Leading Removal with Filler

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Jim Watson

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I have a large supply of bullets that lead my barrels... moly coated 9mms.

I have read that reloading cast bullets with a granular filler like Cream of Wheat or poly Grex will not only prevent leading, it will remove it. One source says it only takes a few rounds to scour the barrel clean.

I am looking for a powder charge that will not give excessive pressures when under a compressed case full of filler in the short 9mm P case. The source above said "a couple of grains." That would be about a half charge in my case, I am loading 4.2 gr HP38 and a 125 gr moly coat. My "cleaning rounds" would be with a 115 gr plated, which I came into a supply of by coincidence.

What say you Jim K? I figure that with your obstruction removal technique, you would be agreeable to a less timid approach to deleading.

Yes, I have applied elbow grease with brush, Chore Boy strands, and lead remover cloth.
I have read of vinegar and peroxide and the commercial Lead Away from the Wipe Away foam cleaner people. I am wary of the former and doubtful of the claims of the latter.

And I can't find my mercury.
 
sounds like you need to slug your barrel to get the correct sized boolit. your getting leading because the boolit is to small for the bore. when using cast boolits it must be 1-2 thousanths bigger than the bore. other wise it just bounces down the barrel and causes leading.
 
I don't think that will work at all.

And as you alluded to, if you do do it you've changed the available case volume significantly. That raises pressure by some factor just like seating a bullet a lot deeper. Not good! What an acceptable powder charge might be is anyone's guess.

I think wariness and doubt apply here as well.
 
If you are not able to get lead out with strands of Chore Boy, you are not doing it right.

First of all, you need a bore mop that fits snugly even before wrapping the Chore Boy strands. Then after wrapping the strands, it should be really snug. Run it into the bore and scrub back and forth without pushing the mop all the way out (othewise it will be really tough to get back in). The barrel will get warm. Pull the mop out and do this outdoors because you will see a bunch of glittery dust fly out of the barrel as you pull the mop out . That's lead dust.

The copper/bronze (if you use bronze wool) is softer than the steel barrel but harder than lead and will scrape out the lead while leaving the barrel untouched. That's why you shouldn't use steel wool or copper coated steel because the steel will wear down the barrel.

The whole process shouldn't take more than a minute to perform. You need a bore mop with a good strong mount into the cleaning rod handle. Some mops are really wimpy. A brush isn't as good because the strand/wool gets buried between the bristles as it goes into the barrel.
 
Simplified, the science is a bit much for me.

Lead bullets 'lead' because they are too big or going too fast and the lead is scraped off. (That was simple, but now it's not.)

Lead bullets 'lead' because they are too small or going too slow or too hard and the barrel isn't sealed off to the hot gasses. There is a word for it, “obturate”, the base of the bullet is expanded to seal off the gas/pressure.

How fast is too fast/slow, how hard is too hard/soft and how big is just right? That is the science of it all.

Yes, various lubricates make a difference. And 'gas' checks do to. But, adding fillers to the case, I'm very doubtful.

My advise, adjust your powder charge. If your bullets are too hard/soft or big/small, you can't do much about that as they are coated. Check the actual bore size before you get more bullets.

Adding:
Back you loading back a bit. You are running on the hot side by my book.
 
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it doesnt matter how fast/slow the charge is or how hard/soft the lead is if it doesnt fit right you will get leading. oldpapps you are correct on the "obturation". jim watson or anyone else go to castboolits.gunloads.com there is tons of good info on cast boolits
 
I think Jim's probably pretty cognoscent of what causes leading. He was just looking for advice on this one leading removal technique.

Sound like gun-counter legend, to me, but who knows?

...

As an aside: All of the Chore Boy pads I've bought have been steel, not bronze or copper or whatever. They're copper washed to give the traditional look, but a magnet will stick to them! (My disposal has a magnetic activator plug and the strands, and sometimes the whole pad, get stuck to the magnetic tips all the time.) And they rust.

They still work just fine, though, without doing any damage to the barrel.
 
Sam1911, the big box stores around me all carry the steel ones that are copper washed, like you keep finding. The one small local owned grocery carries the all copper ones. They are about 3x the price, however. I find it easier just to produce loads that dont lead, lol.
 
A couple of the really old timers told me of using cream of wheat on top of kapok filler in RIFLES to de-lead their barrels but it was not that large an amount that they used along with NO BULLET. I would be afraid to try this in a 9MM round with a bullet due to the pressures that could be produced. In a rifle round at starting charge there is some leeway with pressure but in 9MM:what: no way. Just shooting a couple FMJ or gas checked rounds usually will clean the majority of lead out if done before the barrel is REALLY choked full.:scrutiny:
 
I am loading bulk commercial cast bullets with moly coating. Diameters are a bit variable as you might expect from a casting machine and a coating dip; .3563" was the smallest of several.

I did not have the option to cast and size to the optimum diameter.
I need to make power factor so light loads are not an option, although one guy here found no other solution to lightweight cast bullets in 9mm P.

MY Chore Boy is nonmagnetic. It is usually said that the off brands are copper plated steel. I have some of that coarse white turnings scrubber, maybe but not certainly the Frontier Metal Products Big 45 pad, and it IS magnetic.

