barrel damage due to leading?

[Mattog22]

I understand the concept that if you have a heavily leaded barrel and shoot a j word bullet that it could increase pressures to an unsafe level and possibly damage the barrel due to the decreased barrel diameter when the leading accumulates.

My question is when leading occurs is there the chance of something similar happening when shooting boolits in a heavily leaded barrel? I know anything is possible in extreme cases but has anyone had any first hand experience with this? Something such as slight barrel bulge? The reason I ask is that I shot some .45 ACP boolits (first ones) and didn't realize I sized them down while seating them. I shot a local match with them and put about 100 through the barrel. Had some pretty good leading. I measured the diameter of my barrel and it seemed to vary like getting skinnier towards the center but expanded towards each end. When I put calipers in the end of the barrel it doesn't seem bigger than it should be so I'm guessing that the barrels are not always completely uniform all the way down. This is on a S&W 1911 full size.

[Bass Ackward]

1. I understand the concept that if you have a heavily leaded barrel and shoot a j word bullet that it could increase pressures to an unsafe level and possibly damage the barrel due to the decreased barrel diameter when the leading accumulates.

2. I measured the diameter of my barrel and it seemed to vary like getting skinnier towards the center but expanded towards each end. When I put calipers in the end of the barrel it doesn't seem bigger than it should be so I'm guessing that the barrels are not always completely uniform all the way down. This is on a S&W 1911 full size.




Hard to tell exactly what you did or didn't do here.

1. Could be. It also depends on the action type of the gun. You can damage that too. You really have to use good judgement of when and how. This is one of those catch 22s in life. You need lots of experience and excellent common sense before you attempt this. You can't get that experience without breaking a few eggs. Personally, I would never attempt jacketed over lead with an automatic.

2. Send three slugs to somebody that has a set of mics. One in the muzzle and back out. One in the breach and back out. One all the way through to give you the smallest dimension. Then you will know.

Did the slug stop because of a high spot? A rough spot? A twist rate change? Or a dimensional issue? Slugging requires three slugs in that fashion to give you a good look at what your barrel is like.

[Bret4207]

I do not subscribe tot he idea of shooting jacketed over lead in an effort to remove leading. I know that's not your question but it's similar in practice to what you're asking. I don't think you damaged your barrel, but now you know to check that stuff and keep it from happening again.

No one I've heard of has done any testing to make and hard and fast determinations. I would imagine it's more a matter of how much, how long and how high the pressure is. A badly leaded barrel and some hot jacketed could hurt a gun for sure.

[NSP64]

I believe what he was doing is measuring the outside dimensions of the barrel. If you had barrel damage from lead buildup you would have a bulge in the barrel. You also would have had a round go off that would have felt really hot. Back when I first started reloading, I loaded 500 rounds of 9mm luger with speer 125gr swagged rn bullets. I took them to the range and put them through the pipe of a new berretta 92F.( The Army was thinking of switching to them at the time, and I was in the Army stationed in Nurinburg) Needless to say, it ate every last one of them without a hicup. I got back to my apartment to clean it, and you couldn't even see the lands. It looked like all the rifling was gone. It took two weeks of scrubbing with brass brushes and soaking in a can of hoppes#9 to get it all out.
A low pressure round like a .45 would be hard to bulge the barrel without you noticing. Case rupture would probably happen first. The barrel may have been contoured that way by S&W for reliable functioning.

[Mattog22]

I believe what he was doing is measuring the outside dimensions of the barrel. If you had barrel damage from lead buildup you would have a bulge in the barrel. You also would have had a round go off that would have felt really hot. Back when I first started reloading, I loaded 500 rounds of 9mm luger with speer 125gr swagged rn bullets. I took them to the range and put them through the pipe of a new berretta 92F.( The Army was thinking of switching to them at the time, and I was in the Army stationed in Nurinburg) Needless to say, it ate every last one of them without a hicup. I got back to my apartment to clean it, and you couldn't even see the lands. It looked like all the rifling was gone. It took two weeks of scrubbing with brass brushes and soaking in a can of hoppes#9 to get it all out.
A low pressure round like a .45 would be hard to bulge the barrel without you noticing. Case rupture would probably happen first. The barrel may have been contoured that way by S&W for reliable functioning.

