Shooting jacketed bullets to remove lead

[greg1]

Will shooting a few jacketed bullets remove lead from a leaded barrel?

[geargnasher]

Soon to come will be the long list of myths, legends, facts, advice, warnings, sarcastic remarks, arguments, etc. Enjoy!

Gear

[HammerMTB]

You'll get all kinds of answers to this, but I have done it many times where there is a small bit of lead- just some traces, most often near the chamber. It works fine.
If the leading is severe, I don't know as I haven't tried.

[Trey45]

When I rarely do get a little leading, if I shoot a few J word bullets it clears it right out. I have never had severe leading and cannot attest to the merits of J word bullets to remove heavy leading.

[Jack Stanley]

I used to use jacketed bullets for that and sure enough it seemed to clean it out but I found the leading returned just as fast .

What seemed to work for me was using gas checked loads , the leading seemed to be reduced somewhat after awhile .

Jack

[dbldblu]

Elmer Keith recommended shooting jacketed bullets to remove leading. I value his opinion more than most.

[462]

I've never tried it, believing that it just ironed in the lead. But, if Mr. Keith said it works, well...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I tried it, didn't work for me.
Jon

[R.C. Hatter]

My experience has been that firing jacketed bullets to remove mild leading in a rifle, seems to work OK. I would NOT advocate the use of jacketed bullets in a heavily leaded bore for pressure/safety reasons. After such firing, the bore would require cleaning to remove copper/jacket material fouling.

[mooman76]

It also can ruin a barrel if it's heavily leaded.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Seems to me this old tire has been kicked a number of times on this site.Robert

[Gohon]

After such firing, the bore would require cleaning to remove copper/jacket material fouling.

There is the rub..........you wanna clean out mild leading or copper fouling which are both about equal to clean. Either way cleaning is required but it is also said before shooting lead, all copper fouling must be cleaned or it will strip lead and the barrel will lead worse. As to whether Keith recommend it or not...well I'd personally have to read it from his own writings to believe it. Bottom line is if you are getting leading to any degree other than just a light gray powder dusting then you have another problem that needs correcting. Correct that and you don't have to worry about leading.

[454PB]

Yes, it works. Mind the pressure, a leaded bore is technically an obstructed bore.

As was stated, a gas checked boolit works well, and also a very lightly loaded plain based boolit. It's the same principal as slugging a bore.....pushing a slug through the barrel slowly.

[waksupi]

The ones who say eliminate the cause in the first place, are on the right track.
Much better to shoot a few low velocity cast boolits to clean it out.

[303Guy]

How is firing a j-word through a leaded bore different ot firing one through an oily and bore? (I mean oily, not oiled and wiped with a patch). I would rather err on the side of caution.

The next time I find a need to clean out a leaded bore I shall be using a few paper patched boolits on top of a half case of grits over medium rifle powder, followed by a few wheat bran filled loads for polishing. I don't know if that will work but it does seem to clean out a bore pretty good.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive done it quite a bit but like waksupi said if its nessisary you need to fix the problem that cause it.

[sergeant69]

Soon to come will be the long list of myths, legends, facts, advice, warnings, sarcastic remarks, arguments, etc. Enjoy!

Gear

made my day. thanks!!

[qajaq59]

Seems to me this old tire has been kicked a number of times on this site.Robert

Nahhh, only 46383957836475 times. LOL

Myself, I clean the lead before I shoot copper, and vice versa, so I really couldn't say either way. But if I had to guess I'd say I doubted it. Seems like it would smooth it out, not remove it. Jacketed bullets are awfully smooth to be used as scrapers.

[Rocky Raab]

Keith wrote on a manual typewriter by a kerosene light, too. If THAT was good enough for him ...

Seriously, though; I'm in the "one or the other" camp that cleans before changing bullet types. I consider lead fouling that's thick enough to warrant cleaning to be a partial bore obstruction - a risk I choose not to take with my guns and body parts, thank you.

[FAsmus]

Gentlemen;

I once leaded up a 30/30 M336 Marlin something horrible - the rifling disappeared - it was a terrible mistake.

I assessed the alternative of endless brushing or (worse) working it out with steel-wool and so forth and then compared these procedures to shooting it out.

I elected to shoot it out with jacketed. I had a few old Sierra 150 grain bullets sitting around, unused, so I loaded them up over 7 grains 700X and fired them into my big box of rags out in the casting shed.

The first recovered bullet was totally lead-plated. The next one was partially covered, the third showed lead in the rifling grooves, the fourth ran pretty clean and the fifth looked just regular as do any recovered bullets do.

The barrel followed the appearance of the bullets - progressively cleaner. After the fifth shot I was satisfied with the degree of cleaniness and returned to the loading bench, loaded up conventional cast bullet combinations and returned to completely satisfying shooting ever since.

In short, it works but I doubt I'd ever go to full-tilt lead loads for the "cleaning" procedure.

Good evening,
Forrest