The Truth about Glocks and Cast

[garym1a2]

My Storm lake barrel in 9mm run clean with the Lee 120gr TC at about 1100 FPS. It takes that speed to run minor class. I use a very slow powder.
In 40 it does shoot very clean but I only load a 175gr TC to about 800 fps. I call it my 40 super wimpy load. Recoil is very low at slow speeds and follow-up shoots are fast.

Nice thing about a Glock 22 is that I have two Strom lake barrels for it, one in 9mm and the other in 40.
P.S.my factory 40 barrels leads very fast yet in the Glock 21SF the factory barrel shots clean.

I also have a Glock with a Lone Wolf .40 barrel. I was thinking of trying some lead loads. Can cast bullets approach jacketed velocities and not lead?

[FergusonTO35]

I love shooting boolits and I really like the Glock firing mechanism. I don't care for the rest of the gun, however. I chose a Ruger SR9c and am very happy with it. Its a well made, less costly alternative to the Glock. Mine loves boolits, whether I made 'em or they came from a cheapo commercial source.

[fish0123]

Just documenting my experience with my glock...

I have shot around 1000 rounds of Lee 230 grain LRN TL from my Glock 30 stock barrel with no leading. I tumble lube with 45/45/10 and use 5 grains of Universal Clays.

[yondering]

The Glock 45 ACP barrels do seem to work very well with cast. My 21SF shoots more accurately and with less tendency to lead than my 1911's, and I'm really not a Glock guy.

[thegreatdane]

The original thread starter:

So we can actually settle this debate and I can sticky a thread can someone[s] chime in with facts from personal experience[s] with their Glocks and cast.

Notice I asked for facts, not hearsay, not factory advisements, etc.
For the record, I do not own a Glock and have no dog in this fight.
No digging in other's experiences for sake of an argument are needed, please keep it civil.

7 pages and 124 posts later, the topic still arrises.

[mr.jake]

Ive shot over 5,000 boolits from my 9MM glock WITH FACTORY BARREL in the last 8 or 10 months since i started casting/ reloading. Mines never blown up. I shoot from 300-500 per session and clean the barrel afterwards. I have trace amounts of leading with some loads but it cleans off effortlessly. I only tumble lube my boolits. I shoot the RD- tl 135@ .357, LEE 105 @ .358, LEE 125 @ .358 LEE tl 124 @ .356. I use AA#5 only ane keep most of the loads in the medium range but the 105's i shoot pretty hot. Ive even shot a couple LEE TL SWC 158 @ .358 in my 9mm. With proper fit and generous lube my glock with FACTORY barrel shoots just fine....

[ROGER4314]

TR Graham noted Glock expert and Glock Instructional Video maker has worked on every Glock that I've ever owned. He's also worked on other pistols for me but that's a secret. I've learned to trust what he says so I asked him the question about using cast bullets in Glocks. He replied that the factory didn't recommend it and he didn't either. That sealed the deal for me! I have priced aftermarket barrels with standard rifling and they're fairly cheap ($100-140). When I decide to shoot cast bullets in a Glock, that's the way I'll do it.

Flash

[garym1a2]

We ran over 650 45acps cast thru my 21sf this morning. Only one ftf for me after over 600 rounds dues to a wimpy grip. This is real dirty from lube but will clean easy. Glock 21SF's are a cast boolit shooting machine.

[EMC45]

We ran over 650 45acps cast thru my 21sf this morning. Only one ftf for me after over 600 rounds dues to a wimpy grip. This is real dirty from lube but will clean easy. Glock 21SF's are a cast boolit shooting machine.

So are the G36s.

[Catshooter]

So I'm giving the 9mm in a Glock a try. Been twenty years since I loaded any lead in a Glock, don't recall a thing I did before.

My boolit is a Lyman 356634, drops at .358 and 140 grains sized & lubed with LARs 2500. See the pic.



The Glock factory barrel and my Lonewolf after market barrel are both .356 and a tiny bit, measured with a Starrett mic.

I have seated the boolit as deep as you see or it will hit the end of the throat/rifling. At first I sized them at .3572, the actual size my ".357" sizing die gives me. Loaded over five grains of HS-6 gave me some pretty good leading out of both barrels. Leading started just slightly passed the end of the chamber, all the way around the barrel and full length.

So without changing anything else, I found a sizer die that would give me .358, used that. Didn't change the leading at all. The load was up at the top, there was a pretty good impression of the breech face's rectangular firing pin hole in the primers. They are Winchester by the way.

So yesterday I dropped the powder to 4.5 grains. Greatly reduced the leading and the primers were rounded with the barest hint of the breech face in 'em. But they still lead.

Mmm. So next, I'm trying Universal Clays instead of the HS-6.

