45colt-ruger
44mag-ruger/smith
38/357-ruger/smith
32mag-ruger
Ive read about revolver cylinder to barrel fit,dont really know that much about how to fix that
The bullets I bought were .001 over, I have no knowledge of alloy; the ones I cast were wheelweights, I have pan lubed w/Darr
the posted picture looks like strands of cb over a mop of steel wool. I know that st should never be run down the bore
Start with one gun. Do you know how to slug a barrel? How to slug a cylinder throat? There are threads on this forum where you can read how to measure all these things. So far, you are giving us zilch to work with. This stuff is done in thousandths and ten thousandths and there are ways to measure this. Without measurements, it's like buying tires for a car, you walk in and say I need 4 tires for this car, they say what model car is it? You say "a blue one."
The Ruger in .45 Colt. Start with that one since most of us know those are notorious for having cylinder throats too small to shoot cast boolits decently because they will undersize the boolit when you shoot them. This causes leading like mad because you have a boolit smaller than the bore diameter with burning powder gas escaping all down the sides of it melting lead and depositing it in the barrel like crazy.
What do you size your .45 Colt boolits to? Try this simple test.. Can you push one of the boolits into the cylinder throats from the front? If not, then the throat is too tight and will need the cylinder sent to a guy like me who reams and hones these out to half a thousandth over the boolit diameter so that when you shoot it, the boolit is not undersized and it will fit the bore and seal and this alone cuts down on the leading and gives about a 4x boost to the accuracy. This is very common with the .44 and .45 caliber Ruger single action revolvers, and they respond VERY favorably to having the cylinder throats "dimensionally corrected" for shooting cast boolits. This is one of the BEST things you can do for a Ruger SA revolver.
Then, you need to work on your loads. Mix your wheel weight with equal part pure lead to soften it up a bit. Use soft lube, size the boolit to .452" and load them. What is your load data for the .45 Colt? What boolit style/mold?
My own Ruger Vaquero, cylinder throats reamed to .4525" barrel Taylor throated to remove a really bad thread choke, I load the fat Lee 300gr RF boolits over Ruger Only charges of LilGun for 1100 fps velocity, I can scratch the boolit with a fingernail, lube is Felix lube, and I never even clean this gun. It doesn't lead. AT ALL. I have found the combination to be in the dimensions of the cylinder throats, and alloy matched to the barrel twist at the velocity I shoot it with. It just works. THIS is what we can try for in yours, but you have to start with one, list the dimensions, list the components of your load, the boolit, size, powder, primer, brass, etc... It all starts here. People here will be glad to help you try and find what your guns like and try to make some progress. You just got to come up with the answers when someone asks a question.
Got a .22 .30 .32 .357 .38 .40 .41 .44 .45 .480 or .500 S&W cylinder that needs throats honed? 9mm, 10mm/40S&W, 45 ACP pistol barrel that won't "plunk" your handloads? 480 Ruger or 475 Linebaugh cylinder that needs the "step" reamed to 6° 30min chamfer? Click here to send me a PM You can also find me on Facebook Click Here.
weasel 21
Can you post a picture of the bullets you bought and the ones you cast?
Also what loads were you using?
Larry Gibson
Take the barrel out of the pistol. Run a goodly amount of Kroil down the bore then zip up the barrel in a ziploc bag with a saturated patch and let sit over night or for a couple of days then run the copper choirboy unstrung and wrapped around an old brush down the boreOriginally Posted by weasel 21
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Dump the grease. I switched to power coating in EVERYTHING I shoot (223-45) and now have absolutely ZERO leading in every gun! It really works!
No leading. No smoke. No sticky dirty boolits. Easy to do. Infinite storage. Minimum worry about the "right alloy". Stretch your alloys by shooting softer boolits.
Cant beat that! Works for me and thousands of others on here. Try it....you WILL be amazed at how easy the clean-up is after several hundred rounds thru a gun (2 patches for me).
banger-j
if you got problems in everything powder coating won't save you.
you got a problem somewhere else besides the boolits and lube.
look to your reloading practices or die sets.
Agree 100%. PC will only help if one is casting & loading correctly. It is NOT a cure-all! B4 PC, I had minimum leading. Now none. But most things were "tweeked" correctly to start with. Problems that severe across the entire range of guns is unusual! The OP needs to start with one cal he likes and work on that until he learns what is wrong and how to correct it. Then transfoer that knowledge to the other guns.
Good luck!
banger-j
Lots of very good advice here in this thread. I agree that in this instance, simply switching to powder coated bullets would, at best, be a band-aid approach. Once in a while a person gets lucky and assembles a cast bullet load at random and it works. That's usually not the case, and it's why so many try cast bullets one time and then quit, bad-mouthing everything about the subject for the rest of their lives.
If you match the alloy to the pressure, the bullet diameter to the barrel groove diameter, and use an adequate lube, everything SHOULD come together. If it doesn't, something else is wrong. You just have to troubleshoot one variable at a time until you determine exactly what is wrong.
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Cast bullets have different reloading rules from jacketed. First things first, did you follow the advice given about using threads of Chore Boy on a brass brush to remove the leading? It will take a little bit, but the bores will come clean again, I promise. Leading is actually easier to remove than jacketed fouling is.
