Master Blaster
Member
The other day I was forced to shoot some Factory ammunition
from my new New Vaquero. The ammo was winchester Cowboy 45 LC with a 250 lfp bullet according to winchester's site the load does 750 fps from a 5.5" barrel. The bullet was soft swaged lead, so I expected some leading, 50 rounds fired and no leading at all, HMMM. I never get results like that with my hardcast bullet loads even with 21 Brinell lead. I have tried loading to 750 fps in .357 mag and .44 mag, and I still get visible leading after 50 rounds.
The Winchester bullet is sized to .455, so its getting a real good gas seal in a .451 diameter barrel. My hardcast bullets are sized to .452. Today I will try cast bullets loaded in the same WIn cases with 5.5 gr of W231 to get 750 fps but I bet I will get leading.
So now I am thinking that cast bullets are not the way to go, swaged lead is better if it is sized to .002-.004 over groove diameter?
Have any of you here done any relaoding tests with soft swaged bullets in a larger sizing diameter??? What are your results???? What am I missing????
Thanks
from my new New Vaquero. The ammo was winchester Cowboy 45 LC with a 250 lfp bullet according to winchester's site the load does 750 fps from a 5.5" barrel. The bullet was soft swaged lead, so I expected some leading, 50 rounds fired and no leading at all, HMMM. I never get results like that with my hardcast bullet loads even with 21 Brinell lead. I have tried loading to 750 fps in .357 mag and .44 mag, and I still get visible leading after 50 rounds.
The Winchester bullet is sized to .455, so its getting a real good gas seal in a .451 diameter barrel. My hardcast bullets are sized to .452. Today I will try cast bullets loaded in the same WIn cases with 5.5 gr of W231 to get 750 fps but I bet I will get leading.
So now I am thinking that cast bullets are not the way to go, swaged lead is better if it is sized to .002-.004 over groove diameter?
Have any of you here done any relaoding tests with soft swaged bullets in a larger sizing diameter??? What are your results???? What am I missing????
Thanks