Tech Ninja
Member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2009
- Messages
- 90
When I first started reloading I bought a selection of lead bullets for my SP101. I got Missouri Bullets in both 12 and 18 BHN. I loaded the 12 BHN bullets in .38 Special brass with Bullseye or Unique powder and the 18 BHN bullets in .357 Magnum brass with 2400 powder.
Everything I tried resulted in a barrel full of lead. Light charges, maximum charges, light crimps, heavy crimps, everything. And I mean so much lead that little curls of lead would come out when I ran a brass brush through the barrel. The lead was in the forcing cone and the first inch of the barrel.
I did some reading here and learned about making sure the cylinder throats were properly sized for the bullets. I tried to push a .358 bullet through each cylinder and sure enough I could not push a bullet through any cylinder.
Ah-ha I thought I have found the problem! I bought a .357 resizing die and resized some bullets These bullets could be pushed through the cylinders with a light push. The results? A barrel full of lead. Not as much lead, definitely less, but it still took 10 minutes to scrub it out.
This leading was from just five shots.
I know someone will suggest slugging the barrel but my understanding is that lead around the forcing cone is not related to barrel diameter. I could be wrong about that.
At this point I gave up on lead and went to X-treme plated bullets and lived happily ever after.
Almost.
As much as I like the plated bullets I still have 20 pounds of lead bullets. And I have to do something with them so I thought I would try one more time and see if I could make them work.
I loaded some MBC #1 Ranger 158 grain SWC 18 BHN bullets (not resized to .357) and loaded them with 18.1 grains of Alliant 300MP. That's a pretty hot load. And would you believe that made a fine shooting load without any leading! Even after 50 rounds I could run one patch through the barrel and it was clean. Really accurate too.
So why did that work? It shouldn't have worked should it? Maybe I just hit the sweet spot for that bullet.
Lead bullets have been really frustrating to me and I'm not going to buy anymore. Especially since plated are only a few dollars more.
Everything I tried resulted in a barrel full of lead. Light charges, maximum charges, light crimps, heavy crimps, everything. And I mean so much lead that little curls of lead would come out when I ran a brass brush through the barrel. The lead was in the forcing cone and the first inch of the barrel.
I did some reading here and learned about making sure the cylinder throats were properly sized for the bullets. I tried to push a .358 bullet through each cylinder and sure enough I could not push a bullet through any cylinder.
Ah-ha I thought I have found the problem! I bought a .357 resizing die and resized some bullets These bullets could be pushed through the cylinders with a light push. The results? A barrel full of lead. Not as much lead, definitely less, but it still took 10 minutes to scrub it out.
This leading was from just five shots.
I know someone will suggest slugging the barrel but my understanding is that lead around the forcing cone is not related to barrel diameter. I could be wrong about that.
At this point I gave up on lead and went to X-treme plated bullets and lived happily ever after.
Almost.
As much as I like the plated bullets I still have 20 pounds of lead bullets. And I have to do something with them so I thought I would try one more time and see if I could make them work.
I loaded some MBC #1 Ranger 158 grain SWC 18 BHN bullets (not resized to .357) and loaded them with 18.1 grains of Alliant 300MP. That's a pretty hot load. And would you believe that made a fine shooting load without any leading! Even after 50 rounds I could run one patch through the barrel and it was clean. Really accurate too.
So why did that work? It shouldn't have worked should it? Maybe I just hit the sweet spot for that bullet.
Lead bullets have been really frustrating to me and I'm not going to buy anymore. Especially since plated are only a few dollars more.