How many rounds before leading occurs?

I cast my bullets from straight wheel weights. I use Ben's Red Lube formula that I made myself.
I've shot HUNDREDS of shots and don't get any leading what so ever. My bullets are sized .452 for my 45acp. Cleaning too often just removes the coat of lube that the bullets have deposited in your barrel. It isn't hampering function, it doesn't need cleaning. Just oil and shoot.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
If the bullet is properly sized for your barrel and a good lube is used you will see no leading. I only leaded up 1 barrel and it was my fault, not the bullets.(long story lol)
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I agree. I shoot lead exclusivly in my 9MM .45ACP .38/357 etc. Never a leading issue. 17 BRN cast and lubed.
 
I’ve gotten lucky so far. I shoot cast and coated and a couple hundred cast and lubed bullets from my handguns and haven’t had any leading so far. I’ve shot Hunters Supply, Acme, MBC, Gallant, and some home cast HBWC with lube and had no leading to speak of. 158 grain MBC bullets nearing 1200 gps from my Blackhawk and no trouble. HOWEVER, I leaded the barrel of my 30-30 in six rounds pushing Acme coated bullets with 2400 powder. I had to drop the charge nearly 2 full grains and work up a little and still never found a good load. Coated bullets can lead a barrel pretty fast if you don’t know what you’re doing. I shoot those 30 caliber bullets with light charges of H335 and get no noticeable leading.

My conclusion is you’ll know pretty fast if leading is a problem. 6” groups at 25 yards is a good clue.
 
DMW1116 said:
I’ve gotten lucky so far. I shoot cast and coated and a couple hundred cast and lubed bullets from my handguns and haven’t had any leading so far. I’ve shot Hunters Supply, Acme, MBC, Gallant, and some home cast HBWC with lube and had no leading to speak of. 158 grain MBC bullets nearing 1200 gps from my Blackhawk and no trouble. HOWEVER, I leaded the barrel of my 30-30 in six rounds pushing Acme coated bullets with 2400 powder. I had to drop the charge nearly 2 full grains and work up a little and still never found a good load. Coated bullets can lead a barrel pretty fast if you don’t know what you’re doing. I shoot those 30 caliber bullets with light charges of H335 and get no noticeable leading.

My conclusion is you’ll know pretty fast if leading is a problem. 6” groups at 25 yards is a good clue.
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A cast 170 with 26 grains of tac is a good shooter for me... they were checked
 
.45Coltguy said:
Not to argue DMW1116, but, you get leading with coated cast? I haven't seen this yet, but, certainly am curious.
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Just the one time. I think it was a combination of fast rifle powder, barely adequately sized bullets, and too much powder. After dropping the charge I haven’t had any trouble. Alliant 2400 pushes the bullets all over the place, but no leading. I use W231 and 135 grain RNFP c&c bullets in a 30-30 Short Range load now from the Marlin Owners Forum for practice and the same bullet with a light charge of H335 for a 1400 fps load. I started case prep tonight for a 1500 fps load with H335 and a 165 grain MBC Deer Slayer #4. Hopefully my cleaning patches don’t come out with black glitter like before.
 
Depends. I have a 357 load with a swaged bullet. At 50 rds I have leading. PITA but very accurate.

My std 45 acp load, 6.0 gr of Unique with a hard cast 200 swc, easy cleaning.
 
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DMW1116 said:
Me too.

Trust me, I can mess anything up.
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If the acceleration out of the case is faster, and the jump to throat longer, than the hardness and diameter of the bullet can tolerate, it will “skip” across the leade and strip off the coating. That’s how you get leading from coated. I had to try a few bullet brands and loads to reproduce it when @DMW1116 first posted about it about a year ago. Funny enough, neither Red Dot nor 2400 loaded close to max would skip bullets in my Stevens 340 but both left coating smear in my Marlin 336.

I had to try to replicate it. Couldn’t stand not knowing.
 
That also explains how using a slower (relatively speaking) powder like H335 seems to solve the issues. I’d bet my W231 loads don’t have enough pressure to strip the bullet. The H335 load is just slightly more accurate as far as I can tell.
 
