Glock barrel leading

[Bashby]

Bashby, check out the A.t.M. thread. It is an inexpensive way to check your temp. What you are needing is the temp of the bullets. If I can help please don't hesitate! We are all in this together!

What’s the ATM thread? Sticky? I looked and didn’t see it.

[slide]

It is in the Coatings and alternatives section. 29 down. That's the best I can do for you I am not too computer savvy. The digital thermometer can be bought on amazon. Most of them come with a thermocouple. Drill a hole in the base of a coated bullet and insert thermocouple and secure with high heat aluminum tape. Put the thermocuple bullet on top of the bullets your are baking. Say if your powder calls for 400F for 10 minutes watch your thermometer and when it hits 400F start a timer set for 10 minutes. This thing will change the instant the temp does. I have used it for 3 years and really like it. It is just another way of doing things,it gives you another option. People have used other ways and they work really well for them. It will cost you around twenty bucks for the set up. The thermocouple wire is thin enough it will not interfere with oven door closing or sealing.

[44Blam]

I shoot a lot of cast in my Glock 35, but I did get some leading in my stock barrel. It was a little weird because it built up on one side of the groves but was very easy to remove. But the accuracy was not very good... So, I use my stock barrel to shoot j-words when I need to.

I have two KKM barrels that I use. One is 40 S&W and the other is 357 Sig. Both of these shoot lead VERY accurately with no lead fouling.

I think the KKM barrels are just a lot higher quality barrels.

[Bashby]

Can I expect to see an improvement in accuracy when going to 358 boolits? It seems like groups opened up after I had the barrels throat reworked. Before I was able to shoot 6” groups @ 25 yards off hand, now I am lucky to do that off of a rest. I had same results with my cast loads and a couple types of jacketed ammo. I had Dougs full service done with barrel re-crown and polishing feed ramp area.

[DougGuy]

Thanks for chiming in Doug, hope all is well with you! I have 358 sizing dies.

All good now, got clean scans this week!

Keep in mind that the alloy you shoot has a LOT to do with the final size. Softer alloys have less springback so they will come out of a .358" push through sizer a few tenths smaller than a wheel weight alloy will, and probably half thou smaller than a hardcast bhn22. The softer alloys will also seal in the throat on firing, and seal in the barrel better than harder alloy will.

What this means is that if you run a hard boolit through your .358" die, it may not plunk in the chamber if there is any interference with the throat. Mic'ing the hardcast post sizing will always show it is bigger than the die it just went through.

I do not personally recommend hard alloy and don't use it. I have found that in every instance of application, I can get a softer 50/50+2% boolit to out perform everything else, of course YMMV because I also do not shoot Glocks. I hardly think that lower BHN would factor critical in a Glock where nothing else cares about it being too soft. Things like gas checks and PC allow the use of softer alloy without fouling. Softer alloy fits better when gas pressure hits it from behind. This is a cool thing to take advantage of as no amount of tooling and machining can fit one metal to the other as well as gas pressure can.

[DougGuy]

Can I expect to see an improvement in accuracy when going to 358 boolits? It seems like groups opened up after I had the barrels throat reworked. Before I was able to shoot 6” groups @ 25 yards off hand, now I am lucky to do that off of a rest. I had same results with my cast loads and a couple types of jacketed ammo. I had Dougs full service done with barrel re-crown and polishing feed ramp area.

YES. The reason I get so many 35 caliber barrels and cylinders is that most want to size to .358" so that there is an ample amount of lead to be swaged into the rifling for a tight seal. Works in autos, revolvers, and also rifles. Having a barrel fitted to a boolit is a perfect way to achieve that fitment in the bore. Sizing a boolit too small to fill the throat is like the proverbial pissing into the wind for lack of a more appropriate term. That is inviting burning powder gas to escape along the sides of the boolit which cuts PC, lead, lube, anything in it's path. You are virtually guaranteed fouling as a result of gas cutting, and also poor groups.

In all honesty, I haven't gotten one complaint in thousands of barrels and cylinders throated when boolits were sized to the throats. I got one complaint years ago from a retired machinist that thought his cylinder should have come back to him smooth as a baby's behind, i.e. as polished as the S&W factory sends them out which I admit is VERY slick (this was years before I got the Sunnen hone). I got one complaint from a guy who thought the lands were a bit rough and he was correct as I had a new Manson reamer that I used on his barrel that got by their QC and cut a rough leade in. I can't find his correspondence now to offer to re-ream the barrel, Manson immediately replaced that reamer.

[Bashby]

Thanks Doug, that is encouraging. Hopefully I will have time this weekend to cast some boolits and size @358.

Many thanks to everyone else too! I’ve really been enjoying my new hobby.

[tomme boy]

What make is the barrel

[Bashby]

What make is the barrel

It is a factory Glock barrel.

[Bashby]

Cast up a pile of boolits last night then PCed a 200 or so, then sized to .358. Loaded them up and hit the range. First thing I did was shot a group at 25 using my range bag as a rest from the bench.

Then I went to the steel range and shot most of the 200at the plate rack from around 15-20 yards. A couple times I was sure I had a good pull on the trigger and the plate next to the one I was aiming at fell. Missed a lot. Then I shot a mag at a paper plate from 15 free hand.

Here’s the barrel after 200 rounds.

[Bashby]

Anyone else notice anything on those paper plate targets? A couple of those holes look funky. Not the classic keyholes I’ve seen, but looks like they went in sideways to me.

[Bashby]

[slide]

Have you been able to tell if that is lead or coating?

[Martin Luber]

Don't Glox go boom with lead, unless not polygonal?

[Bashby]

Have you been able to tell if that is lead or coating?

Pretty sure it’s lead. I haven’t cleaned it after today’s range session, but since I’ve been shooting cast, I’ve had deposits that a patch with Hoppes wouldn’t touch. It took some aggressive work with a copper brush to break it loose, then a patch is lead gray in color.

[Dusty Bannister]

Cast and powder coated and loaded and shot within 24 hours of casting. No chance for age hardening was there?

[Bashby]

They were probably pretty soft.

[slide]

Get some chore boy pads. Make sure they are 100% copper,wrap around your cleaning brush. Should remove it. You can get them at most grocery stores. Bullets are not getting swaged down? It could be the pc. I know you don't know me but, if you want to send me some bullets I will powdercoat them for you. I use the a.t.m. and it has made all the difference for me. It has been four years now and I was about ready to go back to lubed. You can p.m. me if you are interested.

[Bashby]

I’m gonna pull a few and check for swaging. Not tonight though.
I did pull one at the start of loading those 200 rounds. It was swaged a bit, it was .3575 or so. Maybe I need to work on the adjustment on my seat/ crimp die.

[slide]

That would be a good place to start. The measurement is a good clue.