Mauser69
Member
There's a whole lotta leadin' goin' on, and I'm sick of it! Man do I hate scrubbing that stuff out.
The purpose of this thread is to debunk many of those claims that all them lead bullets don't lead the bores, and to share my recent testing details. But this is liable to be long, so I'll probably break it into different posts.
Part 1 will deal primarily with my premiss that a whole lotta folks just can't tell leading when they (don't) see it, along with a bit about me and my guns to help frame the discussion.
Bottom line is that I no longer swallow all those statements you see on this and other forums along the lines of "I've been loadin them lead boolits for neigh onto 250 years now, probably shot mor'n 2 millon of 'em, and I ain't never had no leadin. All ya gotts to do is match the hardness to the speed and you won't have no problem." And I really know the poster has questionable data when I read "My barrel is as bright and shiny as it was when new!"
Now I don't claim to be any expert on this, but then again, it ain't my first rodeo either. I've been shooting all kinds of guns since the 60s, and reloading for just as long. And while I haven't shot a ton of cast bullets until recently, I have sent thousands of swaged lead slugs down range from my Blackhawk revolvers over the years.
But the vast majority of my handgun ammo has been jacketed, and I think that is significant to understanding why I, too, WAS one of those folks that used to say flatly that I did not have a leading problem. I'll get into more of that when I get to the testing details in a later post.
My testing has been done with 5 different .40 pistols, a .357 Ruger Blackhawk, a S&W M29 and a Ruger Super Blackhawk. So far, my results have been pretty much the same with all 8 guns, but these posts will deal specifically with the .44 Spl and .44 Mag testing in the M29 and Super Blackhawk.
I have used primarily only three different bullets in the .44s, all from Missouri Bullet Company: 180 grain RNFP Cowboy #7 (BH12), 200 grain coated RNFP Cowboy #5 (BH12), and 240 grain SWC Keith (BH18). I have used a variety of powders and loads to generate low pressure snail loads all the way up to Keith level magnum loads, and EVERY SINGLE LOAD, with EVERY SINGLE BULLET has left significant leading after a single 20 shot string.
Now I am not talking about big slobbering gobs of lead (although I generated a few of those too!), but enough that I could feel it on a dry tightly fitted patch around a brass jag pushed through the bore after initial scrubbing with a brass brush and Hoppe's No. 9. But in almost all cases, after that initial cleaning, the bores all looked bright and shiny when looked through from the muzzle with a light in the breech. I'll get into the significance of that when I start loading up the pictures and talk about why I think half of the folks can't even see the lead in front of their face.
More to come...
The purpose of this thread is to debunk many of those claims that all them lead bullets don't lead the bores, and to share my recent testing details. But this is liable to be long, so I'll probably break it into different posts.
Part 1 will deal primarily with my premiss that a whole lotta folks just can't tell leading when they (don't) see it, along with a bit about me and my guns to help frame the discussion.
Bottom line is that I no longer swallow all those statements you see on this and other forums along the lines of "I've been loadin them lead boolits for neigh onto 250 years now, probably shot mor'n 2 millon of 'em, and I ain't never had no leadin. All ya gotts to do is match the hardness to the speed and you won't have no problem." And I really know the poster has questionable data when I read "My barrel is as bright and shiny as it was when new!"
Now I don't claim to be any expert on this, but then again, it ain't my first rodeo either. I've been shooting all kinds of guns since the 60s, and reloading for just as long. And while I haven't shot a ton of cast bullets until recently, I have sent thousands of swaged lead slugs down range from my Blackhawk revolvers over the years.
But the vast majority of my handgun ammo has been jacketed, and I think that is significant to understanding why I, too, WAS one of those folks that used to say flatly that I did not have a leading problem. I'll get into more of that when I get to the testing details in a later post.
My testing has been done with 5 different .40 pistols, a .357 Ruger Blackhawk, a S&W M29 and a Ruger Super Blackhawk. So far, my results have been pretty much the same with all 8 guns, but these posts will deal specifically with the .44 Spl and .44 Mag testing in the M29 and Super Blackhawk.
I have used primarily only three different bullets in the .44s, all from Missouri Bullet Company: 180 grain RNFP Cowboy #7 (BH12), 200 grain coated RNFP Cowboy #5 (BH12), and 240 grain SWC Keith (BH18). I have used a variety of powders and loads to generate low pressure snail loads all the way up to Keith level magnum loads, and EVERY SINGLE LOAD, with EVERY SINGLE BULLET has left significant leading after a single 20 shot string.
Now I am not talking about big slobbering gobs of lead (although I generated a few of those too!), but enough that I could feel it on a dry tightly fitted patch around a brass jag pushed through the bore after initial scrubbing with a brass brush and Hoppe's No. 9. But in almost all cases, after that initial cleaning, the bores all looked bright and shiny when looked through from the muzzle with a light in the breech. I'll get into the significance of that when I start loading up the pictures and talk about why I think half of the folks can't even see the lead in front of their face.
More to come...
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