help with leading

[bryonbush]

im having some leading issues with leading in my springfield xd. i brought the powder charge down to 4.5 gr of bullseye and im still having issues. im shooting 180 gr -401-175-tc bullets that are cast from wheel weights and watter dropped. im tumble lubing with LLA and the LLA/JPW mix. i slugged my barrel inside the grooves its .391, outside of the groves it was .400 and the cast bullet itself is .402

since day one with this pistol ive shot cast out of this gun. a fellow caster/shooter reccomended that i shoot several hundred fmj's and that might help out a little. i never had this problem with the same cast/lube/load with my smith and wesson. any help would be great.

[sixshot]

Shooting cast bullets always takes a little experimenting & shooting a bunch of jacketed slugs might be the answer. Also I would try shooting some air cooled WW's because yours aren't going very fast & shooting a hard slug can cause gas cutting. Next I would try using a different lube. I'm sure your XD will come around for you.

Dick

[Three44s]

If you don't want to break in your barrel with a bunch of J-words ....... I'd use USP or JB bore paste.

As a non embedding abrasive bore paste it will give your internals a mild polishing.

I incorporate it in all my breakin regiments and get to shooting lead much faster.

Copper chore boy to remove leading ......... JB or USP to reduce leading next time.

CorrosionX to coat the internals after cleaning ........

.............. then back to lead ............... if it re-leads and I feel my dimensions and alloy are right ..... back to the cleaning bench.

Before long .......... leading is a thing of the past and that should happen with in two or three round trips to cleaning.

Three 44s

[Bass Ackward]

I never had this problem with the same cast/lube/load with my smith and wesson. any help would be great.


Just like women, you gotta give each one the attention she desires. And the last thing she wants to hear is, "that is how the last girl liked it."

There are many ways to go. You can start by cutting the charge even more. Change to a slower powder. Change lube or brush between mags. Shoot jacketed which may or may not do anything for you.

You "need" to understand that the change has to be the change that the gun desires and not what we tell you or your mind is comfortable doing. And we can't see the gun.

After the gun gets used to doing things, it will clean up and allow you to abuse it in other ways that maybe failed before. And it may even use the same load eventually.

[btroj]

So many things can lead to leading. Like Bass said, this gun has different needs than the other one. Key is to find what those needs are.
It might just need a break in period. Might want a different older entirely. Might want a different lube. Could be the bullet design/hardness.
Like a woman the gun knows but she ain't telling. You are supposed to pick up on her signals and just know what she wants. This is where shooting cast gets interesting.
Change things slightly. Work one variable at a time. See how accuracy and leading changes. Don't be surprised if something you never expected to happen does. I am always amazed on how a tiny change can make such a huge difference on paper.
Don't get frustrated, this is a great learning opportunity. You are also dealing with one of the least cast friendly cartridges it seems. I wish you luck.

[Phat Man Mike]

have you slugged the barrel? bought the lil woman a pt-140 and the dang thing hated cast boolits.. so one day I slugged the barrel and bang just like a big red truck the barrel was .401

[DollarBill]

If you go to brownell's you can get a Lewis Lead Remover. I use one on my beretta 92 FS and it leaves the barrel like brand new. Always gets all of the lead particles left behind out. Works for me but I don't have much of a problem with leading.

Did when I first started and changed the type of boolit and it worked for my particular pistol. I use the lee 124 tumble lube and LLA thinned with mineral spirits, and allowed to dry for a couple of days sometimes longer if I'm not loading at the minute. But its about what works for you.

Best to you in your search for the magic combination for your pistol
$Bill

[bryonbush]

phat man mike: yes ive slugged the barrel. the sizes are in my main paragraph.
dollarbill: i have the hoppes verson of the Lewis Lead Remover and it helps, but usually the good ol copper pad works the best. ive been messing around with different loads for over a year now and cant seem to find a solution. ive seen others post about how great their xd's shot lead but i cant ever find one to tell me what they are doing to make it so great. is the slugging dimensions on my barrel the common size for what its supposed to be?

