Got out to the range today with the 1911, fired 200 rounds of my hp38/rmr load. Cleaned the barrel with montana extreme copper solvent and jb bore paste. Took 9 separate patches saturated with JB and the solvent 60-100 strokes per patch to clean the fouling out. None of the copper solvent patches came out blue like they do with copper fouling, I've never fired lead bullets but I think this might be lead fouling somehow. What do you all think? The pics are before and after the vigorous scrubbing View attachment 1161876View attachment 1161878 View attachment 1161879
Same here. I can't understand what happened in your barrel.FMJ bullets did that?
W-231/HP-38 and jacketed bullets leave my 1911 bores shiny and clean
What kind of crimp are you applying? Is it possible you're breaking through the case and exposing the lead core?Leading doesn't usually come from the base of a bullet but from the sides of a bullet.Yep rmr 230gr fmj did this after only 200 rounds, I noticed the box the bullets were shipped in had some large-ish flakes of lead in it that I assume came from the exposed end of the fmj. If there were loose flakes of lead left on the rear end of the fmj from the manufacturing process is it possible it's melting off and depositing in the leade of my barrels?
The before doesn’t look all that terrible to me. I don’t know why it’s being so stubborn to remove though. Genuinely puzzling. I’m an old guy who still uses Hoppe’s No.9, bronze brushes, and old cut up T-shirts for patches on a loop for cleaning so it takes me all of about five minutes to clean a 1911A1 - but I’m not going for a mirror polish either. If you ran a fiber patch soaked with Sweet’s down my barrel right now it would probably come out gray. Don’t care. Shoots the same whether it’s factory shiny or lazy old man gray. I assured myself of that back in the last century.Got out to the range today with the 1911, fired 200 rounds of my hp38/rmr load. Cleaned the barrel with montana extreme copper solvent and jb bore paste. Took 9 separate patches saturated with JB and the solvent 60-100 strokes per patch to clean the fouling out. None of the copper solvent patches came out blue like they do with copper fouling, I've never fired lead bullets but I think this might be lead fouling somehow. What do you all think? The pics are before and after the vigorous scrubbing View attachment 1161876View attachment 1161878 View attachment 1161879
That’s a nice bullet.Well here's a picture of an rmr 230gr fmj cut in half... the jacket looks really thick. There's no way I'm crimping through this thing. I'm leaning towards the powder being the issue. Today I took out the USP 45, fired 264 rounds of the rmr 230gr over 6.4gr cfe pistol, 1.26 coal, rem 2 1/2 primer. While I did have similar streaking in the leade I was able to clean it out with about 20 passes of JB bore paste and a couple patches (probably didn't even need that many passes but I was expecting it to be harder than it was). At a 5.5 grain charge of hp38, could heat and incomplete combustion of powder cause the fouling to bake into the lands of the rifling? (It seems like the slower CFE burns cooler). Perhaps a stronger crimp on the bullet will cause a more efficient burn leading to less fouling? As I pointed out in my previous post winchester crimps very aggressively on their fmj rounds, the powder charge in the factory round I pulled weighed 5.3gr and looked identical to hp38. Their velocities are on par with my 5.5gr load. Maybe my crimp is too light. Thoughts?View attachment 1162213
I strongly suggest, as others have too, it’s not the powder, per seWell here's a picture of an rmr 230gr fmj cut in half... the jacket looks really thick. There's no way I'm crimping through this thing. I'm leaning towards the powder being the issue. Today I took out the USP 45, fired 264 rounds of the rmr 230gr over 6.4gr cfe pistol, 1.26 coal, rem 2 1/2 primer. While I did have similar streaking in the leade I was able to clean it out with about 20 passes of JB bore paste and a couple patches (probably didn't even need that many passes but I was expecting it to be harder than it was). At a 5.5 grain charge of hp38, could heat and incomplete combustion of powder cause the fouling to bake into the lands of the rifling? (It seems like the slower CFE burns cooler). Perhaps a stronger crimp on the bullet will cause a more efficient burn leading to less fouling? As I pointed out in my previous post winchester crimps very aggressively on their fmj rounds, the powder charge in the factory round I pulled weighed 5.3gr and looked identical to hp38. Their velocities are on par with my 5.5gr load. Maybe my crimp is too light. Thoughts?View attachment 1162213
Try a different cleaning regimen.
First use a patch with bore solvent. Let it soak a minute or so.
Then run a bronze bore brush through it for several strokes.
Then a clean patch, and THEN inspect.
If you must, repeat until the clean patch comes out clean.
The Hodgdon SDS shows many chemicals that may be in the powder. More then some old Alliant powders, like Bullseye powder or BE-86.I'm leaning towards the powder being the issue.
In my experience, “clean” is a relative term, not an absolute.I quit cleaning auto pistol barrels a long time ago, rarely clean revolver barrels, they just don’t need it.