To be continued.


Cat

[jrplane]

I have shot over 5000 230 RN lead from my 21. I have little to no leading. Right now I have 800+ rounds in it without running a brush thought it.

I have a second 21 with a lone wolf barrel, it leads worse that the factory Glock barrel.

[Andrew Quigley]

I was shooting my cast bullets in my Glock 23 with the factory barrel but quit as it was leading the barrel something awful. Scrubbed the barrel a dozen times trying to get all the lead out, shot 40 rds thru it and the barrel was loaded with lead in one spot and 3/4's of the way down the barrel. Always in that same spot. Wanted a 9mm conversion barrel anyway for this gun so I swapped in a Lonewolf and banged away with my 9 mm castboolits. No leading. Gonna do a harder batch of boolits for my 40's and try them as it may be this batch as to soft for it. Will see.

[Aimstraight762]

I'd like to work up to your load. I'm using a 230 gr RN tumble lube pill on top of 4.5 grains unique. At 5.0 grains I had terrible leading in the throat. I was sizing to .451. I am using straight w/w lead to cast and quenching them. I guess the only other point I haven't stated is that this is out of a 1911 government. Any help would be great.

[Catshooter]

Aim,

Is your boolit, at .451, larger than the bore? With some of my 45s, I need to go at least .001 and preferable .0025 over bore size.

Also, your sizing to .451. Have you measured a sized boolit or is that just the number on the die? Sometimes they aren't as marked.

I've never needed to quench a boolit for the 45 Auto. I would bet a quarter your boolit is too small for your bore.

Welcome to the site.


Cat

[kaytod]

Here is the FWIW department.
Having always heard of the prohibition of lead bullets in blocks oops Glocks, I couldn't resist the urge to look into it as it smacks of the same stories regarding Marlin's micro groove barrels.
So, here is the story. My friend has an old Glock in 10mm and one weekend we decided to tackle this. First was to clean the barrel of all the fouling that was present from all the jacketed stuff over it's lifetime. The "valleys" of the barrel were blackend with carbon and jacket layers, I ceased from cleaning after an hour when only small streaks of goo were present in spots down the bore.
Slugging the barrel the "groove" dimension was .403.
The bullet used was one of my designs for the 38WCF, and yes it wears a copper diaper. It's cast diameter was .4035 on the band below the crimp groove. Alas I only have a .401 size die, so the bullets were only run into the Lyman lubersizer until the gas check was crimped on and the lube groove filled. Thus it left the crimp band at .4035. Nose diameter of the bullets were .398+
The bullets fed and functioned without incident.

Load was 11.0 of 2400 and the cast bullet of 205 gn weight.



This is the bullet on the left. The middle bullet is a 230 gn and the far right jacketed is a Hornady 180 XTP


I shot a 25 round group that was about 5" outside. Since I've never owned a Glock nor have shot one much, my initial take is, the group isn't all that bad considering the waterpistol trigger, coarse sights and raking ( arched mainspring shaped) grip. Having cut my teeth on a Colt 1911 Gold Cup, the Glock doesn't excite me much.

Muzzle showed a distinct "wetness" of lube star and the barrel showed very minute streaking in the grooves. I wonder if the streaking was due to the leftover gunk I left in the barrel, as it was in the same areas and distances. There was no evidence of leading at the chamber leade nor the first part of the barrel. All in all the bore condition was far FAR cleaner than the jacketed stuff.

I believe this gun would have benefited from a bullet that is .001 over groove, it it will chamber freely.
There is my take from the farm. Hope this helps

[Ironnewt]

ok you guys that have them what kind of groups do you get at 25yds AND try to be honest. I have shot 4 different guns and none will shoot with a colt or kimber and even a 220 sig will out shoot them rick

Even on my best day I can't keep my groups with my Glock (s) as tight as I can with a Colt 1911 or a S&W wheelgun. Glock's are service pistols with reasonable accuracy, not bullseye guns.

[Walt]

Catshooter, all of my 9mm Glocks seem to like 'em at .356.

[Catshooter]

Yea, with mine hardness seems to be more important that size as long as I'm at least .001 over.


Cat

[Any Cal.]

I was thinking about this thread, and realized I hadn't shot many cast in the factory barrel. Using water-dropped boolits in a 10mm w/ a LOT of Longshot, I got identical leading in the factory and aftermarket barrel, a little bit in the last inch of barrel. Using air-cooled with the same load, I got lots of leading in the stock AND aftermarket barrel. Will be shooting the stock barrel much more now, even with super hot cast loads.

[Catshooter]

Any Cal.,

Usually, not always but usually leading at the end of the bore indicates the lube isn't doing it's job or there isn't enough of it. Just in case you didn't know.


Cat