Cast in a Glock...

[lead-1]

I took the Glock 21 out tonight with the youngest boy and we had a blast shooting cast boolits out of it. Six grains of Unique pushes a cast 200 grain LSWC just fine and there was only 50 rounds fired but you really couldn't tell they were bare lead when I cleaned it.

[9.3X62AL]

Sounds like my experience with the Glock 21 and castings. The caliber (45 ACP) is just plain lead-friendly from the git-go, a characteristic not so true of the other Glock chamberings. The 45 ACP uses an octagonal-form bore, while the smaller calibers use hexagonal-form. I don't know what form the 45 GAP uses--it runs at higher pressures than 45 ACP, so that's another variable in the mix.

I recently found a Glock 23, and bought an aftermarket barrel (Storm Lake) for use with cast boolits. Call me a CHICKEN, but the vast majority of reported Glock kaBOOM incidents involve 40 S&W pistols. At some point--after fishing season slows a bit--I might try castings in the G23's OEM barrel. More a matter of esoteric curiosity than need at this point, though. The SL barrel does fine work.

[bbs70]

I'm chicken, I bought a Lone Wolf barrel for my Glock 22.
Didn't want to chance tearing up a fine gun.
I shoot 175 tc lead boolits over 5 g of 231 and 5 g n340.
Very accurate gun with absolutely 0 problems with approx 10k rounds through it.

[truckmsl]

I've shot a ton of lead through my stock Glock 35 .40 barrel with no problems or leading. I finally bought a Lone Wolf barrel for the tighter chamber so my brass would live longer. It makes a big difference.

[9.3X62AL]

Good point, Truck. The SL barrel produces fired brass a couple thousandths smaller in diameter than does the OEM barrel. This Generation 3 chamber doesn't "guppie" the brass like earlier-series 40 S&W Glocks did, though. Even in tungsten-carbide sizing dies, I lightly lube the Glock-fired 40 brass before resizing.

[Grapeshot]

Sounds like my experience with the Glock 21 and castings. The caliber (45 ACP) is just plain lead-friendly from the git-go, a characteristic not so true of the other Glock chamberings. The 45 ACP uses an octagonal-form bore, while the smaller calibers use hexagonal-form. I don't know what form the 45 GAP uses--it runs at higher pressures than 45 ACP, so that's another variable in the mix.

I recently found a Glock 23, and bought an aftermarket barrel (Storm Lake) for use with cast boolits. Call me a CHICKEN, but the vast majority of reported Glock kaBOOM incidents involve 40 S&W pistols. At some point--after fishing season slows a bit--I might try castings in the G23's OEM barrel. More a matter of esoteric curiosity than need at this point, though. The SL barrel does fine work.


This topic has gone around before and can probably be found in the archives of this forum. Twenty years ago there was an article in one of the gun mags about a Glock 22 that had a catastropic failure after shooting cast bullets. The article went on the say that the Glock in question had fired 10,000 plus cast bullets without cleaning the barrel. I don't know about you, but as an old soldier I remember my DI and shooting coach drilling it into my thick skull that you clean your firearms every time you finish shooting. I still do this wether I'm shooting smokeless or Black Powder, cast or jacketed bullets.

I owned a Glock 22 for a number of years and always ran a bronze brush through the bore after every firing sesion. Never had a problem.

[9.3X62AL]

Much of what I post here and elsewhere concerning my handloading practices assumes regular routine maintenence of the involved firearms. Silly of me and legally reckless, I know--put you pays your money and takes your chances. In this case, the info is free--and possibly worth it, too. Who's to say?