8X58RD Leading

[TomP]

I'm new to shooting small bore cast bullets.  I cast for my Swedish Rolling Block in 8X58RD using straight wheel weights.  The bullet is 180 gr with 2 grease grooves, no gas check.  They come out of the mold at .329 which matches the groove diameter of my rifle.  My barrel length is 25 inches.

My velocities are in the neighborhood of 1500 fps.

So far I've been tumbling the bullets in liquid Alox but I'm finding leading in the last few inches of the bore.  When I scrape it it comes out in small flakes.

Is this just a simple case of not enough lube to go the whole length of the bore?  There's no leading at the chamber end.

Once I get the bore cleaned out good I'll be filling the grease grooves in the bullets with my home made beeswax and Crisco mix to see if that helps but I figured I'd ask the experts too.

[ron haralson]

You may have a rough spot where the lead collects. Liquid alox is usually ok, but a different lube may help. I use Canadian Tire moly grease. The other possible solution is a gas check. Often that puts an end to minor leading problems. You could also(very cautiously) try fire lapping your barrel.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck.

Ron

[ron haralson]

Also, you might try adding about 2% tin to your alloy. Even if it doesn't help the leading, it will probably improve accuracy.

[TomP]

Thanks for the reply, Ron.
I scrubbed the bore using copper wool and even made a groove scraper out of a wooden dowel and the staple from a cardboard box to get rid of all the flakes.  Then I fired some jacketed bullets.  The bore is not perfect, but it is now clean.

My next loads had Alox coated cast bullets with the grooves filled with 50/50 beeswax/shortening.  At 50 yards I'm now grouping about an inch with no leading.

I also switched from AA 5744 which left a lot of unburned grains to IMR 4198.  I use a piece of cotton to hold the powder back since the case is so large compared to the powder charge.

My next experiment will probably be to use 65 gr of FFg black powder.