Leading in 642 snubnose

[Stormin.40]

Looking for some thoughts from you more experienced lead shooters.

I shot two type of ammo through my 642 the other day and noticed a fair amout of leading, I suspect it was the Sellier & Bellot 148gr Wadcutter Ammo that caused it, they key holed right out of the box at only 7 yards. I shot 50 of these.

The other ammo I shot was Georgia Arms 158 gr LSWC HP +P, these all shot POA, I shot 50 of these as well.

The leading was heavy on two sides of the bore about 1/3 to 1/2 down.

 

[230therapy]

Go to the grocery store and buy a "choreboy" copper scouring pad. Cut it with a scissors and wrap around the copper brush (it'll rip your fingers up if you try to pull it apart). Pour some solvent in there and let it soak. Then hit it with the brush.

http://www.choreboyscrubbers.com/Products/Ultimate Scrubbers Pure Copper.aspx

 

[Drail]

Both of those loads are most probably soft swaged lead. Famous for leading in most barrels unless driven at slow velocities in a very smooth barrel. If you want to shoot lead (and you do) you want to use hard cast lead bullets. But as the last guy explained, it will come out with the proper technique. Just one more good reason to take up handloading. You won't really save a lot but you'll get to shoot a lot more rounds and they will be much higher quality than the junk the ammo factories are producing.

 

[230therapy]

The trick is to match the velocity to the hardness of the bullet.

Google around and you will find many articles on it.

 

[Prairiedog]

The main cause of leading in a revolver is an undersized bullet. This results in hot gas flowing past the bullet which melts the base and results in leading. Besides the bullet itself being too small, it is sometimes (often) made too small by being sized down in the cylinder throat. You need to first determine the proper bullet size by measuring the bore grove diameter. This should be the diameter of the sizing die. A bullet sized this diameter should push through each cylinder with some resistance but no resizing. A better way is to measure each cylinder size with pin gauges. I have a set from .25 to .50 in one thousands. You can find these on ebay. See Cylindersmith.com for details about this, and for everything you need to know to solve this problem go to the Los Angeles Silhouette Club's site at www.lasc.us and look at 'Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners.
This may seem overboard but I think it's the only way. I have shot many 10's of thousands of 357 Mag, 44 Mag and 45 ACP cast loads and they don't lead.
I just bought an M&P 340 and am starting to go thru all of this as I want to shoot cast practice rounds at 357 power, just a little mild but above +P.

 

[scottishclaymore]

I shot two type of ammo through my 642 the other day and noticed a fair amout of leading, I suspect it was the Sellier & Bellot 148gr Wadcutter Ammo that caused it, they key holed right out of the box at only 7 yards. I shot 50 of these.

Am I the only other one who has noticed this phenomena in the 642? 148 gr. WC ammo, regardless of manufacturer, seems to be the most accurate ammunition in my 642, bar none. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Stormin.40]

I was hoping the WC would be accurate out of my 642, I was planning on reloading my own soon, unfortunely I don't think my 642 likes them. Maybe if I could find some Hollow Base they would work better.

 

[Nutbustd]

check out Penn bullets. They have both "hard" and soft lead in many different uses. Just bought 500 of the hard cast 357 in 125grain. Prices were very good. will post on how they turn out after I load'em. These particular bullets are rated to 1600fps!. I will give all reload info then.