.38 leading in first 2 inches of barrel

[Echo]

I use the Recluse formula of 45/45/10 - carnauba wax, Alox, mineral spirits. See the sticky. and there is a forum member who sells beeswax, but the handle eludes me at the time...

[fredj338]

ID micrometer or pin gage the cyl throats. It will only take one or two small throats to cause that early leading IMO. I doubt any lube tinkering is going to fix it. If the bullet is small going into the bore, it's gonna lead some.

[Mauser48]

I have had excellent results from BAC from White Label Lube Co. It is not expensive and as I'm guessing you'll be like most of us and move on to casting for rifles, the same lube has given me excellent results with rifle cartridges as well. White Label makes several different formulas should you decide to try something different. I just like having one 'do-all' lube myself.

Yeah I was looking at white label, would BAC be a better choice than their 50/50 for what I'm doing? Will a pound be enough to do 100 bullets at a time in say a pie plate?

[Hannibal]

I have not tried 50/50 personally, but for .38, I think it would work just fine. As I stated earlier,
I prefer BAC because it works well for my rifle bullets as well, where as 50/50 may not if I choose to push them a bit faster. Saves me from cleaning out my lube sizer. I'm lazy. And yes, a pound is many times more than enough to do 100 bullets at a time, especially if you use a smaller pan so you won't have unnecessary volume to fill.

[gnostic]

Alloy is air cooled wheel weights. I really dknt think this would be a hardness issue for this light of a load. I've also shot this same exact load but with a commercial 158 swc moly coated bullet and experienced no leading.

I've had leading with LLA and BLL as well. When I size and Lube with Super Moly the leading goes away real quick. My S&W .357's don't seem to lead with tumble lube.

[Mauser48]

I picked up a pound of bac lube and a lee 358-158 rnfp mold so now I will have a bullet with a traditional lube groove. I look forward to trying this out, thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[Hannibal]

Sounds like a good plan! Let us know how it goes.

[rintinglen]

http://i.imgur.com/DKjjxCv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lgqsQto.jpg

Here's the bullet and the barrel after the range session. I think you guys might be right about the lube because I also shot them through my blackhawk and they leaded that in the first couple inches of barrel and also a little towards the muzzle end. The blackhawk has looser cylinder throats too, I can push the bullet through the cylinder without too much force. In the gp100 they are pretty darn tight getting through and leave a lot of lead in the front cylinder face. No lead deposits on the blackhawk cylinder face whatsoever. Is there another lube alternative besides liquid alox that doesn't require me to buy a lubersizer?

I suspect you have a 6 chambered sizing die that is making your bullets too small for your barrel. When your chamber throats are too small, they squeeze your carefully crafted boolits down. Undersized lead boolits almost always will lead the bore.

I had a similar problem with my S&W M-69 44 and Doug Guy came to the rescue. For $65.00 He opened my cylinder throats from .4285 to .432, which worked better with my .429 Barrel.

[Dieselhorses]

I'll second what mdi said. I did the exact same with my 500 Smith and I can either use lubed OR powder coat = NO leading! Also no issues for my 686-6 shooting either 38's or 357mag. Also make sure crimp is not too heavy. 700x is a pretty fast burning powder. I use the same hardness (15-18BHN), with the exception of using a gas check under the 500's 440 GR SWC's. (I tend to fancy powder coating over anything else though!) Remember the "Choir Boy" to get the lead out.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Meanwhile, there's a little kit called the Lewis Lead Remover that could help you get it clean again.

[Hannibal]

I'll second what mdi said. I did the exact same with my 500 Smith and I can either use lubed OR powder coat = NO leading! Also no issues for my 686-6 shooting either 38's or 357mag. Also make sure crimp is not too heavy. 700x is a pretty fast burning powder. I use the same hardness (15-18BHN), with the exception of using a gas check under the 500's 440 GR SWC's. (I tend to fancy powder coating over anything else though!) Remember the "Choir Boy" to get the lead out.

I believe you meant 'Chore Boy'. (?)

Getting difficult to find the copper stuff as opposed to the steel, so be cautious of what you're buying.

Too many unscrupulous characters using copper wool for nefarious purposes, so I hear.

[Dieselhorses]

Duuh yea, Chore Boy. "Choir Boy" is the singing version LOL

[mdi]

Duuh yea, Chore Boy. "Choir Boy" is the singing version LOL

I think I got a CD of theirs somewhere...

[Mauser48]

I'm happy to report that both my bores look like mirrors after the range day! This load was 3.4 grains of 700x with the lee 158 rnfp and the white label lube. This load felt a little warmer than my 158 grain swc loads with the same powder charge. I think it's because I had to seat the rnfp a little deeper than the SWC so it built up more pressure. I'll probably back off to 3 grains. Thank you to the experts for the suggestion that worked like a charm! I have an rcbs lube-a-matic 2 on the way! Pan lubing was a pita but it was a cheap way for me to try out the lube.

[Hannibal]

Excellent! Always nice to hear about a happy ending and glad your problem has been solved.

[sutherpride59]

If you aren’t going to buybablube sizer I wouldn’t bother with pan lining. Just do the shake and bake with powder coat and you will get more bullets faster than with pan lubing. Pan lube is a PITA. I bought a star sized and I couldn’t be happier.