Leading?

[El Chivo]

I cleaned the barrel in my 1894c after 40 rounds and found a few sparkly lead flakes. I then used a brush on it and got more, including a sliver.

I've been shooting Lasercast 180's over 10 grains of 2400, which I believe is giving me about 1400 fps. Total Lasercast through the gun - about 150 rounds. Before that I used factory jacketed ammo.

I was told by Lasercast that there's no leading with their loads, and some of their loads are up to 1800 fps.

Now, here's something else. I also cleaned my Ranger 30-30, through which I've been shooting Lasercast and I don't see any lead chips or slivers, and the velocity with that load is more like 1600.

Do some barrels get leaded more than others? Accuracy seems pretty good. Does the powder choice/pressure affect leading? Or just the velocity?

[Scott64A]

Well, Hobie had mentioned in another post that it's really important to get all of the copper fouling out before you shoot lead, as lead sticks to copper better than it does to nickel steel.

I had thought I cleaned my Ruger BH well enough with a boresnake, (won't make that mistake again, nosuh,) but after scrubbing it out with a bronze brush, I got a patch that was BLACK.

After many successive scrubbings/patch wipes, the blue eventually stopped and the last patch I jagged through was clean. After that, I passed a lightly coated patch with oil through.

I'm about to try about 25 rounds I've loaded with 11.5gr of 2400 behind a swaged, prelubed 158 SWCHP in my .357. I'll let you know how it works out!
They should go around 1000-1100fps and according to Magnus, the manufacturer, they shouldn't lead.

Another thing to consider trying in the leading bore you have: run a cotton ball through after cleaning it really well and see if you get any cotton being left behind. You can always lap the bore or just polish it if you get any snags.

The way I read about was with a lead slug that was cast in your barrel. Yup, I read an article wher a guy slugged his bore and then ran polishing compound in it with the slug being ramroddedback and forth to even the whole length of the rifling to a consistant, (within 0.001",) diameter. I guess he found a hump toward the end of it and needed to lap it out.

Course, other guys like the bore to taper towards the end, or close in a little, (0.001") toward the muzzle.

I bet someone will offer more, as my experience is limited.

I'd add another question based on copper fouling: If I have some copper jacketed and some lead bulets to shoot, should I shoot the lead first?
If there is a little lead fouling, will the barrel be wrecked by shooting copper after the lead rounds?

[JReed]

What are they sized to and what is your bore size?

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

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I've been shooting Lasercast 180's over 10 grains of 2400, which I believe is giving me about 1400 fps. I was told by Lasercast that there's no leading with their loads, and some of their loads are up to 1800 fps.

Now, here's something else. I also cleaned my Ranger 30-30, through which I've been shooting Lasercast and I don't see any lead chips or slivers, and the velocity with that load is more like 1600.

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Clues!!!

What are they sized to and what is your bore size?

Thaz wat i'm talkin bout.

I'm betting those bullets fit that ranger much better. If a bullet doesn't fill the bore you will get hot gases going by it and this will cause leading. The clue here is a pressure drop indicated by the vel. drop.

[El Chivo]

the Marlin's bullets are .358, and the Ranger's bullets are .310. I haven't slugged any bores, but it's probably a tighter fit in the Ranger.

As far as the velocities go, I'm just estimating them from the load data. I don't really know how fast they're going, I'm just guessing. But I'm going for mild loads.

I never gave either bore a hard cleaning, patches only. But I do have some material with abrasives in it that is supposedly for leading.

Maybe I'll try slugging the bores and see what I find.

[JReed]

Another thought to add to the others. How hard are these bullets? They may not be bumping up at the lower pressures.

Give them a solid scrubbing, slug the bores and see if that fixes it. If not play with the load. To light may cause leading just like to heavy of a load will.

[Thunder50]

Your bullets in the ranger are probalby .002 over groove dia. , which is good. Your .358 bullets are probably near groove dia. and it would be better if you can find some .360" to try. That might get rid of the flakes of leading.

[Hobie]

I think your question has been answered. Slug the bore and get bullets .001-002" over groove diameter. Clean all the jacketed bullet fouling from your bore.

[El Chivo]

I cleaned the bore with Bore-Scrubber to try and remove any copper fouling. I also took the bolt out and cleaned from the chamber end, then when I was finished I looked down the bore from the chamber end.

After a pretty thorough cleaning with the solvent, I could see a few minor streaks in the first two or three inches of bore. The were followind the grooves. They were duller than the surface of the bore, and after that it was all clean and mirrored. They looked very minor.

This weekend I fired about 70 rounds through it, and couldn't see any lead in the patches. After cleaning, I could still see the same dull streaks but the rest was mirror clean.

So I will keep an eye on it for build-up but it looks like cleaning out the copper did the trick for now.

[AJMD429]

Doesn't the famous shooter "Tubb" make a 'system' where you shoot jacketed bullets with abrasive treatment to 'polish' the bores...? It seems like one might do that, then slug the bore, and shoot oversize lead down the then-smooth bore...

[Lefty Dude]

You can do the final clean & polish the bore with JB's bore paste.

Then ya gotta slug the bore and see what size bullet to use. .001" or .002" sized over groove diameter will be best if you use Hard cast. If you use a Soft-cast 20/1 groove diameter would work. The soft cast will obterate and seal well.