Yes, you are correct. I may not have been clear enough in my original post. I was just referencing the jacketed bullet in a leaded barrel argument. I didn't shoot any jacketed bullets in my gun after lead. I also don't think I damaged anything but I am not familiar with the 1911s enough to know if the difference in outside barrel dimensions is normal. I was referring to the outside dimensions of the barrel, but I did use calipers as a quick check on the inside of the barrel at the muzzle where the outer diameter was the greatest and it still seemed ok.

lol, I guess I didn't lead it as bad as I thought, I could still see the rifling

[DIRT Farmer]

Many years ago the Sherriffs Dept bought the cheepest 38spls for qulification four times a year. 48 rds 3 yds to 50 yds. Those suckers would lead the chambers let alone the barrel, of mine, and everyones elses Smith 66s. I would go home and brush out the lead before going on duty, and finaly bought a Lewis lead remover. About one half of the guys would just shoot a cylinder of 357s and call it good. I tried one time and could not load 357s with out a lot of force. I did see lead on the muzzles like a lube star on some of the guns that were shot clear. I have one of a reserve officers pistols a Smith Mdl 10 with a bulge in the barrel but do not know if it was from leading or the other problem we had with that ammo, no powder.

[Mattog22]

Well, after cleaning all the lead from my barrel I noticed some more irregularities. I noticed when looking down the barrel it seems like there are land and grooves on about 1/3 of the barrel that are almost non-existant. I took it to my local shop and they looked at it and also pointed out that there are ridges on the outside of the barrel like it wasn't manufactured correctly. I guess it's going back to S&W after I use it for the season. Funny thing is that accuracy seems fine.

[sagacious]

... I guess it's going back to S&W after I use it for the season. Funny thing is that accuracy seems fine.
Look out, they'll replace it with a 'perfect' one that isn't as accurate! :shock:

[Mattog22]

Look out, they'll replace it with a 'perfect' one that isn't as accurate! :shock:

I thought about that but what if I ever wanted to sell it? Could you imagine getting ready to buy a gun from someone who swears the gun has less than 1000 rounds through it but 1/3 of the rifling is missing? Most people would run away.

[NSP64]

Are you sure its clean? Most .45's have shallow rifling. Is that 1/3 of the circumference or 1/3 of the length? Is your smith a 4506 or one of the 'new' 1911's from smith? If a 'new' 1911 a bad barrel may have snuck past inspections.

[Mattog22]

It's a new 1911, I was cleaning the **** out of it, noticed it and took it to my local reloading shop since I thought it was maybe due to me not getting everything out of the barrel, they took it in the back and really cleaned it, I think even used JB stuff on it and it came back nice and clean. 1/4-1/3 refers to the circumference, like that portion of the rifling is missing. I don't remember how many lands there are in a .45 barrel but starting at the chamber you can see them start (some of them), the heavy ones you can follow all the way down the barrel. The lighter ones you can see are light all the way down the barrel. For instance, if there are say 7 lands its like 2 or 3 are so light they are non-existant and the others are nice and visible. It's not like some are heavy and fade away down the barrel, they are either there the whole length of the barrel or they almost arent. Hope this doesn't sound too confusing. I may try to take a picture later today.

[NSP64]

Sounds like a MFG defect. I would contact S&W and explain it to them.

[Mattog22]

Sounds like a MFG defect. I would contact S&W and explain it to them.

I did and they are sending me a shipping label. My problem is that they want me to send in my whole gun and I kinda need it for the matches I am practicing for. I wish I could just send them the barrel and they send out a replacement but it is going to take probably at least 6 weeks since they are having a 2 week shutdown and will be backed up for a while:(. I thought about another barrel but don't want to pay that money for it to be fitted and the cost of the barrel just to get me by. I may just need to sell some guns and buy another .45, Trojan maybe?