Leading with 45/45/10

[Gene Pool]

Gentlemen,

I made my first batch of 45/45/10, being very careful to measure the ingredients precisely and cook the solvents from the wax. After molding some .452 bullets using lead wheel weights (no zinc), I applied the lube. Everything performed as expected until I reach velocities of 850 ft./s, then I experienced a minute amount of leading. My question is, is this normal?

Your suggestions and comments will be appreciated.

Gene Pool

P.S. The pistol is a Ruger Vaquero in 45LC, and the mold is Lee's 200 grain bullet designed to be tumble-lubed.

[CPL Lou]

A couple of things may be going on.
What I suspect is that your cylinder throats are smaller that your bore size.
Another could be the need for a second coat, maybe.
If the leading is happening at the forcing cone of the barrel, I would suspect the undersized cylinder throats.
If the leading is occurring farther down the barrel, I would say another coat of lube should clear it up.

CPL Lou

[Bzcraig]

The leading can be caused by many variables. At that velocity I seriously doubt it was a lube failure. Have you slugged your bore? What are you sizing your boolits at? What are the size of your throats? Is the leading in the beginning of the barrel, the end of the barrel or somewhere else? More info will allow us to provide the info you seek.

And welcome!!

[DougGuy]

See if you can push your .452" boolits into the cylinder from the front. If not, then your cylinder is sizing the boolits down to whatever diameter the throats are upon firing.

If the gun is stock from the factory, throats could run anywhere from .449" to .4515" with the most common sizes being .4505" or .451" but reaming the throats out to .4525" ~ .4528" is the best size to use with the Ruger .45 caliber revolvers if you want to use .452" boolits. This problem is typical, almost to be expected. A simple inexpensive one-time fix will rectify the issue, send a PM for details.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

Also, you can check the barrel for thread choke by tightly patching a cleaning jag into the bore, then push it down the bore and observe how much effort it takes to keep the jag moving. When it gets to the point where the barrel meets the frame, if the jag gets harder to push, or stops dead and needs a hammer to beat it through the rest of the way, this is thread choke you are feeling.

Thread choke can squeeze the boolit down in diameter and then once clear of the choke, it is smaller than the bore and will let powder gas escape along the sides, melting lead and causing lead to become deposited in the barrel.

When Ruger tightens the barrel into the frame, the threads are a crush fit and can squeeze down the barrel so that there is a tight spot and some are worse than others. If you don't notice any difference and the jag pushes through this part, it is not choked and is not a cause of leading.

[Gene Pool]

Gentlemen,
Thank you for the comments and welcome. To answer one of the questions (and I should have clarified in the thread starter), the leading is not at the beginning of the barrel, but interspersed starting about half way and going to the muzzle. It is VERY minute after firing five rounds, but it's there. Five or six passes with a bronze brush removes it, but a patch by itself won't.

Gene

Edit: I will try a second coat and see what happens. This particular pistol does not lead up with conventional lubed lead bullets, even up to 950 feet per second.

[runfiverun]

if it's the older Vaquero they like 453 not 452 diameter.
anyway the way to apply 45/45 lube is to lube size then lube again.
you don't need globs of the stuff but you do need a full coating.

try shooting more rounds and see what happens if you get a little lead in the barrel and it doesn't build up or affect accuracy it isn't a problem.
you could also try a patch coated in the 45/45 lube after you clean the barrel if that solves the problem stop cleaning the barrel.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...
P.S. The pistol is a Ruger Vaquero in 45LC, and the mold is Lee's 200 grain bullet designed to be tumble-lubed.
I've had more troubles with Lee's TL design, especially when trying to PUSH them beyond a minimum plinking load, then I do with TLing a traditional lube groove style boolit.
I suspect it has to do with a traditional lube groove boolit having a larger space and a easier time to displace metal during obturation...making for more successful obturation.

[John Boy]

Cast 454's with 250gr bullets using Lyman #2
Have a pair of old Vaquaro's, cylinders throated 4545 with over 10,000 rounds shot in each and no leading

[leeggen]

Make sure you have scrubbed all the copper out of the barrel from jacketed bullits. Sometimes the lead wants to soleir to the copper as it passes thru. Is the barrel nice and smooth or is it brand new and still not broken in yet? My 40 wanted to have slight leading until it decided it was good to go. Then everything is fine.
CD

[Gene Pool]

Update:

Gentlemen,

After making sure there was no copper fouling residing in the bore, I double coated several bullets with 45/45/10 and that seemed to help on the leading, plus it noticeably tightened up the groups. I may tinker with triple coating to see what that does.

Thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions. This is a great forum.

Gene Pool