Smokeless overpowder wad

[Grant]

I am getting svere leading in the cylinder of my 41 mag ruger blackhawk, old style blackhawk. Can I use an over the powder wad to help protect the base of my plain base slugs? It is the rcbs 220 grn. semi wad cutter. Thanx Grant:castmine:

[cajun shooter]

Grant, If you are shooting a barn burning load a overpowder wad will do nothing to help. Much more info needed such as diameter of bullet, bore and load. Overpowder wads are used in cartridge loading to do two things. One is to protect the powder from any lube that might be on bullet and two is to take up space for loading reasons. They are not intented to act as gas checks.

[Grant]

The load I am using is win, case, LPP, 20 grn. of imr 4227 with the rcbs 220 grn. semi wad cutter plain base. Soft lead is what I am using right now. Grant

[mroliver77]

Well I have had overpowder wads help. Always work up load with them. I have used wax wafers over powder and seen tremendous differences. First thing though, does your boolit fit the cylinder mouth? it should fit barely snug or no less than .0005 undersize. With some boolits guys will load them over mouth size and keep boolit behind cyl throat. What alloy? This is a max (or close) load and needs a stiff alloy.
Jay

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Grant, Don't know what "soft lead" means, are you shooting Pure lead??? Or some alloy,
You are shooting a magnum load with a plain base wad cutter, I bet you are getting "gas cutting', blow by on the boolit. If your boolit is .001-.002 over bore it will help stop the leading,
you will do better with a 20-1 alloy or wheel weights if you want to shoot top end loads in the 41. A card over powder is not going to stop this. IMHO[smilie=1:

[MtGun44]

What throat diameter, barrel groove diameter and boolit diameter do you have?

What lube?

With proper gun dimensions, lube and boolit size, you should be able to shoot plain base
at full magnum velcites with no leading. IMHO gas checks are never required for pistol
shooting, unless we are talking about rifle cartridges in pistols like Contender, etc.

Bill

[windrider919]

You comment sure sounded familliar. .41M used to be my favorite revolver cartridge and at one time I owned 4 different manufactures wheelguns and a Contender. And one was a Ruger Blackhawk that leaded badly in the cylinder throats. Eventually, someone enlightened me that i needed to mike said throats and see if they were oversize as was common to Rugers. And they were. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the six chambers all miked different and that they ranged from .004 to .007 oversize. I complained directly to Ruger factory and they told me that the chambers were within SAAMI spec and there was no warranty problem. That almost ended my relationship with Ruger right there. But a friend who was a real gunsmith (Ron Freshour of Texas City, Texas) made me a new, correctly sized cylinder and the leading never happened in the cylinder throats again. A couple of years later I found two Ruger Speed-Six .357s that also leaded badly and miked .364 in the throats. We re-indexed, bored and sleeved the chambers and I replaced the snub barrels with 4" Colt Python barrels. Milled the topstrap and added S&W adjustable sights. Called them Cougars (Colt / Ruger) and they were great shooters. I eventually made 13 (one or two at a time) of them because people kept offering me more money than i could refuse. And then Colt stopped selling python barrels as parts and I was left without one of my own. DA#@&%(*^&&*!!It!!!

Anyway, check your throat. If not too overbore you can use an oversize bullet {like maybe .414/5}. When fired with a 'safe load' you work up gradually the bullet will swage down through the forcing cone and sometimes [more often than you would think] give good accuracy. Done that with 45 Colt and .357s too with acceptable results / accuracy.

[GabbyM]

You may simply have to much pressure behind your soft alloy. 20 grains of 4227 will be something like 33,000 to 38,000 C.U.P. You'll generally need a BHN #14 and over hardness for that or else a gas checked bullet.

If your alloy has antimony in it you could try heat treating the bullets.

[Grant]

Windrider I miked out everything, all the throats were .410 dia. the chambers were within .001 of each other. SPG is the lube that I am using but I dont think that is the problem. Seems most likely to soft on the lead for a full power load. :castmine: Thanx Grant

[DLCTEX]

The first thing I'd try is a different lube.

[Echo]

I didn't see where the bore/groove diameter was mentioned. Very important. That info comes first. Once you know that, and the throat diameter, go from there. Throat should be .001-.002 larger than the bore, and the boolits should be sized .000-.002 larger than the throat.
And sweeten up that lead - pure lead won't hack those pressures.

[dromia]

What throat diameter, barrel groove diameter and boolit diameter do you have?

What lube?

With proper gun dimensions, lube and boolit size, you should be able to shoot plain base
at full magnum velcites with no leading. IMHO gas checks are never required for pistol
shooting, unless we are talking about rifle cartridges in pistols like Contender, etc.

Bill

Ditto what Bill said.

Get good boolit fit and PB and alloy won't matter so much, whats your boolit diameter?