Newbe to Casting and Shooting Boolits

[Grampie not Grumpie]

I have just started casting boolits for my Ruger Vaquero .44 Mag. This is my first experience using cast boolits and I have some questions.

1. What is the best way to clean the lead deposits out of the barrel? I have always shot jacketed bullets and a patch with Hopps # 9 or a boresnake took care of things. No More!!

2. What is the normal procedures involved in cleaning after a session on the range. I must be doing it the hard way. :(

Any imput would be appreciated. I am casting wheel weights and using a Lee mold and dropping them in a bucket of water. I then tumble lube them. The mold is supposed to be .429 and measures between that and .430. I can push a boolit in the breech end of the barrel until it hits the rifling. It will however go right through the cylinder.

I am thinking about getting a Lee sizer die but don't know if it would help or not??

Thanks,

Grampie not Grumpie

[atr]

easiest way is to shoot a jacketed round ....that should clear out the leading..
why are you getting leading ?....to hot a load perhaps?...or to soft a mix...?

[jhrosier]

I have just started casting boolits for my Ruger Vaquero .44 Mag. This is my first experience using cast boolits and I have some questions.
First, Welcome to the forum and the always interesting world of cast boolits.
A few hundred other people will be along to help you shortly.;-)



1. What is the best way to clean the lead deposits out of the barrel? I have always shot jacketed bullets and a patch with Hopps # 9 or a boresnake took care of things. No More!!

2. What is the normal procedures involved in cleaning after a session on the range. I must be doing it the hard way. :(



The easiest way is to not get leading in the first place, but if you do get some, a bit of copper or brass Chore Boy pot scrubber wrapped around an old bore brush with some solvent will get it out of there fast.

Once you have the gun cleaned up, it is easy to keep it from getting that way again by using a boolit that is the right size.




Any imput would be appreciated. I am casting wheel weights and using a Lee mold and dropping them in a bucket of water. I then tumble lube them. The mold is supposed to be .429 and measures between that and .430. I can push a boolit in the breech end of the barrel until it hits the rifling. It will however go right through the cylinder.

I am thinking about getting a Lee sizer die but don't know if it would help or not??

Thanks,

Grampie not Grumpie

Measure the cylinder throat and use the largest sized boolit that will fit.
The cylinder throat should be just a tiny bit larger than the bore size.
If your mould is casting too small, try casting a little hotter or using slightly more antimony in your mix. If that doesn't help, search the forum for instructions on 'Beagling' your mould to increase the size.
A gas checked boolit will be less likely to lead the bore than a plain based boolit.

In the worst case, your barrel may be undersized in the breech from being forced into an undersized frame thread. This can usually be corected by lapping, but that procedure is outside of my experience. There are others on the forum that can give instuctions for lapping.

I have been using the Lee 240 gr tumble lube boolit in my .44s with good results.
They are cast from range scrap with about a half pound of lino in each 10 pounds.
I water drop them for a little extra hardness and shoot them without sizing at all.
The Lee liquid alox seems to work well for lubing.

Jack

[9.3X62AL]

Another "Welcome Aboard", from the People's Republic of California.

Few shooting-related irritants annoy me more than a leaded bore. An undersized boolit is often the cause of same, and your text describing a loose fit in the cylinder throats is one of those things we call a "clue" in this hobby field.

As stated above, slug your barrel AND throats to see what sort of dimensions you are dealing with. I'm on my third Ruger 44 (Redhawk) and 5th S&W 44 (Model 624), and every one of them ran cleaner bores and more accurately with .431" boolits. To paraphrase Huck Finn, a properly-fitted boolit covers a power of sins.

[runfiverun]

stop water dropping them and see what happens.

[WHITETAIL]

Grampie, :-P Welcome to the forum.
First Yes! do not water drop your boolets.
And see what happens.
Alot of people on here just shoot strait WW.:Fire:

[WHITETAIL]

:lovebooliThe next step is to coat your boolets
in JPW.

[Boerrancher]

:lovebooliThe next step is to coat your boolets
in JPW.

It works well for me, and welcome to the forum.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[runfiverun]

if your bolits are just dropping right through the throats of your revolver that is an issue also.
you are getting gas cutting as your boolit goes from them to the throat and hesitates.
the softer boolit will help and may cure the problem if not you will need slightly bigger boolits.

[Maven]

"What is the best way to clean the lead deposits out of the barrel? I have always shot jacketed bullets and a patch with Hopps # 9 or a boresnake took care of things. No More!!

