How much leading is acceptable?

[brewer12345]

I shoot more 38 wadcutters than anything else. They are accurate, soft shooting and easy to put together. The only rub is that in my favorite revolver they tend to lead (shortly after the forcing cone). Consequently, I spend extra time cleaning after range visits. Several extra passes with the boresnake gets it out, but of course I would rather not have to. I will probably start troubleshooting (first is to try making some up without the Lee factory crimp die, suspect it may be swaging down a bit inside the case), but before I start doing so it occurred to me to wonder if I should just deal with the extra cleaning and leave well enough alone. What amount of leading do you consider acceptable?

[dverna]

I would not accept any leading with .38 wadcutters at the velocity of my loads....about 700 fps

[Outer Rondacker]

I say none. On the other hand I also feel its up to you. If you do not mind cleaning then some leading is ok. I have bought out whole reloading/casting collections that had no sizing or lubing anything. They shot it all for years just the way it dropped out of the mold. Guess they where fine with cleaning. Just dont plug the barrel.

[Walter Laich]

same here: no leading is normal for me

couple of questions:

where did bullets come from?

type of lube?

are bullets .001-3 over bore size?

[JBinMN]

I guess it would depend on is it worth your time to keep cleaning what lead ya get, vs. the time it takes to figure out what is happening & fix it, & then you should not have to deal with leading at all.


I would choose the latter & have. I prefer to shoot without leading, and consider it a lot more fun to figure out how to prevent it than clean it out...


G'Luck! Whatever ya decide!

[ShooterAZ]

My suggestion would be as you already said, load without the FCD and use a standard roll crimp die to only remove any belling of the case mouth. Wadcutters don't need a heavy crimp, ever try to pull a boolit from one?

[mdi]

My DEWC loads do not lead my 2, 38 Snubs or my 4", 357 Magnum. I size the bullets to the same size as the cylinder throats. I have one load that leads slightly; my "house gun" load. I load a DEWC of about 12-13 BHN over a near max./max. load of W231, using C-Red lube and sized to the same diameter as the cylinder throats, .358"...

I had a bit of experience with Lee's FCD for handgun cartridges and won't allow one in my shop anymore. When I started reloading DEWC I seated them flush which often produced swaged bases from the tapered ID of the case. I seat them out a bit more now and make sure the bullets come out of the case the same size they went in...

[retread]

Bore fit is always King. Next I expand the neck of all cases to fit the bullet. I also powder coat. No leading.

[bangerjim]

If your boolits are fit correctly.......NO LEADING! I switched from grease lube to powder coating 4 years ago and have not had one single incident of leading in ANY of my many cals I load for. PC is your answer to lead-free, grease-free, smoke-free shooting, as long as you are sized right for your barrels and follow correct loading techniques. And 90% of what I shoot is 10-12 hardness, so the mixing and messing and weighing of alloys is pretty much gone too! PC allows you to shoot softer Pb over a wider variety of weights, loads, and cals.

Try it , you will not look back.

Banger

[ShooterAZ]

I just use a very light coat of thinned LLA for wadcutters and haven't looked back. No leading ever, and very, very accurate. Not bashing powder coating, but it's just not necessary for super accurate WC loads. As mentioned above, fit is VERY important. Be sure you aren't swaging the diameter down when seating your boolits.

[brewer12345]

These are either COWW or range scrap with a couple percent pewter added for tin, sized to .358 and tmblue lubed with BLL. The snub and the lever action I shoot these out of don't lead at all, but the Security Six does. I have not slugged the bore, so it may simply be a case of the boolits being a little too small. I will probably start by seeing how big the cylinder throats are. I have 358 sized revolver boolits and I have a bunch of .360 sized stuff for 35 rem, so I can try both and see what the story is. I may simply start using the .360 sizer in the future.

When I load I usually generously bell the case mouths with the expander dies, seat the DEWCs to the last groove so that a bit of the boolit is outside the case mouth, and then I use the FCD (habit for stuff that goes in revolvers and lever guns). I suppose one option would be to stop using the FCD for wadcutters to avoid having it swage the bullets down. I still need to use it for stuff like RNFPs because without a heavy crimp the lever has a nasty habit of shoving the bullet into the case when they are in the tube under spring pressure.

[reddog81]

I don't want any leading. A little leading leads to moderate leading which leads to heavy leading if not cleaned.

If you go to the range and put 100 rounds down range and clean the gun afterwards with a little leading it's not a big deal but it's not something I want to have to worry about.

[brewer12345]

Well, I tried shoving a wadcutter through a few of the cylinder throats and no go. In fact, when I pushed especially hard I managed to get it stuck hard enough that I needed a punch to remove it. In contrast, the snub only required a bit of pressure to push a wadcutter through. From my reading, it sounds like what is happening is tight cylinder throats are swaging the boolit to less than bore diameter, then I get leading in the frst inch or so of the barrel until pressure on my relatively soft casts obturate the boolit once again. If this is correct, my options are to 1) live with the leading, 2) avoid cast in this revolver or 3) have a smith ream the cylinder throats to at least barrel diameter. This all sound correct?

[pjames32]

I have an older Security Six with undersized cylinder. I don't shoot it much. If I did, I'd have the cylinder reamed. My S&W model 15 does not lead with the same bullets.

[mdi]

"Hard push through", "drop through", "light pressure push through", "tight" aren't measurements. Use micrometers to measure the diameter of your bullets and slug the cylinder throats (just like you would do a barrel), but pin/plug gauges work much better. Also slug the barrel to make sure the throats are larger than groove diameter of the barrel.

When I found cylinder throats too small, I got a throat reamer from Brownells and opened up the throats by hand...

[evoevil]

none, KEEP fps DOWN AND THEY SHOOT FINE, OR pc THEM AND BLAST AWAY

[Jeff Michel]

If they fit the bore properly, there will not be any leading regardless of how soft the bullets.

[brewer12345]

"Hard push through", "drop through", "light pressure push through", "tight" aren't measurements. Use micrometers to measure the diameter of your bullets and slug the cylinder throats (just like you would do a barrel), but pin/plug gauges work much better. Also slug the barrel to make sure the throats are larger than groove diameter of the barrel.

When I found cylinder throats too small, I got a throat reamer from Brownells and opened up the throats by hand...

Fair enough. I ordered a package of Speer muzzle loader balls meant for 36 cal revolvers and will start by slugging the bore. I already know that the cylinder throats are tighter than .358 because there was no way the 10 to 12 bhn boolit was getting through without a lot more force than I was willing to use. I might also slug the throats.

With an extra round ball maybe I will finally slug the bore of the 35 Rem and see what it looks like. Since .360 sized boolits work well with it, I am pretty sure I know what the answer will be.