cast some air cooled and finally try softer alloy.

I use straight wwt alloy, air cooled in about 6-7 different 9mms and no issues.

Bill

[emorris]

Not that it matters much, but how old is your P95? Mine was bought new in 2003. It is the one 9mm that I can load cast as long as I like within reason. I load the Lee 125 round nose at 1.120+ with room to spare. Thats sized at .358.

[sigep1764]

It's only about 3 years old, but has had somewhere between 8000-10000 rounds through it. I just changed the recoil and mag springs last week! And Ruger sent them for free, no questions and within five days to my door. I'd hate to sell the thing for not being able to shoot cast in it, but this thing owes me nothing. I'll try the new powder in it, then aircooled boolits to see if anything changes. Then load them longer, then a softer alloy. Gonna be a busy week or two with all that.

[kungfustyle]

I had a P95 and loved it. If you go with ww and powder coating you won't have any problems from now on. I slugged my bore and got .356 and sized to .357 Powder coated and ran it over Tightgroup, Unique, Bulleye and HP38 all with excellent results and NO!!!! leading. Takes three patches to clean up and oil put away. Smoke sells some great powder coating in SS section.