Lead rings found in my action

[Tripplebeards]

I shot cast in my 450 bushmaster Ruger American two years ago and the gun is now gone. Its been replaced by Ruger to a scout model that is supposed to arrive today. What I remember is after so many firings I remember cleaning my gun there were a few very thin completely round rings laying in my chamber when I cleaned it. I never had any leading and I PDd and GC my boolits. The little rings had colors of PC on them almost like they were sizing while being shot and that little ring was getting blown back 8 to my action. My boolits were sized .001 over and were COWW lead. I think I asked this question a couple years ago I just forgot the answer. The remind me when I slug my barrel when i get a ring of lead left on the muzzle after it breaks off and your slug goes down the barrel. My .001” over boolits cant be too large and shaving? I never has any leading. Thoughts? It wasn’t very many either in just a few found after each firing. Somewhere completely round somewhere maybe half or 3/4 the way almost like my action shaved it. You know I remember I had trouble cycling these big blunt rounds and I wonder if the rear chamber shaved them off when they entered the action. But it wouldn’t make sense to have some completely shaved all the way around making perfect little circles with PC on them.

[Winger Ed.]

Sounds like the back end of the barrel was doing a final sizing as the boolit went down it.

Not exactly like that, but I've found the same sort of lead ring when cleaning a .22 LR chamber after firing a bunch of .22 shorts.

Being .001 oversize, you'd think that little bit over size diameter's worth of lead, or if one obturated,
the excess has to go somewhere if it doesn't 'squish' down.

[Tripplebeards]

Id find just a couple, like two or three rings after about 60 firings. It wasn’t consistent. I wonder if I had some growth or bounce back on a few of my boolits causing this? The boolits I casted were a month or two old and around 16 BH.

[bmortell]

my 30-06s PC'd leave a little paint/lead ring usually stuck to the end of the case mouth. I know its not from chambering them for me, has to be something with how they fire.

[Dusty Bannister]

Is it possible that you did not have sufficient flare when seating the cast bullet and the case shaved a bit of a driving band off when seating and crimping? An alternative might be that the step at the end of the chamber was shearing off a small bit of the side of a bullet as the shot was fired. If it stuck to the case, it would be clear from the chamber when extracted. If it started down the barrel, it would be cleared by the following shot. I suppose if the cases were not trimmed to the same length, that gap between the end of the case and the beginning of the lands would be inconsistent and result in a random condition.

If you think you posed the question before, check your profile and see a list of your posts. Maybe it will jog your memory and you can see what was concluded before. Dusty

[Tripplebeards]

my 30-06s PC'd leave a little paint/lead ring usually stuck to the end of the case mouth. I know its not from chambering them for me, has to be something with how they fire.

You know you’re right they were in my fired cases and not my my action 99.9% of the time! I would find them in my zip lock bags I put the spent casings in and still stuck inside the spent casings.



I was thinking that I shaved The base of the bullet when seating it because I didn’t flair enough but I’m gas checking these so my bullet base is protected so I would think it’s not possible. Would maybe over crimping shave off a lead ring? But if so there’s no way it’s gonna expand and let the bullet blow through it and fly back into my fire case without coming apart I would think.


I would sure think that when I chamber these it’s sizing them and cutting a ring around them and then it drops back into the spent case when firing? It doesn’t happen all the time I wonder if I had a few bullets that it grew? I also don’t get any lighting so it must not be enough scraping to expose enough lead to do so. I would also get flyers every once in a while and this would probably explain why?

[bmortell]

im sizing .3095 for my 30-06, mine are gas checked and I use an m die so they never scrape when seating. then I micrometer the middle of the neck after seating and crimp until the font of the neck measures the same for a perfectly straight neck. and ive test chambered many times because the bore riding portion is a little too big with PC so I examined chambered bullets a lot and there was never any contact besides the bore ride. and it still happens frequently, I don't know how many fall off or get blown down the bore without me noticing so it might be everytime.

[Tripplebeards]

I remember it was in my 77/44 now and not my bushmaster. I trim every case to the same length after every firing.

[ACC]

OK, this has happened to my Ruger Blackhawk .30 Carbine when using cast boolits. There is a cure for this. I found that when I didn't chamfer the case. Neither the inside or outside, this stopped. It seems that this only happens in straight walled cases that headspaces on the case mouth. IE .30 carbine, 9mm, 45 acp. And it only seems to be Rugers that do it.

At least that is my experience, and I have seen it in the 450 Bushmaster.

ACC

[bmortell]

except my poor 30-06 rings nobody can explain for me

[jsizemore]

So we have a case that's a little short of the start of the throat. The bullet moves forward when fired and engages the rifling. We've all hit a bullet on the nose with a hammer to see it bump up to a larger diameter. Your bullet of choice is long enough to do this with part of the rearend still in the case and shears off the offending ring as it passes over the throat origin. That PC keeps it from sticking to the chamber wall and the sticky lead lets it follow the case out of the chamber.

[Peregrine]

I remember it was in my 77/44 now and not my bushmaster. I trim every case to the same length after every firing.

That sounds like far too much work, trimming is my least favorite step in reloading by a large margin.