who says "no lead in glocks", I see no reason not.

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beeenbag

beeenbag

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I have steered clear of lead in my glocks for sometime now, until today.

I recieved a sample pack of lead bullets and included were 15 125g CN bullets. So I though, "lets give it a whirl"

I used the same powder charge that I use on plated bullets and I have to say WOW. At 18 yards, impressive.

I shot the first round, checked the case, checked the bore and the chamber, no signs of over pressure, no lead what so ever in the barrel.

I then felt comfortable enough to shoot 4 more for a total of 5 through, checked again, no lead, no pressure, 4 more great hits.

I continued to shoot the rest of the mag for a total of all 15. Checked everything again, no lead in chamber, a slight dullness to about the first 1/16" of the rifling. Coulple swipes with bore brush and solvent, good as new.

This gun has never shot so great, I have shot plated and jacketed, worked up loads and so on, but I think this load of 5.3g unique under this bullet is the cats meow.

Now don't get me wrong im still a little gun shy (no pun intended) about lead in glocks so im going to order some more and keep shooting and checking the bore until I don't feel comfortable with the leading anymore or until about 300 rounds or so. If I can shoot 300 rounds with peace of mind of it not firing out of battery that is all I need. This was in a 2009 model glock 19 gen 3 by the way.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to share YOUR experiences, either good or bad.
 
You can shoot lead just fine in polygonal barrels. The problem is when people let the leading build up to dangerous levels. hence the specific standard-rifled barrels to swap out for Glock owners who want to shoot a LOT of lead.

it's Advised against yes, but that really is because there are a lot of people out there who don't invest as much time in their shooting as most of us do.

You have to play to the lowest-common denominator. Keep your eyes open, it's only a matter of time before we see warnings on screwdrivers warning about possible injury from Ocular insertion.
 
Just don't shoot a whole lot of lead bullets at a session and be sure to scrub out the residual lead in the bore and you should be fine.

Since scrubbing lead out of the bore of a gun ranks right up there with using that screwdriver in my eye as Dnaltrop mentioned above, I just avoid the whole affair and shoot jacketed bullets.
 
If you look at a bullet in a conventional "lands and grooves" barrel you will notice quite a bit of area in the grooves. If you look at the same bullet in a Glock barrel with polygonal rifling, there isn't near as much room in the lands because the rifling is more rounded and not cut at right angles to the bore. As lead and shooting crud builds up in the barrel this area even gets smaller and the end result is pressure buildup. If you build it up enough you won't like the results.

Certainly there are people who shoot lead bullets in their Glocks but they run the risk every time. I personaly prefer to shoot the plated bullets instead.
 
If you shoot a load appropriate for lead boolits with lead boolits, they won't lead the bore. Copper plated boolits probably run a bit cleaner than cast lead (I pretty much stick to cast lead). Anyway, I'm using 3.2 grains of Titegroup with a 125 cast round nose which gives me excellent accuracy and no leadding. They clock around 970 fps. I can shoot all day with this load, and it does not lead, in fact, if I have shot hotter loads, that have leadded the bore, shooting a few of these will clean out the bore.
 
I have seen a few Glocks that didn't digest lead bullets well. It is territory you enter at your own risk. The warnings are out there. It's your gun.
 
Be sure to do a follow-up story entitled "My first Glock ka-Boom"

Don't forget pics.
 
beeenbag said:
Well if it doesn't lead, feeds well, shoots great, and half the cost, why not?
Click to expand...
No reason not to. I shot thousands of lead bullets through my Glock and never had a hint of leading or problems. A quick run through with a bore snake at the end of the match and it was like new again.

I only switched away from lead after I had my blood drawn and had elevated levels...something I don't blame Glock for :p

Shoot it, try it, if it works for you go for it. If lots of lead builds up, especially in the chamber area, don't. It's not more difficult than that.
 
Plated bullets from makers like Berry's or Ranier are almost as cheap in bulk. They won't leave lead in your barrels, and you have the added benefit of not having to handle the raw lead bullets.
 
In some guns with sharp chambers, the plated bullets give up some small amount of copper and/or lead, making them just as likely to clog a Glock chamber throat. I have come to believe that some Glocks, not all, are more prone to the problem, and that, as some have stated, poor cleaning also contributes to the build up. I have a friend who uses a chamber reamer very lightly to remove the lead in his gun from the throat area after every session with lead bullets.
 
Hmmm.

I was issued a Glock once. It came with box, cleaning gear and instruction manual. No where in that instruction manual is a proscription regarding lead bullets. It does say something to the effect of '... no reloads at all...' Does anyone here have a Glock manual that specifically prohibits lead bullets? I'd love to see a scan of that page.
For the official tally book, I never fired anything but official agency issued official ammunition through it. I presume it was factory ammo. If it wasn't, someone went to a lot of trouble to fake it.

Seems the legend is the Glock has 'polygonal' rifling - which it doesn't, by the way - and 'polygonal' rifling leads worse than traditional lands and groove rifling. Oddly, this problem is never mentioned in regard to H&K firearms, which have polygonal rifling.

