How much leading is too much?

[rockrat]

Have a 357mag levergun that I am just starting to shoot. Loaded up some Lee 158 gr rnfp, some NOE 360-160 rnfp and some 358429 swc's. After shooting today, I have a bit of a dirty bore, but I am using 2400, which most of the gunk in the bore seems to be. Just a bit of leading.

The gun shoots well though.

So, how much leading is too much? Is any too much?

[Catshooter]

Well, I don't know about others, but I try to maintain zero as a standard. Easier with some guns than others.


Cat

[Chainsaw.]

Well if ya haven’t already I’d say clean the bore to be sure. I strive for zero leading. Some times that doesn’t happen being most of my lead start off pretty hard so any of a few different things will harden it more leading to leading (english is weird...). To that end I powder coat which will cut out and leading short of a serious shortcoming on my part.
I have an older gentleman whos my shooting/casting buddy who cast a bit softer than I do and uses NRA lube and gets zero leading even in his 20” rifles. So, it’s possible if you do your part.

[MT Gianni]

If bullet deformation is occurring, effecting group sizes you have too much. I mean 3-5 consecutive 10 shot groups.

[knifemaker]

I have used that Lee mold for shooting in my Rossi 357. It has a very shallow lube groove and I noticed a slight amount of lead in the last couple inches of the barrel. I now use a "Accurate" mold with better lube groove and no leading in the barrel using the same lube as I did in the Lee mold. It appears that the Lee bullet was just running out of lube in the 20 inch barrel.

[leadhead]

What do you size your bullets to?
Denny

[Boolseye]

Serious leading causes serious accuracy issues and is easy to see. Excessive lead streaks, tumbling boolits and even potentially increased pressures. I do not consider a few easily-removed streaks to be a problem in normal CB shooting.

[Mal Paso]

Any lead really stuck to the bore is no good. Hot gas has made it past the bullet and soldered lead to the bore. I get a little lead dust from a couple passes with a bronze brush after 150-300 fairly hot 44 Mag rounds but that's all the bore cleaning I need to do now.

[rockrat]

I size to .360" and use carnuba blue lube. It is a new rifle(long story there). Wondered about the lube capacity of the Lee boolit. The gun has a 24" tube and the NOE 160gr boolit seems to have a bit more lube capacity and velocities of it are about 40fps faster than the Lee, just a little over 1800fps.
Water quenched isotope core with 1% #3 babbit added for the extra tin and copper

[mdi]

Serious leading causes serious accuracy issues and is easy to see. Excessive lead streaks, tumbling boolits and even potentially increased pressures. I do not consider a few easily-removed streaks to be a problem in normal CB shooting.

Me too. But, zero, or so little you have to look with a magnifier, is obtainable. First in a "work up" is proper bullet to gun fit. I have one gun, 357 Mag., that likes .358"+ (my "custom" sizer sizes to about .3588"), and a couple 38s that will shoot leading free with .357". Slug the barrel and cylinder throats and size your bullets to the same size as the throats. A good start...

[leadhead]

Sizing to .360 should be plenty big.... That said, it's probably a lube problem.
Denny

[Catshooter]

Yes, leading in the last few inches has always indicated not enough or not the correct lube to me.

I have a Winchester 94 in .38-55. Five hundred rounds of the Lyman 375449 (LARs 2500 lube) at just under 1,800 feet give me zero leading. I'm lucky with that combo because the biggest I could get the boolit to be is about .0001 under bore size.


Cat

[mehavey]

Just a bit of leading.

When you say that, what exactly do you mean ?
Describe what you are seeing.

[Dusty Bannister]

[QUOTE=Catshooter;4515143]Yes, leading in the last few inches has always indicated not enough or not the correct lube to me.

Or insufficient bullet strength or excessive velocity/pressure for that alloy in that firearm.

[rockrat]

What appears to be a few flakes of lead, about 2-3" past the chamber. Ran a dry patch down the bore. Came out clean.

[John Boy]

Any bore leading is derived from 3 issues:
1. Under size bullet wobbling down the bore because it is not being engraved by the grooves - usually at the muzzle end
2. Lube starvation - usually at the beginning of the bore
3. Dirty bore

[mehavey]

What appears to be a few flakes of lead, about 2-3" past the chamber.
Ran a dry patch down the bore. Came out clean.

barring severe accuracy issues, what you describe is totally normal.

The "flakes" come from initial compressive settling/scraping
into the throat/rifling; retain their loose integrity; and are
pushed out the bore w/ each successive shot . . . .

... instead of the bullet sides/base edges being melted/smeared
and literally soldered into the grooves -- i.e., "classic leading"