'Nother Rookie Question

[histed]

I slugged my 357 barrel and got a slug measuring 358 on the widest part (lands?). My 158 gr TL 358-158 boolits, measured with a micrometer, are 3585. Shooting 38 Spcl with a pinch of BE I get no lead, but today I tried pushing 357s with 10 grs of Blue Dot and started to get leading. My guess is that I need a large diameter boolit. The alloy I'm using is 50/50 pure lead and COWW. I'm tumble lubing with 50/50 LLA/JPW. I only shot 50 rounds today, but did get lead. Question is - how can I change my alloy to get the boolits to drop bigger? I see some here using similar molds but reporting boolits as large as .359, so it seems it can be done. I'd like to be able to hunt with this load come fall, so any advice is welcome.

[NewbieDave007]

I'm new to all this but I think more antimony fattens them up. Hopefully one of the experienced guys will come along and tell us for sure.

[62chevy]

Like NewbieDave007 I was thinking more antimony. The other option would be to Beagle the mold. Tell us what mold you are using and maybe the whiz kids will set us straight.

[44Vaquero]

Bigger is not the issue, they need to be a little harder! 10 grains of Blue Dot is a near max load over 1400 fps! For comparison BullEye max load in .38 158gr does not exceed 950 fps. Try water dropping the current lead mix and back down from 10 grains of Blue Dot and see what happens.

As a side note: I have never really had great luck driving Lee Tumble Lube's super fast. YMMV

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Histed , welcome to the insanity....your boolit will most likely stop leading if you can get to .359 + for a better seal in your bore. I'm assuming you are shooting a revolver. You don't say if you are sizing these boolits...lots of negative press about tumble lube working very well over 1,000 FPS +- . I would use pan lube method with some good lube for max Velocity rounds if I did not have a luber sizer. A small amount of Lawrance Mag. bird shot will give you all the antimony you need.

If you have good lube, it will stop some of your problems, water drop if you want a hard boolit, you don't say what you are doing with this ammo, shooting cans, rocks, punching paper. With your mix of 50/50 coww/lead and a touch of mag shot will be pretty hard, water dropped it will stand your mag velocity , [If your boolit is large enough]. Look up LeeMenting on info for lapping out your mold where it will drop a larger boolit

There are threads and sticky on all of these questions. If you need more specific answers to your questions, give all the info you can...Good Luck

Lee also makes boolits with regular lube groves.....cheap @ about 18.00$ with handles... you might read the Stickys

[a.squibload]

Fit is King. Agree with Slow Elk, boolit size is important.
The large diameter you measured on the slug corresponds to the groove diameter of the barrel.
Common wisdom is to size .001" more than groove diameter for most guns, maybe more.
I like to shoot 50/50 coww/soft with a touch of tin, but your fast load might need to be
a little harder just to survive the rifling (think of stripping an aluminum hole with a steel screw).
Barrel leading seems to be a result of hot gases bypassing the boolit, causing gas-cutting or
vaporization of the lead, which then gets deposited in the grooves.
(I never saw leading on barrel lands although I suppose it's possible.)

I've tried to fatten up boolits by changing the alloy but it never seems to be enough.
"Beagling" involves placing aluminum foil or tape between the halves of your mold
to temporarily increase the boolit diameter. If you like the results you can (permanently)
"leement" the mold with valve grinding compound, polishing paste, etc.
Plenty of threads here with more details, I did a couple of molds that way, if you take it easy
it works fine.
Not like I'm an expert, learned most of it right here!

[histed]

I am shooting these out of a revolver. They are as cast from the Lee TL 358-158. So far, Slow I've only punched paper, but I want to be able to hunt deer with whatever I come up with. I do have a small amount of shot, so I can try that and/or water dropping. 44 - I wondered about the hardness. Maybe I misssied something. I thought from the stickys and threads that a soft boolit was OK IF the size was right, Apparentyly I've missed some stickys. S'ok, I like to read. Thanks for the help. Back to the drawing board.

[62chevy]

I am shooting these out of a revolver. They are as cast from the Lee TL 358-158. So far, Slow I've only punched paper, but I want to be able to hunt deer with whatever I come up with. I do have a small amount of shot, so I can try that and/or water dropping. 44 - I wondered about the hardness. Maybe I misssied something. I thought from the stickys and threads that a soft boolit was OK IF the size was right, Apparentyly I've missed some stickys. S'ok, I like to read. Thanks for the help. Back to the drawing board.

I've been shooting Pipe lead which is dead soft out of my 45 acp. Don't shoot it fast, no crony, and as long as its more than .001 over grove size no leading or very little. Now I have some COWW ingots so will mix that 50/50 with my pipe lead and see what happens. Get the fit right and hardness will matter when it matters. Most say Cu is not needed unless you are pushing boolits over 2400 fps.

Just my limited experience so take it for what its worth.

[emrah]

I shoot dead soft stick on wheel weights no problem. .45 ACP, .38 special, 30-30, 30-06, no problem. Size 'em big. I do .002 to .003 over.

And don't discount Lee liquid alox. All of my boolits are lubed that way. Not a hint of leading.

I think size is your problem. That and you're getting into gas check velocity with that hot load.

Emrah

[Dusty Bannister]

I am suggesting that you not compare revolvers with rifles and pistols. With revolvers you have some unusual features like cylinder throats, barrel thread constrictions, cylinder gaps and mis-matched cylinders and groove diameters.

I do agree that perhaps the bullets are a bit undersized and a larger diameter might avoid some of the leading issues. Since the alloy originally is stated to be soft lead and COWW at 50/50, why not go with straight COWW and a little tin instead of starting this introduction of magnum shot. Silly to dilute the WW and then spend the $ to add antimony back in. If a WW and tin alloy is used, it might make up the slight increase in diameter as well as hardness and then you can still use the LLA. Or you can keep tossing stuff in the pot and hope something good happens. Dusty

[RogerDat]

I think Dusty makes good sense. Decrease lead for a higher percentage of COWW. Try all COWW if leading stays the same despite harder alloy then it's less likely going even harder will help much. 50/50 is about 10 BHN straight COWW is more like 12.