Help me stop leading my barrel

[Timberland]

I got super accuracy out of my springger 1911 and my cast 230gr over 5.2 of hp-38/w231, but after 50 shots my bore is uggly. My slugged barrel is .450, boolits sized to .4515, tumble lubed with the stuff from the lee kit, and the boolits are rested for over a month (pure PB). I minimized the belling and crimp to not have the case cut into the boolit, but im still shrinking the boolit in loading. Pulled boolits are under .450. No matter how much I played around with the adjustment I came under .450, but now at least there is no shaving or crimp mark on the boolit its just being pressed smaller. What can I change, I dont have a source for anything other than pure PB, can I try a diff lube? The load is around 750FPS so even pure lead should be able to handel that. I have seen comercial cast have the lube groove filled, mine are simply coated is that a problem? What am I doing wrong?

[xr650]

What mould are you using?
It sounds to me like you are going to need a little harder alloy.
What part of Earth are you on? You can tell us. :twisted:

[anachronism]

It's really, really easy to get too much taper crimp on autoloader cases & swage your bullet down too small. You could add tin in the form of 95/5 tin/antimony solder & it would help immensely. Elmer Keith preferred 1:16 ratio.

[mooman76]

You can change lube all day long but you are going to get leading until you figure out how to get that bullet bigger. You got gas cutting from too small a bullet.

[snaggdit]

Yep, alloying should cause your boolits to fatten a little. Try a small batch with 95/5 solder and see what size they drop at. Might be all you will need to do.

[Timberland]

I tried seating unsized boolits but even they got constricted. Is powder choice a problem (nothing I can do really, the planet seems sold out of it)?

[garandsrus]

Timberland,

Back out the seating die to make sure that it is not crimping. Then load a boolit and pull it to see if it was resized. If it was, then the combination of brass tension and soft alloy caused the problem. If it didn't get resized, then the crimp is doing it...

What does the case mouth inside diameter measure at after sizing? How about after belling? You might be able to get an expander/belling die that is a couple .001's larger than your current one so that you have less brass tension. Of course, you need enough brass tension to securely hold the boolit.

As suggested, a harder alloy may also do the trick. You can buy wheel weights on eBay if nothing else is available.

John

[Three44s]

Harder lead ........

..... and so a search on "beagling" .........

Three 44s

[leadman]

I have found even straight air-cooled wheelweight metal will lead in my 1911. I've gone to an alloy with linotype added then drop the boolits from the mold to a bucket of water. Size .001" over groove diameter and use a high quality lube.
If you want to experiment a little go to WalMart and buy a couple packs of the lead free fishing sinker. They are made of tin. A little pricey this was, but not bad if you want to experiment.
Watch for lino or WW material on the selling and swapping site here.

[Wills Point Pete]

Mostly when bullets lead it's because the alloy is too hard and the bullets aren't slugging up to fit the barrel. With the .45 ACP we have a different problem, very shallow rifling. The bullets skid instead of spin, this starts the leading, each shot makes it worse.

Save that plain lead for black powder or hollow points in revolvers. Try fifty percent wheelweights and fifty percent lino.

[Down South]

Would you happen to be using the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die? If so the die may be swaging the boolit to a smaller diameter. I had this problem using the Lee FCD with one of my 38’s. I finally got aggravated and punched the carbide sizing ring out of the die. Problem solved.

[Bret4207]

Don't bother waiting for your pure Pb boolits to harden, they won't. You need tin, antimony and other trace elements like arsenic to do the hardening. I'm sure in Kalifornia those nasty items are outlawed, so look into some of the other suggestions the guys gave you.

BTW- 4/0 steel wool on a worn bore brush will get the lead out fast and won't hurt your barrel, so will Chore Boy copper scrubber pads.

[jonk]

I'd be willing to trade you some wheelweight alloy for some pure lead if you are interested. I think that will help. 45 ACP bullets for me work best with a 50/50 mix of pure lead and wheelweight alloy. Pure lead is a bit soft. It can be done but not with the issues you are describing.

I don't crimp my .45 loads at all, I just remove the bell. If you are crimping, try not doing so.

[Larry Gibson]

I got super accuracy out of my springger 1911 and my cast 230gr over 5.2 of hp-38/w231, but after 50 shots my bore is uggly. My slugged barrel is .450, boolits sized to .4515, tumble lubed with the stuff from the lee kit, and the boolits are rested for over a month (pure PB). I minimized the belling and crimp to not have the case cut into the boolit, but im still shrinking the boolit in loading. Pulled boolits are under .450. No matter how much I played around with the adjustment I came under .450, but now at least there is no shaving or crimp mark on the boolit its just being pressed smaller. What can I change, I dont have a source for anything other than pure PB, can I try a diff lube? The load is around 750FPS so even pure lead should be able to handel that. I have seen comercial cast have the lube groove filled, mine are simply coated is that a problem? What am I doing wrong?

When you are seating the bullets the cases are sizing the bullets down to .450. Pure lead won't work unless you get an expander that is larger. Then you'll have other problems like the bullets getting shoved into the cases when they hit the feed ramp. You need to use a harder alloy with AC'd WWs being about the softest. You don't need to beagle or anything else, just use an alloy hard enough to expand the case instead of the case sizing the bullet.

It's that simple.

Larry Gibson

[Cloudpeak]

You might slug your barrel again just for the heck of it. My two Springfield's slugged .452 and .4515. My Lyman bullets drop a .452" bullet when using air cooled wheel weights.

W231 should be fine. I shoot mostly Clays in my 45's but 5.0 grains of W231 work very well behind a 200gr SWC in my 1911's.

If this is a new pistol, I think you'll have more problems with leading. After a few thousand rounds of lead down the bore's of my 1911's, I have little to no leading and cleanup is a breeze.

Cloudpeak

[303Guy]

You could also try a wad under the bullet. Waxed cardboard maybe? I have heard of meat tray wads - apparently, they do not melt and foul the bore.

[truckmsl]

Amen to the soft lead swaging down. Unless you've got an extra large diameter expander die, you need harder lead than pure to keep from ending up with an undersize boolit. Been there. Before final crimp, pull a boolit and measure it and you'll see for yourself.

[Timberland]

I am using the dillion deal for belling/expanding, and a lee seater no crimp. Before when I was using more bell, I had to crimp it away, which lead to gas cutting and horrors like jamming and of course boolits getting stuck in the gun. I found a ballance that feeds, but down sizes. I do IDPA so slow fire and not feeding are things I cant do.