"The mold is supposed to be .429 and measures between that and .430. I can push a boolit in the breech end of the barrel until it hits the rifling. It will however go right through the cylinder.
I am thinking about getting a Lee sizer die but don't know if it would help or not??"

Grampie, The easiest way to remove Pb deposits is to use coppper Chore Boy cut and wrapped around an undersized bore brush (Use with a muzzle guard!). You can use it with your favorite solvent, WD-40 or dry.

As to why you're getting leading in the first place, the powder and charge you're using may be a contributing factor, as may be the undersized CB's. You may need to add thin strips of Al air conditioning duct tape to one or both sides of the mold to increase its diameter (known as "beagling." Search our archives for more info on beagling a mold.): CB's shouldn't "go right through the cylinder" with no effort. Moreover, try 8 - 9 grs. Unique with that bullet: As cast v. beagled, which should improve things.

Lee sizer die: You may not need one at all. I'd try Lee Liquid Alox applied as per their instructions or by hand to both the as cast and beagled CB's first. Btw, a Lee .429" sizer die can easily be lapped to a larger dimension: See the Castpics link at the bottom of the screen and go to "Research & Data."

[Grampie not Grumpie]

The group has probably moved on to another topic, but I just swaged the barrel of my Ruger Vaquero 7 1/5". It measured .429 same as my cast boolits.

My .430 Hornady XTHP's slide through the cylinders a "hair" tighter than the cast boolits so I don't think I need to do anything to enlarge the mold.??

My next batch of boolits I am NOT going to drop them in water and see if there is any difference. I also gave my current supply of boolits a second coat of LLA.

By the way the Chore Boy cleaned up the barrel.

Thanks,

Grampie Not Grumpie

[Buckshot]

The group has probably moved on to another topic, .................... Grampie Not Grumpie

Nope, just waiting to hear back from you :-) Gotta find out if anything suggested helped.

...............Buckshot

[Wayne Smith]

You also haven't told us your load yet, so we don't know your velocity. In the 44Mag that can become an issue.

[Grampie not Grumpie]

Been loading 9 or 10 gr. of Unique behind a Lee 240 gr. SWC TL. That should give approx. 1000 fps. depending on which manual you use. I have Lymans and Speer's #13.

By the way my boolists have been weighing 237 gr. on a digital scale. That's 3 under the 240 gr. Lee claims. Would casting on the "cool side" cause that?? The boolits look filled out.

Thanks,

Grampie not Grumpie,

[mooman76]

That certainly could cause it but if you think about it you are only off by a hair over 1%. A lot of things could casue that. Alloy temp casting techneque or even the mould being a hair off.

[badgeredd]

Grampie,

Welcome aboard. I was stationed in Meridian and Shuqualak while I was in the Navy back in the early 70s. Love Ole Mississippi.:drinks:

Now about your problem of leading. As nearly everyone has said, you may very well need a bigger diameter boolit. The gases are sneaking past the boolit to erode the lead and cause your leading. There are several posts that guys emphasize the boolit needs to "FIT" the cylinder and it will swage down to fit the barrel when fired. TRUE STORY too I might add. You should feel a SLIGHT resistance when you push the boolit through the cylinder. If it just slides through without resistance of any kind, you have the CLUE mentioned above. Also I found my S&W likes a bit more velocity than you are getting.....nearer to 1200 fps...for accuracy.

Let us know how the unquenched boolits do too. Good luck and happy shooting.

Edd

[44man]

I shoot cast for months before cleaning and have only a few flakes of lead on the first patch. Two of my guns are going on 9 months since I cleaned.
ONE session with LLA leaded my bore BAD! It took hours to clean.
Fit the boolit to the throats, use a real lube instead of snot and be happy.
I would not soften them but would add more antimony to make them larger and still water drop them. Bump up is a lot of crap, fit the boolit instead.
I use .431 boolits in my .44's and have yet to find leading. I even add tin and antimony to WW metal for a harder boolit that will grip the rifling without skidding. Water dropped of course because it shortens the hardening time.
By the way, I have shot a ton of 20 to 22 BHN boolits that measure .430 out of my .4324 throats without ANY leading. I have boolits from .430 to .434 and have not found any difference because I use a good lube. I shoot a LOT heavier and faster boolit too.
I had a pile of LLA that came with dies. I gave most of it away. I have more, pay the postage and it is yours!