I'm gonna try somethin' goofy

[HammerMTB]

I got a box of Speer 240 SWCs (free). They are nothing to write home about. They seem to be pure lead, have some kind of wax coating as a lube, and a concave base. Just lookin' at 'em I thought "What a leading nightmare in my .44 Mag!"
But I wonder if there's a way to make 'em work?
So I took 20 and lubed 'em with LLA. I thin my LLA and put it on pretty thin, so you can just see it's there.
Then I loaded them over 7 gr of 700X
My intent is to have a plinking load, if they don't lead up my bbl.
I expect them to chrono somewhere in the 800-1000 FPS range from my 9.5" SRH
I'm hoping a smack on the butt will obturate them to seal and the LLA is enough to get them out the bbl before they shed lead.

If they don't work out, I will throw 'em in with my next smelt of pure Pb, got a batch waiting now. From the looks of the goop on 'em, they will be self fluxing.... :castmine:

[Ricochet]

I've still got a good many of those, and have shot a whole bunch more. The 158 grain .38s, too. They've got a very thin dry wax coating, and look to me like they might have a slight mica dusting. They work fine just as they are if you don't go much over 900 FPS or so. They're not pure lead, they're probably about 2% antimony like most jacketed bullet cores. Swaging softens it.

[Bullshop Junior]

I ran some of them (45 cal) through my Luber sizer and shot them in my 45 colt, and they worked fine.

[Shiloh]

What do they mike at?? Your chambers?? Barrel?

Although, not .44, I have fired thousands of the Speer wadcutters in .38/357 without issue. Pre-casting days.

As stated many times, fit is king. I fire some pretty soft boolits with no leading.

Shiloh

[missionary5155]

Goos morning
Shiloh is right.... measure first ! Sure is easier than going lead mining down a narrow shaft.
But I have bumped up numerous boolits... If you have the proper nose punch and sizer die lead will flow with the right amount of pressure. Usually I use a flat top punch as I personally like Wide Flat Nose Boolits. They seem to WACK better.

[HammerMTB]

What do they mike at?? Your chambers?? Barrel?

Although, not .44, I have fired thousands of the Speer wadcutters in .38/357 without issue. Pre-casting days.

As stated many times, fit is king. I fire some pretty soft boolits with no leading.

Shiloh

you know, that makes me think- I don't know that I've EVER miked out my Redhawk. I've shot plenty of .430 and .431 sized boolits in it, but never checked the dims. If I bump up these elongated pellets, they'd make pretty good slugging lead.... :-D
But, checking, the boolit passes the cylinder throats. slugging the bbl will have to come later.
In the end, it's not all that important. It's for plinking. If it'll go bang and not lead up bad, it'll do fine.


Shiloh is right.... measure first ! Sure is easier than going lead mining down a narrow shaft.

I have a method for removing lead from the bbl- it's called a j-word bullet. 2-3 and the clean-up of excess lead is done.

[beagle]

I picked up a BUNCH of .38 158 grain SWC HPss one time (free) that came in cardboard tubes. These had evidently been stored in a garage or other hot place. The waxy looking lube had melted and gravitated to the cardboard tubes so they were essentailly without lube.

I ran them through my old Lyman 45 and lubed them and salvaged a couple of Prine Albert boxes packed full of 158 grain SWCs.

Lasted me along tim and they shot good./beagle

[Ricochet]

Speer says they're .430". I've never miked them to check. They just work, as long as you don't push them too hard.

If you do push them too hard, i.e., to .44 Magnum velocities, they lead horribly when driven by 2400 or Blue Dot. They only lead moderately when pushed by W296 or WC820. Flame temperature matters.