(For those who don't already know who Mike Bellm is: http://www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=67)

Like a few, I'm on Mike Bellm's email list. This came today:

Newsletter: Don't trip over lead, and lessons learned.

"What fired up this Newsletter was another .357 Max. TC factory barrel with the "toilet bowl" forcing cone chamber now common to virtually all of the straight wall, rimmed revolver type cartridges including very common rounds like .357 Mag, .44 Mag, .454 Casull, and now the burning rage in some areas like Indiana in particular, the .460 S&W.

Owners of .357 Max barrels with the SAAMI toilet bowl cone shaped chamber are continually hitting me up with questions about what to do with them to get accuracy. Instead of the canned answer, "Nothing", I got off on a tangent and did some research this morning.

Here is one problem. Because of all the space around the bullet shank in the cone area and because of the distance the bullet travels before it meets the front of the cone to seal things off, there has to be a tremendous amount of powder blowing AROUND the bullet! If you go to The Chamber Cast Library toward the bottom of our menu list, you can see from the casts v. bullets that there is quite a void there, both around the bullet AND in the length of the cone.

One attempt shooters use is to use heavy, longer bullets, but in most instances the longer bullets still end up having fairly short shanks.

So where I headed off to was the long shank, squared off cast lead bullets in the heavier weights with the notion to at least get a longer bullet shank that would seal off the void with the shortest bullet travel reaching the bore/groove diameter at the front of the cone. Whether this is the answer to the problem or not, I don't know, but do think it is worth taking a look at.

Referring to pretty much the godfather of hardcore, I mean "hardcore" as opposed to hard bullet, cast bullet shooting, I went to http://lbtmoulds.com/moulds.shtml to see what if anything Veral Smith could lend to the topic.

I STRONGLY recommend you read some of his articles and pay special attention to his comments about throats in particular! I have said for years that the "common wisdom" of shooting cast lead bullets .001" larger than groove diameter was more about fitting the bullet to the throat than it was to fitting it to the groove diameter of the barrel, which in so many words in part is what Veral is saying.

ALSO.... VERY IMPORTANT! HEADS UP! PAY ATTENTION!
Note his procedure for getting a true indication of the actual throat diameter, which in turn should also reveal a lot about throat alignment.

Much of what he is describing applies equally well to jacketed bullets, including his recommendation to fire lap, but with a compound with the least tendency to enlarge the throat. I much appreciated also his comments about "choked bores" but more on that another time.

Various theories and practices abound in cast lead circles, but Veral Smith is very well grounded and in my opinion the one to start with to get a good foundation for delving into the world of shooting cast lead or tuning up what your own experiences may have taught you.

OK.... with all the excellent and ever improving jacketed bullets, why mess with lead?

First off, lead fouling of the barrel is highly controllable with the procedures available today. Cast lead has come a LONG way and is quite viable!

One key point is that with all else being equal, lead shoots faster than jacketed due to less force and friction getting it down the barrel. With the technology in lead bullets today, in many of the larger bore sizes especially you can shoot lead right up to maximum velocity for a given cartridge normally shooting jacketed bullets.

Lead bullets with a largish flat on the nose kills game QUITE well, and lead alloys on the softer side of the hardness spectrum will hold together and mushroom with the best of jacketed bullets at lower velocities. Many allege cast lead kills better than jacketed bullets, often referred to as "condom bullets" by lead shooters.

With the shortages of components going on, with moulds in hand you are good to go for more bullets anytime. If you do not reload, the various smaller commercial loading companies like Grizzly and Buffalo Arms put out a wide assortment of cast lead loads, many of which are highly suitable for hunting with the TC guns.

Is lead the answer to the toilet bowl forcing cone chambers? If you have more hands on experience in this arena, I'd like to hear from you.

All the best,
Mike Bellm"

mike@bellmtcs.com