Cleanist lead bullet

Probably Hornady.
They don't use bullet lube grease on thier swaged lead bullets.

More like a dry lube wax sort of stuff in the knurling.

Otherwise, for bullet lube grease to do it's job, you are going to have some smoke from it burning off.

rc

Try Berry's plated bullets.

BossHog: 0.454" bullets will work great in .45Colt and very well to superb in .45Auto.
I have read gun "experts" discussing whether to use .223 or .224" bullets in their .22 rifles and never take the time to actually slug their barrels and find out. They assume that their barrels are always made to perfect dimensions. They might find out that 0.225" would be better. It is so funny.
Slug your barrel, if you are worried. You may find your 0.452" barrel really isn't.
You also need to measure the throats in your cylinder. The bullets should be a snug fit in the cylinder throats and at least 0.001" over groove diameter (that may or may not be 0.452"). Jacketed bullets can be groove diameter or even smaller and perform well.

As far as smoke goes, you should shoot black powder as intended in the .45Colt. Then, you'll see how little smoke you are putting up with.
You can try some Moly-Koted bullets from Precision Bullets or Black Bullets International. Precision bullets work great in my .45s.
Lube you own with Carnauba Red or B.A.C.
Buy cast bullets in bulk as-cast and unlubed and pan lube with a high wax content lube, such as C.R.
You can tumble lube with 45% Johnson Paste Wax and 45% Liquid Alox and 10% Mineral Spirits or Naphtha--use only enough to "wet" the bullets but not enough to discolor the bullets. You can even try leaving out the Alox and just using a wax emulsion.
You can use a flake powder that burns at a lower temperature than ball.
Then, there are Montana Gold, Precision Delta, and Zero (Roze Distribution) for excellent jacketed bullets.
Never liked plated bullets...accuracy was never as good as with less expensive cast bullets.

I agree with rcmodel's advice. There is no such thing as a "cleanest" (or "dirtiest" for the matter) lead bullet. There are lubes that smoke more or less than others. That's all.

I have had really good luck using Missouri Bullets and Trail Boss Powder in .38 & .357. Clean burning, very little smoke. (I have also loaded some .44s for the FIL, and they worked great too.) I have always stayed close to 'max' loads of Trail Boss and it has been accurate, clean, and leads less than any other combination I have tried. Also shoots 'cool,' meaning after shooting 50 rounds relatively quickly, the gun is a lot cooler to the touch than other powders. I think this has to do with the fact that Trail Boss is single base (No Nitroglycerine.)

I have tried unique, red dot, and bullseye and was not happy with the results using MBC or Speer lead. Super smokey and dirty. Yuck.

I kinda think all the smoke looks cool. Different powders have different smoke smells too. I'm gonna have to start a thread and rate the quality of the smoke aromas.

Moly coated lead smokes less than wax lubed.
Look at Precision Bullets, Billy Bullets, Black Bullets International.

I prefer them to plated.

BossHogg said:

Cleanist lead bullet
Who makes the cleanest shooting lead bullet smoke and residue wise? I don't want to name names but the ones I've been useing I almost need to wear a painters mask. So what do ya'll use?

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As others posted, all lubed lead bullets will smoke.

As for semi-auto lead bullets, it's been my experience the amount of smoke and residue has less to do with lead alloy used and more to do with the type of lube and powder/charge used.

I have used various lead bullets over the years and same bullet will produce different amount of smoke and residue depending on the different powder used. If fact, the same bullet/powder will also produce a wide range of smoke and residue depending on the charge used. In general, mid-high range load data will smoke less than start charge.

Perhaps others can chime in, but my faster than Unique burn rate powders like W231/HP38 produce minimal amount of smoke with mid-high range load data.

Yes.
Same differance.

.002" is nothing to a soft lead bullet being driven by 15,000 PSI through the chamber throats and forcing cone.

It will be whatever size it needs to be by the time it moves one bullet length.

rc

I've been loading 115gr. Berry's 9mm with 6.5gr Hogdon HS6. So far I've shot about 400 of them without any visible residue in the barrel and good accuracy at 50' which is the maximum distance in our club range.

You need to move to plated bullets or the Hornady style mentioned that are lubed with Alox instead of soap like wax in the groove.

I've run some 10mm rounds that had the lube ring but no lube. I coated them with Alox and did not have an issue with the smoke as with lube ring cast bullets. This may affect accuracy by inconsistently leaking gases and hence cause more lead fouling. I haven't noticed, they keep hitting the target and I keep grinning, so it's working for these rounds anyhow. Barrel doesn't seem to mind, but I don't usually shoot more than 50 rounds a range session in that gun either. If I were shooting hundreds before cleaning, I'm sure fouling would be more of an issue needing a watchful eye for safety's sake.

Hope this helps,

jeepmor

I've run some 10mm rounds that had the lube ring but no lube. I coated them with Alox and did not have an issue with the smoke as with lube ring cast bullets.

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If you are wanting to use different lube than the typical hard lube that comes with the bullet, check with the lead bullet manufacturer and ask if they will sell bullets without the lube (Missouri Bullets for one has posted that they'll).

Shot 200 laser cast hard cast today in my .38 with very little smoke and the barrel wasn't really all that dirty, considering how many times I pulled the trigger today.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=194099
These are on top of 4.3 grains of universal, for a nice easy range load. Very accurate out of my snub at 15 yds. (200, double action, standing 5" max group) Yes, fired all 200 at the same target. I was trying to shoot out the bullseye. lol

bds said:

If you are wanting to use different lube than the typical hard lube that comes with the bullet, check with the lead bullet manufacturer and ask if they will sell bullets without the lube (Missouri Bullets for one has posted that they'll).

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We will happily supply unsized, unlubed as-cast bullets. Just use unsized-unlubed exactly as you see it in the promo code box at checkout and you will save $3.00 per box.

Brad

Or cast and lube your own and "save" more money again, atleast you can mix or buy different lubes to try which you like smoke- and smellwise, different smells from the candle section of wife's closet work good.