Well, might have screwed up.

[Foxcatcher]

Went out this afternoon to test my first batch of 9mm cast boolits. After some awful leading issues, i gave up. I was cleaning between every 10 shots.

I get home and start a more thorough cleaning and notice there is a spot just ahead of the chamber that the cleaning rod slips through easier. I thought it was odd but kept cleaning.

After looking down the barrel several times i see a slight ring about an inch infront of the chamber. I think the barrel is bulged ever so slightly. I know it wasnt there before. I am so pist i could spit fire.

Don

[41 mag fan]

Did you slug the barrel before hand? might do it now, a slug would fall easier at that bulge point you think you have.

[Bulltipper]

My money is on copper fouling. You would have had to really put a lot of piss and vinegar in a 9mm to bulge a barrel. Start cleaning with copper solvent and I bet you get that ring out of there. Heavy leading in my experience is undersize or grossly oversize boolits.

[Foxcatcher]

Slugged barrel at .3555. Bullets were sized to .356 I was hoping it would be over sized enough to work.

The load was 3.7 grains of titegroup pushing the Lee 105-SWC. AOL was 1.010. Speed on the crony was 1100 fps. The gun would not cycle every shot with this load. I hope I'm wrong. I will take some copper solvent to it tonight.

Don

[Olevern]

Wow, I wouldn't be very happy either, hope it turns out alright for you.

[dbosman]

I nearly put a bulge in a Rugar .357, shooting very reduced loads. So reduced, a wad cutter didn't make it out of the barrel. They were so quiet I didn't notice I'd "missed" the target.
The next shot didn't leave the barrel either, but the cylinder wouldn't turn. That was an interesting puzzle.
I crushed the rest of that experiment and disposed of them.

[km101]

It would be almost impossible to bulge a 9mm barrel with those loads. Unless it was done previously and you just now noticed it. I would bet on copper fouling too.

Check your dimension at the case mouth of a loaded round. You may be taper crimping enough to swage the bullet down to undersize. I would also check the expander mandrel on your bell die. Make sure that it is large enough to expand the brass enough so that it doesnt swage the bullet when seated. There are many things that can cause leading, these are just the most obvious. Good Luck

[geargnasher]

Friend of mine ended up with a nice, stainless-steel GP-100 for a song that he was told had a bulged barrel. What it had was a terrible case of thread choke (barrel restriction where it is torqued into the frame) and had been shot so much with alternating lead and jacketed that had built up a huge lump of metal right after the choke from the gas leaks. A few hours of cleaning and it looked like new. A lot of work with laps and reamers cured the restrictions and now it doesn't lead.

Hope this is all that's wrong with yours.

Gear

[williamwaco]

I don't believe you have bulged the barrel with those loads unless you had a squib load that left a bullet lodged in the barrel. If that had happened, it would not eject the cartridge case and you would have to chamber the next round manually.

I seriously doubt that happened.

I also seriously doubt that your barrel is actually .3555. I expect it is closer to .3565 and you bullet is too small.

The gun would not cycle every shot with this load.

Strong indication of inadequate pressure.

You have created a perfect storm:
The bullet is too small and maybe too hard, and the pressure is inadequate for obturation.
The bullet is in essence almost "rattling" down the barrel..



I am not familiar with your powder so I can't comment on the charge except to say the charge is not adequate to cycle the action reliably.

Clean out the barrel ( There are many posts here on how to do that.) I believe the ring will turn out to be a ring of lead. Lighting angles can make a bulge look like a ring.

Next size some bullets .357 and load up a couple of dummy cartridges. Then pull the bullets and see if they still mike .357. If you don't have a mike, measure them before and after loading and pulling with your caliper and be sure they come out the same size as they were before they were seated.

[MtGun44]

Bulge is possible if you stuck a boolit and then shot it out. Never saw a "slight" bulge, question whether it is possible. A
normal velocity boolit hitting another parked in the bbl makes a local area of VERY high pressure, and the one's I have seen
have a REALLY noticable bulge. I doubt you have a bulge, but I am not looking at the barrel. Try three ought (000) steel
wool on an old brush.

Probably too small and too hard a boolit, this is 99% of the problems with 9mm. Scrub out the lead, then try .357 diam
and a known good lube like NRA 50-50.

Bill

[Foxcatcher]

Thanks for the help guys. Cleaned on it for a while and it seams to be working out. I could account for every round fired by report and on the target.

Don

[Artful]

One thing to watch is mixing J-word and real boolits - copper fouling leaves a real good base for the lead to adhere too.

[Foxcatcher]

I put several rods of JB bore shine down it before I shot the Pb boolits. Was hoping that cleared up the copper fouling. Probably did not.

Don

[Artful]

I like several chemical's to get the copper out of the pore's in the steel - fouling is very persistent stuff, If you use something like Sweet's 7.62 with ammonia in it - it smells bad and you need to do it outside - the electrochemical of Outers foulout system works well but takes more time.

[Foxcatcher]

Lone Wolf told me to send it in and they would check it out. They sounded like they would replace it even though it had hand loads through it. Fingers crossed.

Don

[NSP64]

What people have to realize is they need to load as big a boolit as will fit in a fired case(from that gun). I load the same boolit in my 9mm over 4gr of 231 for 1050fps and get "0" leading. I load them sized .360.
I like the lee 125gr rnfp loaded over 3.5 gr of unique for 900 fps.
I loaded the GF's 38 with too lite of a load and managed to stick 4 bullets in the barrel before number 5 locked it up. Removed them all and no problems with the gun.