AJC1 said:
A cast 170 with 26 grains of tac is a good shooter for me... they were checked
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Unfortunately I don’t yet cast my own and gas checked bullets are the same price as jacketed ones. I’ve never considered TAC for 30-30 though.
 
DMW1116 said:
Unfortunately I don’t yet cast my own and gas checked bullets are the same price as jacketed ones. I’ve never considered TAC for 30-30 though.
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I haven't either. It was a load passed down by my dad that almost exclusively used ramshot, because it was cheap.
 
I was thinking of exploring some AR Plus in 30-30 for the same reason. I have a box of FTX bullets I'll never likely use otherwise. I may need to inventory everything sooner rather than later. I don't want to open that box just to tinker around, but if it's already open, that's different. I think my current supply of TAC is spoken for with Barnes Match Burners and Hornady soft points for 223.
 
DMW1116 said:
I was thinking of exploring some AR Plus in 30-30 for the same reason. I have a box of FTX bullets I'll never likely use otherwise. I may need to inventory everything sooner rather than later. I don't want to open that box just to tinker around, but if it's already open, that's different. I think my current supply of TAC is spoken for with Barnes Match Burners and Hornady soft points for 223.
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I haven't got to playing with my boxes of ftx yet but ar-comp seems like the most capable extruded temp resistant so I planed on building a hunting round for junior.... the choices seem endless and that's a good thing.
 
ArchAngelCD said:
I also want to know how you can get leading when firing coated bullets? I have no run into that before.
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It happens if the coating is not cured correctly. If the coating is cured correctly they should hold up fine assuming you aren't scraping the coating off when seating the bullet.
 
frogfurr said:
With lubed cast lead it can happen pretty quickly and the leading pretty gnarly if the lead wasn't alloyed correctly when the bullets were cast.
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I had meant to reply the other day but got busy and didn't.

Yes to the above absolutely, that and or sizing or lube are inadequate for the barrel or load.
Two examples, first is from 45 Colt, second from a 41 Mag, both 7.5" Redhawks. The 45C had over a hundred plus rounds through it, the 41 has 4...
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The latter was during load and alloy testing and it is just one of those things that had to be tested. The alloy used was the same as what I was using in the 45C but it simply wasn't up to the job for the added pressure of the 41 load. The size was correct, the lube was good, the alloy however, being as good as it was for the lower pressure and velocity of the 45 just didn't hold up.

To the PC versions, while it IS much more forgiving, there is still a threshold that can be crossed. It can also be compromised by pressure, velocities, seating, or chemically by some powders. Once you have breached the barrier it can lend itself to a build up in short order.
 
The Tootsie Roll owl says "three before leading starts".:)

With some hardness in bullets, if I keep the velocity below about 1000 fps, I do not have any leading issues for the most part.

I know many folks drive cast bullets at magnum velocities without leading but it takes some extra care in getting the lead mix just right, the diameter just right and then using gas checks. Not in my wheel house but go for it if it is.

I'm lazy. If i want magnum velocities, I use jacketed bullets. For plinking loads where the velocity is not so high, cast or powder coated work just fine for me.

Use what ever floats your boat but be aware of the extra time involved making high velocity cast bullets work without leading.

10 plus years ago, I got a couple sets of dies from Pat Marlin ( .32 an .38 caliber bullets) that make gas checks from aluminum soda cans for plain base bullets. I did not do exhausting testing with them but they give me the option of adding gas checks to many bullet designs.

The point being, there are a number of options available for the reloader to maximize the performance of cast bullets n their firearm,
 
Ran some 9mm and 30-30 both cast and coated today. I haven’t cleaned the 30-30 yet but no leading in the 9mm. I was using Hodgdens minimum charge of W231 pushing a 135 grain Gallant cast and coated bullet. We shot about a dozen before the boys went back to the Heritage and S&W 22s.

30-30 was 15.4 grains of H335 pushing a MBC 165 grain White Tail 4 for Marlin microgroove rifling.
 
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