Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR Avoiding leading - stainless or chrome moly barrel?

Everything else being equal, i.e., dimensions, smoothness, etc., is there any preference in avoiding leading between stainless or chrome moly barrels ?

I will be interested in seeing the replies to this query from those much more knowledgeable than I.

I was always told that leading was more a function of the alloy being shot rather than what the barrel alloy was. I know I had some leading, but not severe, with a 20:1 alloy and the closer I got to 30:1 the leading went away. I also think the lube being used has some effect on the leading factor.

As others have pointed out, there are several factors that can contribute to leading.

The one that has been especially vexing to me, and which seems to get little attention in the black powder forums, is deterioration of the lube in loaded ammo, which seems to involve a chemical reaction between the lube, oxygen, and brass. I discovered this quite by accident when a load that had never given me problems in the past suddenly produced a lead mine in my barrel. After much head scratching, I figured out that that particular batch had been loaded several months earlier. When I pulled the bullets, the lube was a funky green/grey color, with the worst of it being in the groove closest to the case mouth.

I haven't tested this with various types of lubes, mostly my home brew and one commercial brand. The commercial stuff was the worst.

Back to the question, I have never heard of the type of steel being a factor in leading. There is a theory that a barrel that is too smooth will be more subject to metal fouling. IIRC, that is the view of the Shilen Co., among others.

Paul

That's interesting on powder and lube break down. Paul Matthews talks about braking down old cartridges of the 1800's and being as good as the day they were made. Makes one wonder if the old guys knew something we don't. Never make up more cartridges than one can shoot has to be the motto I guess.

I believe that the lube used back then was usually a combo of graphite and bayberry wax. That wouldn't break down very easily under any forseeable conditions I could imagine.

I wonder if that lube was hard on barrels. Of course, barrels were softer than than now.

Let's start cutting through the B.S. on MODERN barrel steels.

It was my distinct honor and pleasure to scope / photo an OLD Badger barrel.......coupla' months after it aced the first ( and only, so far ) NRA BCRS "Grand Slam".

A plebian plain vanilla Browning.......with about 12K + up the chute.

Lemme tell ya' boys,...there were no circumfrential marks left.

NONE,........in fact, it looked like it had gravel fired through it.

The crown was not too stellar, either.

All the "Marks" were longitudinal, and mostly twist rate related......

Bore scoping a barrel is like looking at the sky, ....it might mean something, and than again, it might not.

The rifle was shooting honest .50 MOA at that point. Tell the owner where to shift, ....shift him back,....

I know, ....I was the spotter.

You can't wear one of these new modern barrels out,....loosing circumfrential marks.........OOOOoooohhhoooo.

Ya' got good mold, it'll wear out about proportianate with your barrel wear.

Your dedicated lubrisizer die'll go the same direction.

Lotsa' luck with your tennis elbow, and shoulder while doing this stunt.

and anyone that thinks their ammo, loading, and shooting is "Clean" and without abrsasive grit is as fulla' chit as a Christmas goose.

Enjoy your rifles, ....try to wear them out.

Obsess about something important,.....OK?

GTC

And that's one reason why I don't own a borescope.

As long as my rifle's shooting well, and reasonably easy to keep clean, I don't worry about the bore.

Crossfire, are you saying your shooter ran all 40 silhouette targets, including 10 chickens?

Paul

It's a long story,...verifiable, ....an NRA BPCRS legend.

I gotta' go deal with fencelines......

Be back soon....to give ya'll a "No Lie" ( WTF would you expect)

'Sa good yarn, ...if "Grand Slam Ronbo" wants to go on the figt 'bout it,

I'll be ROTFLMAO.

Ya'll relax.

Buffalos are BIG..

Than again Turkeys at 385M ain't,.......are they.

OK , ....remain tense.

GTC

Ah, I think I remember. That would be Ron C. who ran 10 chickens. A regular shooting machine!

An NRA Grand Slam doesn't require all sets of 10 to be done consecutively, in the same match, IIRC.

Do I have it correct?

I got a 10-in-a-row on turkeys once in an unsanctioned BPCR silhouette match, and I may have gotten 10 pigs once. That most definitely does not represent my typical shooting ability, but even a blind pig finds an acorn once in awhile, or is it that even a blind shooter may hit a pig once in awhile?

Edited to add:

When you think about it, a BPCR is kinda like an overgrown .22 RF, and it's just about impossible to wear out a .22 barrel, so it stands to reason it would be likewise with a BPCR.

Paul

As I head into retirement and the money doesn't flow like it once did ( if it ever flowed like that ) I can't wear out my .22 barrel and probably can't wear out BPCR barrel.

\
Ya'll both right, ....'s far as I know.

Busy here, tonight.

On the line, .....

Later,...we'll adress this more thorough.



GTC

I'm certainly not going to recomend abusive treatment of a good barrel, Proper care and feeding has pretty much made "Leading" a non-issue for me, and good lube and alloy are probably at the core of that.It does seem counter intuitive, but rifles that show leading problems most often respond to softer alloys. Enough tin to give good cstabilty is what I'm getting at.
Given that one will take the best possible care of his barrel, he should nonetheless accept that tis BPCR game by it's nature is tough work, and that shooting cast / lubed, or PP, they'll digest and spit out a lot of fine grit. The end result doesn't look very impressive under a borescope, ........but accuracy is what counts..........

Dan T. wrote some interesting work years back about his success with Lilja stainless. It's interesting to note that he thought the shot cooler than the Chro-Mos. I can't comment on that, but he's been pretty much at the forefront of new and different, .....it might be worth asking him directly.

Stainless definately finishes "Smoother" than the Chr-mo, but as someone's already noted, too smooth can be a problem,......I figure that all those longitudinal marks left by lapping are space for the lube to occupy and do it's job. Worth noting that the bigger the bore, the coarser the final lead lapping.

Best Regards,

Stay Warm,

GTC