I'm getting ready to load some 158 gr. LSWC bullets in 38 special. The bullets measure at .359 Do any of you have any suggestions as to what can be done to prevent leading. The source of the bullets is unknown and I believe they have a brinell hardness of around 12. I have what I have and can't really change anything. I don't have any pin gauges to measure the chamber throat so that is an unknown. The gun is a brand new Taurus Model 66 .357 magnum. I was going to load the bullets to about 700 fps loadings according to my Hornady manual. I am going to try some Bullseye ,Unique and Accurate No.2 and see how they do. Any advice is welcome.
According to the maker of most of my cast handgun bullets, he kept the brinell under 13.5 so they would not lead. And that is pretty much true,with my 357 bullets, even at magnum velocities of 1200 fps, they do not lead. Except if I use Bluedot. I don't think Bluedot upsets the bullets and gas cutting occurs. At least this is my theory, but the fact of the matter is, my bullets lead with Bluedot at velocities where they don't lead with 2400, AA#9 and H110.
If you are really worried about leading, dip the end of the cartridge in light grease, like that lithium grease, in tubes, used for outboard motors. I have an original Trapdoor and it severely leads with commercial cast bullets. But, if I dip the things in grease
and fire them,
the leading went away. However, this is messy as heck. On the left is the rifle being loaded with the first greased cartridge, and the picture on the right shows the rifle after a bunch of rounds and you can see how much grease was squeezed back into the action. But, I can wipe that out easily, leading was much harder to remove than grease
I have shot literally thousands of oiled 45 ACP cartridges in Bullseye competition. I add a drop of oil to every other round, just on the intersection between case and bullet. My goal is to break the friction between case and chamber and improve function reliability on loads that just function the mechanism. This works in the main, but if the load is too weak, even low friction cases will stove pipe. But, I discovered an added bonus, leading in the barrel and throat went away. It was rather remarkable to push a patch down the barrel, after the match, and see a bright shiny barrel without leading.
I have been greasing bullets fired down one chrome plated 30-06 barrel. This barrel will jacket foul something awful, I paid a gunsmith to lap the barrel, and the fouling reduced, but did not go away. But last time at CMP, I dipped the bullets in grease, fired at least 50, and the barrel was bright and shiny after one patch pushed the fouling out.
I did oil some 44 Special rounds (or 45 Colt or 44 Magnum, I am starting to forget) and the bore remained bright with cast lead bullets, but it was real messy oily.
After these tests I am convinced that getting lubricant up the barrel, ( I don't what the cut off point was, this level creates a grease plume in the air, and this is probably over kill)
but getting lubricant up the barrel really does reduce leading, and jacket fouling.