Cast boolit out of .38 special issues

[ell198679]

I have charter arms .38 special, and I shoot some cast boolits out of it. For the most part they worked fine. However, I did notice some leading and some small pieces of lead on the revolver at that point I ceased shooting any more of those rounds and it locked up. I think this might be because I did not have the chance to fully re size the brass since I had primed brass left over, that was never full length resized, I only ran the sizer about half way down. Perhaps instead of lubbin by hand the tumbling the lube on may work better. Also is this normal on revolvers it works fine with the cylinder close, but with the cylinder open the trigger gets stuck in the rear ward position and does not spring back to its normal position, the hammer will fall and push the firing pin forward, but the trigger stays back. I guess this is normal with the cylinder out because the spring tension is removed... Don't remember it doing that though.

[rintinglen]

Been a while since I used a Charter, but what you are describing is possibly the result of the cylinder release being forward. IIRC, the cylinder release catch is pushed back by the spring in the center pin, and pushed forward by a little spring in the catch itself. TRY pulling the cylinder release catch to its normal operating position. The leading issue is more likely a timing one, but you'll be able to test your hypothesis when you reload that brass. Full-length size and see if it goes away.

[NoZombies]

As long as the gun functions properly with the cylinder in battery, I wouldn't worry about how it acts when it's swung out (although I probably wouldn't dry fire it while open, since there's obviously a mechanical block of some sort there)

As for the leading, is it on one side in particular, or is it all around? Do the flakes look like they could be some of the leading that has come loose?

[ell198679]

Thanks for the information the revolver functions as it did now..

[ell198679]

Most of these problems were probably due to not flaring the cases. Since most of these problems wen't away after routinely flaring the cases. No more lock ups.. Anyways, could be because the unflared cases require more pressure to release and pushed the primer back etc. Leading is probably lead shavings from the boolit when it wen't into the case.. One interesting side note is that sometimes I could see what looked like unburned powder... But, composition was slightly different then fresh powder, I saw this even when the rounds fired of cleanly and with out a hitch. This is drastically reduced after flaring for what ever reason..Anyways, at least no blow ups lol. The trigger does not reset it self when the cylinder is out again, but since it does not affect normal operation, I figure, I may cause more harm then good, by trying to fix it. Anyways, it aint broken LOL Flaring fixed these issues just figured id post this in case another newbie reloader is wondering why flaring is so important.