[462]

"Just like women, you gotta give each one the attention she desires. And the last thing she wants to hear is, "that is how the last girl liked it."

That is classic!

"ive been messing around with different loads for over a year now and cant seem to find a solution."

Have you tried different powders, alloys, degrees of boolit hardness, lubes, etc.?

[bryonbush]

so far the powders i have tried have been bullseye and titegroup in all different loads. ive always just used wheel weights, but ive air cooled as well as water dropped. lubes, its always been tumble lubing but i have tried adding one coat or lube to three as well as made up a batch of JPW/LLA.

[Bass Ackward]

ive been messing around with different loads for over a year now and cant seem to find a solution.


Well, this statement is screaming volumes about what isn't working. The fact that others are doing well with theirs and you do well with the same caliber in a revolver also screams volumes to me.

I know you don't want to hear this. You have ONE fundamental problem. You don't know if it's the gun or you. You MUST (did I state that forcefully enough) MUST determine if it's the gun or what you are doing. Because this board can help you, but NOT the gun.

How can you do this? Right off, learn to love your friends advise. How DOES the gun shoot jacketed and is there excess fouling? If the gun pulls copper, it darn sure is going to pull lead. If it won't handle jacketed accurately or without fouling rapidly, odds are you can't expect much from lead really. There are always exceptions of coarse, but I ain't seen one yet.

If it's NOT the gun then we can run you down a list to try.

[bryonbush]

im starting to think its the gun. it shoots very accurately with lead a jacketed bullets. as for fouling with copper, i cant say that ive paid enough attention to that due to the fact that when i do shoot fmj's its only about 12 rounds per range day at best. the rest of the loads are lead. i know i have one problem but i cant seem to figure it out. if tried everything except sizing, but im no about to buy a sizer and then not have it work out for me. i think my next course of action will be to buy a few hundred fmj's and load em up and shoot em and see if that helps any.

[bhn22]

One thing to look at with XDs. I have two of them, and tried cast in one, and it leaded like crazy, even though everything else was pretty close to optimum. I just bought the second one, and noticed something I missed with the first one. The bore appears to be parkerized, the same as the outside of the barrel. Parkerizing could leave a rough enough surface to cause leading. I think I'll lap both barrels, before trying cast again.

[bryonbush]

bhn22: did you have any luck with your barrel lapping?

[44man]

im starting to think its the gun. it shoots very accurately with lead a jacketed bullets. as for fouling with copper, i cant say that ive paid enough attention to that due to the fact that when i do shoot fmj's its only about 12 rounds per range day at best. the rest of the loads are lead. i know i have one problem but i cant seem to figure it out. if tried everything except sizing, but im no about to buy a sizer and then not have it work out for me. i think my next course of action will be to buy a few hundred fmj's and load em up and shoot em and see if that helps any.
Maybe the gun is copper fouling and then you are shooting lead after without removing the copper.
Try shooting one or the other but not both at the same time. Clean to steel between metals.
LLA is one of those lubes that can work in one gun and fail 100% in another. The junk will lead any bore I ever tried it in.

[sqlbullet]

How are you crimping? Have you pulled a loaded round and verified that they bullet is not being 'sized' down by the seating/crimping phase?

Also, I agree that hard bullets + light loads can often give leading. I like to stay near max with all my 10mm loads. If I want less velocity, I move to faster powders, keeping the pressure peak near the same, but for less time, therefore less velocity.

[white eagle]

"Just like women, you gotta give each one the attention she desires. And the last thing she wants to hear is, "that is how the last girl liked it."

That is classic!

"ive been messing around with different loads for over a year now and cant seem to find a solution."

Have you tried different powders, alloys, degrees of boolit hardness, lubes, etc.?
maybe she is menopausal:mrgreen:

[bryonbush]

as for crimping, all i do is enough to take the bell out of the case. there is no actuall crimping on the round. im going to shoot the **** out of it with the fmj's clean her real nice like and get back to the lead and see if that dont change a thing.