How much lead is leading????

[doctorggg]

I've been casting for 2.5 years but due to shoulder surgery I haven't been able to shoot many of my cartridges. Today I shot a Rossi model 92 in 44-40. Bore =.422 and the grooves=.4275.
I was shooting a Big Lube 200 grain boolit sized .430 lubed with Emmert's BP lube. AC/WW with a BHN=22. 8.1 grains Unique. Redding profile crimp into the crimp groove. I loaded these cartridges over a year ago. Today i would use softer lead and either FWFL or Ben's Red lube.

Cleaning the rifle (24" octagon barrel) I kept getting tiny flakes of lead. Was very easy to remove but took about 5 patches after the first three black patches. Is this considered leading to a very small degree. The barrel is new and probably has less than 100 rounds of boolits through it. The load was extremely accurate at 25 yards with a wrist mounted peep sight. Only my arms were supported by the table. Nothing under the rifle.7105571056

The orange dots are 1". I shot the target on the left. My friend shot the target on the right.

[birch]

I would have to consider that leading if it were my firearm. I have had bits of slag that were from my mold part on the bottom of boolits, but that is different than flakes of lead in the barrel. I almost bet the flakes are tiny drops of lead that have flashed to your barrel.

I would bet that if you did not clean your gun, the lead would accumulate very quickly. it is kind of like leaving a bit of cement to harden in your wheel barrow. It will always collect more cement after that.

[doctorggg]

I appreciate that info. What if anything would you do to stop it. We only fired 26 rounds. Thanks

[got_lead?]

Hello doctorggg:

I was just examining several bores as I read through your post. Leading seems to be a function of load, bore and lube. The most general rule of leading for me seems to be lube. I have a mild 9mm load of 3.2 titegroup under a 125 round nose which shoots 1" groups at 25 yards. I was sizing to .356 and lubing with LLA. The accuracy remained good but there was light streaking in the latter part of the bore. When I added 50/50 to the lube groove, the leading went away. In fact, just shooting twenty or so of these loads will clean a leaded bore shiney new.

This seems to hold true as a general rule, proper load with enough lube and the bore is clean.

Now, some barrels tend to lead more than others. My sigs lead easily, probably because their bores are mirror polished from the factory. I think if they had light honeing they would hold a little lube in these, and not lead so easily. I also have a smith 52 target pistol that always leads just a bit at one spot on the throat. This deters it's accuracy a bit. I beleive this is because the 52 runs at such low pressures, the boolit doesn't re obturate.

Three seem to be many theories and causes, however, if the load is right most leading only gets so thick, then reaches an equilibrium. Sometimes it affects accuracy. Some times it doesn't.

[Char-Gar]

I would not spend 3 second of concern in your situation. Some lead residue is barrels is very common despite of what you may read here. If it cleans out with ease and gives you good accuracy just shoot and do not worry about it.

Rifles don't give a hoot about cast bullet theory. If it is working for you, soldier on!

[Sensai]

I would still consider that a new barrel. Don't let the leading build up, but don't be overly concerned until you get a few hundred rounds down the pipe. You may wind up wanting to lap it after a while, but for now I'd just clean it regularly and enjoy shooting it. I do agree that a little softer alloy would probably serve you better.

[doctorggg]

Thank you gentlemen for your advice. This forum has some great members with years of great experience. I have bags and bags of boolits I have cast over the last 2.5 years. Just now starting to shoot them. I am a newbie in that respect so all advice is appreciated. I cast some more bullets today for the same 44-40 that have a BHN of 15 using a Cabin Tree testor. I lowered the powder to 7.7 grains Unique and used Ceresin Red as a lube. It was what was in the Lyman 4500. Will see how this does. But I do believe the new barrel definitely needs breaking in. Be Blessed Gentlemen.

[btroj]

I would call it leading if you get lead from the barrel.

I would NOT worry over it if the load shoots to your satisfaction.

I have hunted with loads that leaded after 15 to 20 round. Since I planned on shooting only one I didn't care and they worked fine in the field.

Like a great member here said- it only matters when it does

[Scharfschuetze]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but boolit hardness can often lead to leading in milder loads. A too hard boolit may not obturate at lower pressures and thus it allows hot gasses to blow by the base. This can vaporize lead along the body of the boolit and that will then solidify and stick to the barrel. While it seems counter intuitive, a softer bullet may be a better choice for mild loads than a hard cast projectile. I see that you may be correcting the problem by going with a softer bullet already (post #7). Let us know if that works.

Leading near the throat of a rifle or forcing cone of a revolver can often be traced to a too hard bullet not obturating with the given load's pressure while leading up near the muzzle as reported above in post #4 may be caused by a failure of the lube or not enough lubricant.

[freebullet]

If you still have lands & grooves yer probably ok. If less than 10 shots gives you a smoothbore you'll need to figure it out.

[doctorggg]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be shooting this Saturday and will post the results.

[searcher4851]

You'll probably find you've solved your problem with the softer lead. Either way, it doesn't sound like severe leading at this point and as you get that barrel broken in more, things could change there too.