How to prevent leading with commercially cast bullets?

[Questor]

I use commercially cast bullets and get leading just beyond the chamber. I think this might be because the bullet lube is not working at that point. Is there an easy cure for this, like washing the bullets in some other kind of lube so there is lube available when the bullet engages the rifling?

[jtaylor1960]

 You might try using a filler.That would help protect the base of the bullet and should prevent leading even with a plain base bullet.You also need to make sure the bullets fit the throat and forcing cone well. I had the same type of leading when using hard slightly undersized bullets in my 45 Bisley.Good luck Jeff Taylor.

[Castaway]

Coat them in Lee Liquid Alox and try.

[Graybeard]

Rudy, I suspect your problem is less one of lube (even tho most commercial ones have a pretty poor excuse for lube) than one of the bullet being too hard for the pressures combined with not fitting the barrel properly. And if they are bevel base as a large percentage of commercial cast bullets are that too hurts and causes additional leading. You've not really said which gun you're talking about. Is it your .45 ACP or .44 Magnum?

In your ACP the pressures really aren't all that high and those super hard cast commercial bullets will not obturate to properly seal the bore. That lets gases leak past and lead the bore, again bevel bases give the gases a head start in getting around. A soft check can be added that might help but they are a real pain in the butt.

In your .44 Mag the pressure can be high enough to obturate but likely aren't unless you're running full max velocities. Same cure or in both cases an increase of .001" or so might fit them to bore well enough to seal and stop it. Then too it might just be a tight spot or rough spot in the barrel causing the leading.

You could try doing as suggested and adding Lee's liquid lube or an even better but expensive route is to buy you a lube-sizer and lube them with a proper lube. I think I recall you used to have one but sold it when you decided you didn't wanna cast bullets any longer.

If you can find flat base rather than bevel base bullets that might cure it also. Gas checks are the final and ultimate cure.

[Lloyd Smale]

like was said leading in the first part of a barrel is usually not a alloy or a lube problem but a gun problem. Some things that can cause it are chambers not sized properly. A poor forcing cone. Misalignment between the chambers and the bore and barrel constrictions. First thing to try is your chambers take of your sized bullets and push it through the chamber end of your cylinder it should go threw with finger pressure and should not fall through. Your commericial bullets may not be sized properly for your gun. Im sure there lubed with a poor lube but that usually will show up as leading toward the end of the barrel.

[Questor]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the insight.

The guns are 1911s that start to show leading near the chamber after about 200 rounds-- at least enough to warrant a cleaning. Nothing serious, just enough to make me need to clean it out with bronze wool. The bullets are hard-lubed, hard cast, bevel-based 200 grain SWCs. I think I'll give the liquid alox trick a try. I still do have the lube-sizer, but don't really want to do that much work because we're talking thousands of bullets at a time.  I never had the problem when using swaged bullets, but Star went out of business and I can't get swaged bullets at a good price anymore.  The swaged bullets were coated with a waxy lube. They were also softer and without a bevelled base.

[dakotashooter2]

The liquid allox will help some. I did the same think to use up the boollits I had bought before I started casting ones that work.

[Nobade]

The main thing with commercial bullets is they're too hard and the lube doesn't work. I have a bunch of Laser Cast bullets a fellow gave me, and they do the same thing in my 1911.  I ended up putting them in the oven to melt the lube out, and relubed them with 50/50. They work fine now with no leading, though they're not as accurate as my own homemade ones that are way softer. The Lee alox does help some, if you just want to shoot them up.  Just put them on a cookie sheet with paper towels on it, and run the oven as low as you can to get the lube out. The towels pick up all the lube and you can throw them away and you end up with nice clean bullets. Then run them through the lubrisizer with a die .001" bigger than the bullets themselves.

[WL44]

Questor,

I shoot poorly lubed, bevel base in my .40 1911 for IPSC. I run them around 985 fps.

I get similar leading to what you describe and also along the leading edges of the lands. I only clean the chamber and a touch into the throat just to be sure that the pistol chambers rounds reliably. I never clean the barrel - not ever.

Despite that it shoots better than I can hold and will shoot into 2" at 15-20 yards all day long off-hand if I do my bit and all the way out to 45yards will shoot A's (if there's no buzzer to make my mind fog over  )

All I'm getting at is that you may not need to worry about the leading at all depending on the application. For me it's irrelevant for my purpose.

Wim

[messer454]

I had the same problem with some .38 special wadcutters and swc lately.  I found that they were undersized .356 and that they were 20 brinell in hardness.  My problem was two fold, bullets were too hard to fill out and too small.  Still have not figured out exactly what to do.