Next, my understanding is that you used commercial cast bullets. Most commercially cast bullets are too hard for many lower pressure calibers and loads. Bullets that are too hard often lead the bores if their sizing isn't absolutely perfect for the particular bore size, and very few really are. There are a number of threads here on slugging bores to determine bore size. This will be the next thing to check. Let us know what you find and someone will be along to help you from there.
You aren't by chance mistaking powder fouling for lead, are you? Powder fouling is gray in color too.
In all, the .41 Magnum would be one of my top choices for an all-around handgun if I were allowed to have only one. - Bart Skelton
Does this mean you've been reloading lead for 25 years and are just now realizing you've got a leading issue? Or, does this mean that after 25 years of reloading jacketed bullets you've just recently started loading lead? I (and apparently others) presume the latter, but it wouldn't hurt to clarify.
You also really need to be more forthcoming with the details, especially relating to guns, groove diameters, exact bullets, alloy and bhn if possible, lube, powder and charge etc, as others have already pointed out. The minimal info you've supplied so far is not really enough for anyone to return anything meaningful beyond generic suggestions.
As someone else mentioned, if you haven't thoroughly cleaned your bores of all copper fouling BEFORE shooting lead, you're likely just spitting into the wind.
All that said, I too have had zero leading problems after converting to powder coating.
Ive been reloading for 25 + yrs. All the handguns were loaded w/commercial cast at the begining .My rifles M1, M1 carbine always used jacketed. Ive always knew what was necessary to make cast bullets shoot. When I would start to develop a load I would usually start in the middle w/ data from all the published manuals. My handgun powders were usually fast burning; bullseye, red dot, green dot, unique.I noticed right away that there was a lot of lead in the bores of the guns & it was pretty hard to get rid of it. I follow the data from the manuals as I figured why would the manufacturers put out bunk info. No I really haven't slugged the bores. I guess that should be done.
There you go, you already knew the answer for the first place to start. Don't forget to slug the cylinders as well.
Reloading dies are usually geared toward jacketed. You will need to pull a few of your rounds to see if the lead is being sized down by your dies or brass. Also, too much crimp is bad. Don't count on the advertised hardness of commercial being correct, as it usually is the starting point, with most harder, sometimes much harder than advertised. With light loads that could create leading problems, especially using crappy lube designed more for shipping than shooting.
Last edited by RobsTV; 04-06-2015 at 08:07 AM.
weasel I think you're getting a bit scattered here.
pick one gun out of the bunch and start from scratch.
clean the barrel down to bare metal, this includes the copper fouling.
now read what doug guy wrote, I didn't read it but I know it's good advice.
he can help you find your dimensions [and can probably fix those dimensions depending on the revolver/pistol you have]
once you have done that you'll start to get an understanding on how cast boolits work in a gun.
[and why I still haven't bought a new 9mm pistol even though I have been looking for over a year now.]
there are workarounds for just about every combination of boolit bhn and diameter versus gun dimensions out there.
but you have to understand what your working with first.
Pay attention to runfiverun! Chances are you are running to small a projectile to start out with! Get a good lube (White Label or Ben's red), then go back and read DougGuy.
1Shirt!
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All very good advice, and correct as well..........but if we're going first things first then lets forget about lubes, alloys, and loads for a moment....to shoot cast bullets successfully, (read accurately with little to no leading) FIRST THE GUN NEEDS TO BE DIMENSIONALLY CORRECT.........revolvers, (I know little of auto's) cylinder throats need to be at least 1 to 2 thousandths LARGER than bore diameter and preferably all the same, (easy to do or have done if needed) bore should have no constrictions/restrictions (can be fixed by fire lapping if needed)......once you obtain these goals THEN you start with the bullet sizing needed, lube, and load work.....start at the start line...JMO...
RobsTV touched on something that is overlooked alot. You didn't mention if you're using a crimp die. The pistol Lee factory crimp dies can cause problems swaging the boolit down in size depending on how it's used, and then you'll have leading issues. The taper crimp die is a much better option for pistol cartridges IMO.
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Data for cast bullets or for jacketed bullets? Start loads are generally there as "start" loads". Starting in the "middle", especially with jacketed loads could be a problem.
Most commercial cast bullets use a very poor lube which probably accounts for the leading with those.
What specific loads are you using?
What specific cast bullets are you using?
Are you using GC'd bullets in the M1 Carbine and M1 Rifle?
Hard to give answers what to do when we don't really have any idea what you ARE doing.
Larry Gibson
Keep in mind, little that you learned when reloading applies to handloading with cast bullets. See my tag line!
The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"
Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!
TO be honest, I don't slug my bores. I go 0.001-0.002" over spec bore dia. I have too many guns running lead bullets. I am not about to do custom ammo for all. I do pin gage my rev cyl, if too small I have them opened up. Any leading I get is minimal & easily cleaned with normal methods. Stubborn leading, if any, gets ChorBoy. I also try to never run lead over copper & vise versa. The only rifles I currently run lead bullets in are 45-70. I like to cast boolits & shoot but I am no purist.
EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
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