leading in redhawk

[jim 44-40]

Some guns are just prone to leading right? Thank God for gaschecks! I have tried all kind of lubes,sized to .430=.431 slow or fast still leading three inchs up barrel.

[bhn22]

Most of the Redhawks I've worked with needed lapping to remove bore constriction at the barrel/frame juncture.

[trapper9260]

My redhawk had leaded when I shot factory lead rounds, but after I cast and load my own I did not have any more problems with it.I size my to .430 and I use the old NRA lube with ATF,I use to use the lyman lube, but went into maken my own because it was cheaper for me.yes I use GC on my also will be working on PB with a light booilt is next.Also what I shoot in my redhawk I also shoot in my Marlin also same round and data and all.

[DougGuy]

How hard is your alloy?

[jim 44-40]

with 429421 I used a BHN of 12,

[DougGuy]

When you get the bore real clean and shiny, patch a cleaning jag really tight in there, and push it down the bore. See if it gets harder to push when it gets to the part the barrel threads into the frame. If it does, this is thread choke you are feeling. If it doesn't change, there is no choke.

Can you slide the boolits into the front of your cylinder throats with finger pressure?

[jim 44-40]

Yes to finger pressure to get boolits into throats.will check barrel this pm

[ejcrist]

What're the details of the load you're shooting (powder, charge, velocity)? It sounds like your boolit is sized right since you can push through throats with finger pressure, and the hardness is correct at 12 BHN, so you're parameters are in the correct range for most 44 mag loads. Assuming you're not shooting an exceptionally light hand load that doesn't obturate the base of the boolits I'd go with DougGuy's suggestion to check for a constriction. If it doesn't have a constriction I'd examine the forcing cone for machine marks.

[44man]

Water drop WW boolits, let age a few days and be rid of leading. Soft boolit is skidding rifling and opening gas channels. Need 20 to 22 BHN in a .44 PB.

[jim 44-40]

will try higher BHN, waiting for 10lbs linotype to mix with lead.

[ejcrist]

will try higher BHN, waiting for 10lbs linotype to mix with lead.

What velocity are you loading to? Unless it's above 1,500 I wouldn't try a harder alloy or you might end up with more leading.

[DougGuy]

I am shooting 50/50+2% in my SBH, Lee 300gr gas check @1200f/s with no leading, just lube residue left in the bore I never even clean it! I can dig a thumbnail in to the boolit, Felix lube, 17.0gr 2400 WLP primer Starline brass, collet crimp.

If you go harder don't make a huge amount of hard alloy until you see if it will shoot. I'm kinda like ejcrist, back before I learned anything about shooting cast boolits I used as hard a boolit as I could find, with hard lube, and I had a totally leaded mess of a bore every time.

44man gets his best results with what he told you to do, I get my best results by what I just put at the beginning of this post. Totally different, both work. Go figure.

My cylinder throats are all .4325" I size to .432" and forcing cone cut to 11° and cleaned up very nicely, best this ol' girl has shot in all the years I have owned it.

[jim 44-40]

running tight bore jag and patch down barrel feels the same all the way,no tight spots .But the closer I look in light I do see some small spots that must be pitting,

[44man]

I have shot a lot of 50-50 alloy but had to oven harden and use a GC.
It will not change the ductile properties but gives a better grip to rifling. The worst blown up deer I have had was with oven hardened 50-50, I don't use it anymore. They were 18-20 BHN.
I did not get leading from the mix. Now a softer alloy did lead right bad. Softer lead showed drastic slump on recovered boolits. Even grease grooves were mashed away. Not good to lose all the lube before the boolit is in the bore.
I gave up "bump up" to fit and instead make the boolits fit first.

[jim 44-40]

Think I'm on the right track now. I mixed some linotype with pure lead and came up to 15 BHN,casting 429421 sized too .430 and lubed with Ben's Red. Powder charge was 21.0 grs of 2400 No more heavy leading like before. just a little gray near muzzle cleaned up easy,before I had to get the copper chore out and a good bit of elbow grease.

[44man]

Add some lanolin to Ben's Red. It is very slippery and a boolit can move too much before ignition.
It works great in my rifles though.
I have a mix I use for max accuracy from Bill Ferguson. 20# of WW, 6.4 oz of tin and 9.6 oz of antimony, water dropped.
Then I got a 75# ingot of stereotype, rich in tin and antimony. I use 16# of WW and 4# of stereotype. Water dropped.