Pistol bullets in Rifle

[jednorris]

I shoot 30 - 1 ratio lead bullets in my .45/70. The man I bought my Browning 1885 Rifle from admitted he cleaned it from the muzzle. I have been told that shooting a jacketed bullet in the Rifle will take out any lead buildup and possibly remove any burrs from the muzzle. I do not have any Rifle bullets, but do have some jacketed .45 240 gr. Pistol bullets. Would shooting a Pistol load with these bullets accomplish anything ?.

[BigAlofPa.]

45 acp?

[Don McDowell]

Shooting jacketed in a barrel after lead only irons the lead deeper into the lands.
Shooting a 45 pistol bullet will probably give you copper fouling on top of any lead you left in the barrel..

[BigAlofPa.]

Why not just clean it the old fashioned way? If it's real bad soak the bore over night and have at it in the morning.

[NSB]

BigAloPa got it correct. Just clean it and don't try "cleaning" it with jacketed bullets. Why do you think you have "burrs" in the muzzle. You can clean a gun from the muzzle if you do it correctly. Some people use a bore guide and some are just very careful.

[john.k]

worst burrs in the muzzle I ever saw were from a guy who read he should slug the barrel.......he did .....several hits with a claw hammer driving a bullet in.......now thats burrs.

[NSB]

worst burrs in the muzzle I ever saw were from a guy who read he should slug the barrel.......he did .....several hits with a claw hammer driving a bullet in.......now thats burrs.

Ouch!

[Ateam]

I am going to go out on a limb and say your 45/70 is .458ish, most 45 pistol bullets are .452. not gonna work.

[John Boy]

Every firearm has a listed nominal bore & groove dimension. Shooting any bullet with a smaller groove diameter than listed for the firearm ... the bullet will not obturate in the grooves and your barrel will lead up. Rule of thumb: lead bullet diameter 0.001 to 0.003 greater than groove diameter provides the best obturation

[Mytmousemalibu]

Can't vouch for rifles per say but I have used jacketed to somewhat delead pistols. I ran several attempts of SNS coated bullets through my carry optics gun and it leaded horribly. I ran some cheapie Tula box ammo through it and it took most out.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

There are a whole lot of folks that practice shooting a couple jacketed bullets after shooting lead to remove lead fouling, it does work. With a 45-70, a .458 diameter would work best. There are many people who clean from the muzzle, by choice or necessity. Savage 99's, M1 Garand's, M1A's(M14), and most(all?) revolvers. Properly done , cleaning from the muzzle does no harm. The barrel-maker Obermeyer has commented than it is safer to clean carefullyy through the muzzle than through the chamber - a barrel can be simply shortened and/or recrowned while damage to the throat from improper cleaning requires rethreading and rechambering.

[Don McDowell]

I've heard this stuff about jacketed bullets taking the lead out of barrels,,, but no one has ever said what sort of jacketed bullets they are using that has a sharp and hard enough edge to scrape that lead out. Jacketed bullets will take the lube fouling from cast bullets out, and I believe that's where folks get confused.

[NSB]

Your barrel is going to be .4565-.4570". Any pistol bullet is going to be .451-.452". Just isn't going to work based on that alone. The meaning of .45cal is all over the map regarding pistol vs rifle bullets......just not the same thing.

[Mytmousemalibu]

I've heard this stuff about jacketed bullets taking the lead out of barrels,,, but no one has ever said what sort of jacketed bullets they are using that has a sharp and hard enough edge to scrape that lead out. Jacketed bullets will take the lube fouling from cast bullets out, and I believe that's where folks get confused.

This is a "your mileage may vary" but for me, it unquestionably removes lead. The Tula 9mm I used was regular 115gr. ball ammo but it was steel jacketed. However I have had plain 115/124 copper jacketed ball work just as effectively. It was most definitely lead and smeared Hitek. I had brushed some out and seen the lead slivers come out. I was getting frustrated and shot jacketed in hope of blowing it out and surprisingly it was dramatic less fouled after.

[Don McDowell]

you might be shocked at how much lead that isn't in there comes out if you run a flannel patch soaked in pure gum spirits of turpentine on tight jag down that barrel.

[country gent]

Most jacketed pistol bullets run in the .451-.452 dia. 34 cal rifle barrels will be in the .458-.459 dia so .006-.007 bigger than the bullet. Even with the right sized bullets I believe what you get with the jacketed is a smoothing and "leveling" of the lead deposits in the first description this under sized bullet with leading present will probably leave a very even .003 to .004 layer of lead down the bore.
For most deposits a good solvent new bronze bore brush removes leading pretty quickly. I use a mix of Kroil shooters choice at 50-50 and brush. let this soak 15-20 mins after brushing and run a tight patch and jag thru. Most will come out quickly. As Don mentioned turpentine is also a good lead remover.

[Knarley]

I've used some stuff called "Lead Cloth". Boy, it fits tight, but the lead comes right out with it.

Shooting undersized bullets is just going to add to your dilemma..

[indian joe]

I shoot 30 - 1 ratio lead bullets in my .45/70. The man I bought my Browning 1885 Rifle from admitted he cleaned it from the muzzle. I have been told that shooting a jacketed bullet in the Rifle will take out any lead buildup and possibly remove any burrs from the muzzle. I do not have any Rifle bullets, but do have some jacketed .45 240 gr. Pistol bullets. Would shooting a Pistol load with these bullets accomplish anything ?.

Nothing at all wrong with using a cleaning rod from the muzzle end - just use a bore protector on it - cut off cartridge case works -------lot of guys using bore snakes these days - many military rifles got ruined crown from use of pull throughs in the old days - I am predicting history repeats with bore snakes.

[BigAlofPa.]

Or you can do the old copper scubber padding around a bore brush trick. But be sure it's pure copper. Not the coated steel stuff.
237367

[Wayne Smith]

And nothing you want to put down your barrel is likely to take out steel burrs, if there are any there.

[Mytmousemalibu]

For the sake of clarification, my intent with using jacketed ball to delead a gun was just to reduce the time at the bench getting it lead free. No doubt some lead remains in the rifling. The brass scrubber on a brush works quite well as mentioned. I have employed a Kroil soak in the past or still do if running jacketed isn't an option. If I'm really having a tough time I have a Lewis lead remover but I don't use the heavy artillery unless I need it. I go with an "escalation of force" kind of thought process!

[trapper9260]

I had in the past use some lead rounds in my 44mag Red Hawk from the factory and it lead up bad on me. I read in my Lyman 3rd ed cast book about the 2 ways to get the lead out and one is use jacket rounds.I did that and it clean out the bad leading and just had to clean the copper out.Now I cast for that gun and others now and do not have that problem anymore.But like stated on the dia of the bullet to be of the right size other wise it will not help.

[john.k]

Another simple(and cheaper) way is to use wheat bran as a filler..........this quickly removes leading.

[Lead pot]

If you shoot both Jacketed bullets and cast bullets through a rifle the jacketed bullets will leave copper smears in the bore and this will give you a problem when you switch back to cast. The copper fouling will give you a lead filled bore been through this with shooting the 03-A3 and A1. If you shoot jacketed bullets you better do a good job getting the copper out before switching back to lead.