semi-Jacketed vs lead Questions

[Oldshooter]

I got started reloading in the sixties(with long periods of not reloading at all so my experience is limited to a few calbers), I suppose it was my mentors preference but I never used lead bullets cast or other wise, only semi-jacketed. Am I missing anything? Is there some instances that a lead bullet would be preferable to a semi-jacketed one. Is there anything other than economy involved? I saw where Tim was talking about older 44 mag H&R barrels being over-sized so jacketed bullets did not shoot as well as lead. Is there more to it than those situations?

Now this is for both rifles(35 rem)(454 casull), and pistols in 44mag,45 acp,

[stimpylu32]

Aside from cost , there are a few advantages to cast bullets , some being your choice of both bullet weights and styles , over jacketed that can be taylored to your gun ( helps with feeding in semi-auto type guns ) , another is your powder choices are greater ( you can in many cases use a smaller amount of faster burning pistol powder in rifle rounds ) .

And as you stated , your bullets can be sized to fit the bore for a more accurate round , that and their just fun to shoot . 

stimpy

[Oldshooter]

Is leading more or less of a problem than copper fouling. condidering you use the same load just different bullets?

[Luckyducker]

When I shoot lead bullets they are commercially cast as I don't cast my own and therefore I have no control over the hardness of the bullets.  The home casters tell me the store bought cast bullets are too hard which can contribute to barrel leading.  If I didn't want to deal with barrel leading after shooting lead bullets I would pick a cast bullet that incorporates a gas check in the bulllet base which is sized to match the bore diameter of my gun ( I personally only shoot cast in pistols).  The GC bullets are more expensive than plain base bullets and I only shoot them in one revolver for what I refer to as "my bear killer load" but they hardly leave any lead in the bore.  I have shot both jacketed and cast in pistols and like both, but I sure don't mind saving some dough by shooting cast lead.