And as far as Duck's referral to the experts at castboolits.com, that is where I got the filler idea in the first place, not a "gun counter legend." To wit:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?52276-Removing-lead-from-barrel-how-to/page2

"Ray, try 3 grains of the fastest pistol powder on the bench, fill with grits very lightly compressed, any boolit, checked or not. Five of those shots will even take out the heaviest leading. If those won't work, slug the barrel from the muzzle with a tight boolit. ... felix"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"No one's mentioned "Cream of Wheat" yet so I'll throw that out

I tried it on my 9mm CZ and it seemed to work pretty good. I think I used around 2 grains of W231 and topped it off with COW and a 105 gr SWC bullet but didn't write it down. I did get a small sliver of lead in the chamber which I think had something to do with the SWC bullet. Next time, I'd try a RN bullet but my bores are cleaning up so well now that I don't see a need for it right now.

Cloudpeak"

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And they do peroxide and vinegar, too, but I am still scared of it.

"I just recently used the 50/50 solution 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinager and it works better than anything I have tried in the past 40 years.

Chasmo"


I'll try a tighter fit with Chore Boy before I do anything radical like peroxide or filler.
 
Years ago I tried Moly coating cast bullets with poor results. Moly powder and tumble coating might work on jacketed bullets but leaves a mess with cast.

I have had good luck with the Hi-Tek coating that Donnie sells and uses for the Bayou bullets. My results are actually better than I have with Precision coated bullets.

The only unknown is if it would stick to a moly covered bullet. Send me a couple and I could test it for you.
 
Yes, Chandler says he is going to start offering a different coating, I think the same stuff as Bayou. But I have a good supply of the black ones to shoot up. And I would rather treat the symptom than set up to process bullets.
 
I have an old Remington model 514 single shot .22 rifle that appears to be leaded pretty bad, it's hard for me to see it clearly. But the rifling isn't very sharp looking, although I think it's fine, I'm the 2nd owner - my brother handed it down to me when I was 10.

Anyway, I want to clean it out. Will this Chore Boy trick work, or is the bore too small? I'm open for suggestions! Someone recommended M-Pro7 bore cleaning gel, but I'll have to order it. I do have a Chore Boy stainless pad, also have peroxide and vinegar. Just need experienced advice.

Thank you!
 
Super Grex used to eliminate leading with undersized or too hard lead bullets, but is discontinued and I do not know if fillers like PSB will work or not. I have some, but haven't tried it for this.

Home made wax gas checks would not only eliminate leading, but blow heavy leading out in a handful of shots and leave a squeaky clean bore, but they are a pain to load. They do work outstandingly though.
 
Super Grex I can get.

Commercial wax gas checks or wads seem scarce.

Found your reference on wax gas checks of 2011.
If paraffin will work, I can give it a try.
 
All copper chore boy or copper wool gets lead out very easily.
The only leading I have ever gotten from moly-koted bullets was if the coating was damaged during bullet seating and crimping.
When I get leading with commercial lead bullets, that are always too hard, I simply give them a light tumble lube in Lee Liquid Alox and the leading is gone.
Where is the leading in the barrel? Where it is will tell you the most likely reason for the leading.
 
Just as a wild idea, have you try pre-lubing your bore with moly grease? With the bore free of fouling, put some moly grease like the Lubriplate used with the M1 and M14 on a patch, and rub it in until the patch comes out black and the bore looks shiny. It may be that the small amount of lubrication on your moly'ed bullets is just running out before it can coat the bare steel.

To at least be able to use up these bullets, adding some conventional lubrication is worth trying. Dental wax for doing impressions for caps and bridges comes in thin sheets, you just charge the case with powder then push the case mouth through the sheet to cut out a wad.

In the olden days, there was a product known as the IPCO grease wad, which came in sheets of several thicknesses for various amounts of lubrication. The material was a very stiff grease loaded with colloidal graphite, and was extremely effective with both cast and jacketed bullets in eliminating fouling. Sadly long out of production, I don't know if the special grade of graphite is even available anymore.
 
My dentist is a hunter, I will hit him up for some impression wax.

I've read in the old books about the Ipco graphite wads. Ken Waters once wrote that he had to talk a .220 Swift shooter into 1. trimming his brass and 1. stop using graphite wads which were then alleged to reduce throat erosion from hot loads.

The Internet Expertise is that trying to blow leading out with jacketed bullets will either just iron the lead down harder or blow up the barrel. I am going to try some now that Chore Boy has gotten the most of the lead out. It would not be a problem to carry some jacketed as Barney Bullets which would lead to shooting 50-10% jacketed, balance coated lead.
 
I used to use Chore Boy solid copper but it got too hard to find unless you order online so I simplified. I just use a sharp bit, [not a chisel bit] and drill into copper pipe, sometimes slow speeds work best to get the long curly strands of copper. Its works for me and lowes sells plenty of 3/4 in. pipe. ;)
 
Sam and Jaxondog,
Check out Walgreens or your local Ace Hardware store. I bought the Pure Copper Chore Boy at Walgreens and both medium and fine Bronze Wool at a local Ace (either works, but the medium lasts longer, maybe coarse would have been even better). I've been looking at dollar stores and have only found copper plated steel scouring pads there.

Anyway, once you get a package, you are good to go for many years.
 
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