The H&K USP 40 and USPc 40 I have, for instance. I shoot not only reloads, but lead bullet reloads in the dreaded .40 S&W caliber. So far, neither has blown up. I do keep them clean, barrel and all. Nor do I load super-duper earthquake level loads. But my reloads do operate the action smartly.

For my money, a pistol I can't shoot lead bullets through isn't worth having.
 
Archie said:
I was issued a Glock once. It came with box, cleaning gear and instruction manual. No where in that instruction manual is a proscription regarding lead bullets. It does say something to the effect of '... no reloads at all...' Does anyone here have a Glock manual that specifically prohibits lead bullets? I'd love to see a scan of that page.
Click to expand...

http://www.reviewsofthings.com/images/glock-manual-pg15-16-parts-list.jpg

I looked this up a while ago when the same discussion came up on another forum. It's #26.

The Kahr manual does warn against using lead in their polygonal barrels as well. Don't know about HK.
 
Plated bullets from makers like Berry's or Ranier are almost as cheap in bulk. They won't leave lead in your barrels, and you have the added benefit of not having to handle the raw lead bullets.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree...

Berrysmfg 124g fp $86.45 per 1000 < plated

rainier 124g rn $93.99 per 1000 < plated @ midway

mastercast 125g cn $54.01 per 1000 < lead

zcastbulletz.com 124g rn $40.00 per 1000 < lead



I don't know about you but to me $40.00 + is quiet a bit of savings per 1000 rounds.
 
Glocks have an unsupported barrel. You cannot just shoot any kind of ammo through a glock barrel. you cannot shoot lead bullets. or use steel casings. And it is not wise to shoot reloads through them. If you do not believe me google do Glocks go Kaboom.
 
We need some mythbusting in here. If we believe this thread in two pages you can not even shoot bullets out of a Glock soon.
 
I am not mad about the idea of the shooting lead in polygonal rifled barrels,

BUT

Almost all of the local competition shooters use lead bullets in the Glocks. They shoot quite a bit. I do not know of any Glock issues. They do however clean the barrels of ALL lead build-up after each range session. You need a lead specific solvent to clean the barrel. A normal clear will not clean the barrel properly.
 
Glocks have an unsupported barrel.
Click to expand...

No they don't. First and some second gen glocks had an unsupported CHAMBER.

You cannot just shoot any kind of ammo through a glock barrel. you cannot shoot lead bullets. or use steel casings.
Click to expand...

Well I have shot everything from aluminum casings to nickel plated without ever the first hickup in my glocks, notice the s after the word glock. I am not by any means new to firearms so don't expect me to believe that crap your putting down.

Let me guess you only shoot premium jacketed hollow points through your firearms. A whole 150 a year don't ya know.

And it is not wise to shoot reloads through them.
Click to expand...

Are you kiddin me? Come on, your first post too? Wow.

I bet you $100 bucks I can reload some xtps in some nicely tumbled brass and I guarantee you cant tell the difference in my handloads and factory. Why would you assume that my handloads are more dangerous than factory? How do you know my handloads aren't better than factory? You don't.

If you do not believe me google do Glocks go Kaboom.
Click to expand...

How about since I don't believe you, I will continue to create MY OWN opinion by experimenting and not just parroting what I have googled.

Now for a quote from my OP...

Thanks for reading, please feel free to share YOUR experiences, either good or bad.
Click to expand...

Now look back over this thread, anyone that has personal experience are the ones saying they have done it with no problems and keep the barrel clean, yada yada.

Everybody that is against it has no personal experience and their only arguement is but goog, google, but, but, but, goo, but google said so.
 
So not jumping off the bridge makes us ignorant...why is it all these manufacturers tell us not to shoot lead through these barrels, are they ignorant and lacking experience? What the OP stated in his 15 rounds of experience is precisely the issue. No need to watch for pressure signs, your shooting hand will let you know. Swapping out the barrel for a Lone Wolf doesn't change the issue for the factory barrel nor does it meet the criteria for a $15 replacement part.

We've been through this issue plenty of times. Questioning valid research and results is counter-productive. To answer the OP it's a safety concern.
 
Not a Glock owner - but, I do understand polygonal rifling as both HK and Steyr use it too. If you trace back the "no lead bullets in polygonal rifling" it seems to get back to Accurate No.5 powder used in the early 1990's.

Both HK and Glock had pistol failures that could be traced to commercially loaded and hand loaded lead bullets with Accurate No.5 as the powder. Most of the failures at that time were .40 S&W caliber loaded to +P levels.

Since polygonal rifling provides a better gas seal it doesn't take a lot of leading with a fast powder loaded to hot or slight overloads to increase gas pressure past the safe point. I think if you're using lead bullets with a powder load near the middle of the range, you'll have no problem with using lead bullets with polygonal rifling.

I've used 230 grain lead bullets for 35 years in my .45ACP guns, and have noticed that when I down load the round a bit the leading is not as bad. This may be for a number of reasons - all of which would be speculation on my part, but the empirical evidence in my guns is that a medium burn rate powder with a lower power load = less leading. As a note, I do not use copper gas checks on the bullets.
 
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