Leading in throat?

[IronMonkey]

Went to clean my 30-30 super 14 after last weekends IHMSA match and while looking down the barrel was suprised to see some leading in the first two inches of rifling.  Started to look really close at the throat and I can't decide if the throat might be too big.  Had a 30 Herret with a .310 throat, not good for .309 cast.  Accuracy was still minute of ram when my dad did his part.  These are billy marr bullets and shoot great but now I am wondering if I have to switch to jacketed.  Any thoughts?  IronMonkey

[Billy Marr]

Have you tried seating the bullets to touch the lands. This normally will let it buildup some pressure and cut back on gas cutting of the bullets. These are my 165/160gr bullets right? You may want to try 200s.

[IronMonkey]

yes they are the 160 bullets.  I seat them so that the bullet just barely drops in.  I swear that the throat is bigger after I looked at the other 30-30 barrel and couldn't see the difference in the throat.  I am hoping the get a 300 whisper barrel and then will shoot that.  It looks like military pulled bullets will work or the .310 cheap bullets.  I am going to get the bigger bullets next time though just because I always like bigger.  I am still considering ordering some 8mm GC bullets I will order at least 500 probably 230 gr if you can get the mold.  dan

[Graycg]

Iron Monkey,
  Other than having to clean it out, do you have any other problems with the load?  If it is doing what you want and the leading isn't too bad, could you live with it?  I have several loads that leave some small amounts of lead in the bore, but it comes out easily and the loads shoot very well.

Graycg

[IronMonkey]

No I am not having any other problem, in fact it shoots great in spite of it.  I just hate having to clean out leading.  I prefer to pull a bore snake through it and put it away.  Oh well, I can always try some .310 123 grain jacketted.  If that is what Jim Henry recommended for the 30 herret I see no problem with the 30-30 so long as I don't shoot reduced loads.  Besides I just got my 30-30AI 24 bull with muzzle brake and I am going to be busy a little while with that.  Thanks, Daniel

[John Traveler]

I dunno about you guys, but I have heard that firing an oversize bullet in a standard-sized bore is a sure way to RUIN any chance of real accuracy!

I used to run around with competitive military match shooters that used accurrized M1 and M14 rifles.  One of the tricks they had was to load and shoot .309 inch diameter bullets when throat wear reached the point that rebarreling became necessary.  This simple expedient extended shooting life by another several hundred rounds.

On the other hand, loading and firing oversized bullets in a GOOD standard-sized bore RUINED it for firing standard-sized bullets.

[IronMonkey]

:evil: I have scrubbed and scrubbed and now am really hating lead left in the barrel.  If it was only a little and came out easily, that is one thing.  I have used Remington bore cleaner, MP7 and lots of elbow grease.  Now am considering rechambering or calling TC lots of bad names.  The throat is their fault but when I inquired about the herret with the bad throat they were worse than not helpful.  Read something about lemon or something that dissolves the lead.  Help!!!!!

[BCB]

IronMonkey,

I have been shooting my Super 14 in 30-30 Winchester caliber with cast bullets the past couple of days (the weather got above 20 degrees!) and I also have some leading.  It is not in the throat area though.  My rifling gets gray colored toward the end of the barrel.  It is somewhat difficult to remove also.  I use J&B Bore cleaner and Butch’s Bore Shine mixed into a slurry.  I suspect any bore solvent would work with the J&B.  And, I do use a stainless steel brush…Yea, I know about a hundred people are going to say I am ruining the bore, but I haven’t ruined a bore in dozens of years using the steel brushes!!!

My opinion is that the Contender barrels are extremely rough when the come from the factory.  Tool chatter is always visible using a good bore light.  Considerable shooting/cleaning are necessary to smooth the bore and help prevent fouling—be it lead or copper fouling.  My particular 30-30 barrel will shoot at least 30 rounds before I notice any accuracy problems.  And then I am not sure that it is effecting accuracy at all.  I have yet to have a Contender barrel that is a tack driver with cast bullets.  Don’t know why but that is the case.  All the barrels I have will shoot jacketed bullets very accurately.

I do seat my bullets to just touch the rifling.  I am shooting the Lyman 311041 and the Lee C309-150F bullets cast from an alloy of 2-1 (ww-#2) and they are then heat treated to a hefty BHN.  The hardness varies, but it is always in the mid-20’s.  Liquid Alox is used as the lube.  I size only the check when seating it to 0.310”—the rest of the bullet is “as cast”.  I sure wish I could get my Contender barrels to shoot cast bullets as well as they shoot jacketed bullets!!!  Good-luck…BCB

[kenjuudo]

A very effective way to remove leading is to wrap an old bore brush with a piece of a copper scrubbing pad  the Mrs. uses on the pots and pans. Just a few strokes will remove the most stubborn lead buildup. Absolutely no harm to the barrel.

The first thing I do to any barrel is polish it with JB bore paste and a TIGHT patch until I get a mirror shine. A rough bore will lead some no matter what the bullet diameter, hardness or lube. A search of the archives at shooters.com will bring up an unbelievable amount of info on leading.

jtb

[rob_helms]

I suggest you get some lead removal cloth to clean your barrel. I have purchased it under Remington, KleenBore, and Hoppes names. I also agree with kenjuudo about the bore, I have several barrels that have cleaned up nicely with J&B paste and quit leading after polishing.