Ruger 357 De-leading Quest Finished

[Catpop]

My 1973 Ruger 357 de- leading quest is finally finished!

Without going into all the boring details listed in a half a dozen previous threads by me, here is what actually solved the barrel leading issue. Remember this 1973 revolver has leaded from day one!

1. .358- .359 leaded terribly in as little as 50 rounds, so badly in fact I gave up on shooting lead boolits for many, many years. In MY case it finally took an unsized .3615 boolit to finally get all the leading eliminated.
2. The original .358 throats proved to be much too small and were opened to .361 to allow the .361 boolits to pass unswaged.
3. Yes my Ruger had and still has the infamous Ruger Thread Choke.
4. I ended up custom making a .360 sizer from an old grade 8 farm bolt. This is what I am using to size the .3615 cast boolits that 2011redrider so graciously gave me for this quest. Hats off to you friend! By the way .360 commercially available boolits are nonexistent .
5. .360 is the largest boolit i can reliably chamber in my Ruger. The .3615 will only chamber 50% of the time so that is not an option.
6. So I have a Ruger firearm that was defective from day one with a .3595 groove diameter instead of a .355 and a bore of .348 instead of .346 as per SAAMI specs, but they will not warranty because I modified the too small .358 cylinder throats.
7. Yes I solved the leading problem, but to no avail as I ended up with a pistol that is only good for jacketed bullets AND I DONT DO JACKETED BULLETS.
8. In the end I have the satisfaction of actually proving Ruger is at fault. Now to see if they will replace the barrel at their expense.

Thanks to all that assisted in this quest! Catpop

 

[Shaky]

Have you explored the hollow based option?

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/produc...cts_id=2751&osCsid=db41629j46tgq51gheofo28hl7

 

[Catpop]

Shaky,
I have not, BUT it sounds like an ideal option!
My next step is Ruger. If they fail me, we'll see. Thanks

 

[reddog81]

Most of the Speer 148 HBWC's I've bought are around .360. I don't recall what the box says, but most of the ones I have mic'd are right around .359 to .360.

Are you going to try firelapping the constriction?

Have you tried powder coated bullets? This option might also eliminate or at least greatly reduce leading.

 

[CoalTrain49]

About a year ago I gave all of my lead bullets to a club member. I had terrible leading in a Sig and a 625. None of my Colt 1911's ever leaded although the ammo was the same. Probably something to do with bullet diameter. I'm shooting coated now and the leading disappeared. Not as cheap as uncoated lead but worth it to me not to have to deal with it. I want to shoot the same ammo in all my 45 ACP guns.

Try some Acme coated bullets and see if you have anymore leading. I bet you won't.

 

[ewlyon]

I would also recommend coated bullets. The acme bullets I have tried have always been great. When I started casting a few years ago it took a lot of work to find loads that would not lead my bores and didn't use overhard bullets. Now that I powder coat my bullets I don't see any leading, even with full power loads using relatively soft alloy. I don't even bother experimenting with diameter anymore, everything gets sized to .002 or .003 over nominal diameter. My bores are cleaner than shooting jacketed, and I cannot see any loss in accuracy.