Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Leading Question.....Those who shoot a lot of lead bullets

Now that I reload, I find myself saving a lot of money by shooting solid lead bullets. I do know that build up in the barrel can occur faster with lead only so I was wonder what you thought was the best product and method for removing the buildup that can occur

Thanks

Take a worn brass brush of the caliber you are cleaning and cut & wrap a patch of 'Curly Kate' or other copper scrubber dish cleaning product around the brush and in ten or less runs through the bore all of the leading should be gone. After trying the worthless 'lewis lead remover' and all the available concoctions in the mid-eighties I read this method from Veral Smith of LBT fame. Had given up on lead bullets until I read this. With bullets of the correct dia. for your gun, leading shouldn't be much of an issue.

I avoid the stainless appearing dish scrubbing pads in the event that they might actually be made of stainless.

Jerry

well, number one, if the lead bullets are properly sized to the barrel and shot at proper velocities, you aren't going to get much leading. Now if you are getting leading, there are a number of commercial products to deal with it. Or, you can go the easy way. I take one of those kitchen pot scrubbers, made out of copper and cut some off wrapping around a wire muzzle brush. Few swipes through the barrel, no more lead. The copper is not as hard as steel and no barrel damage.
I have a number of schmidt rubin rifles, usually found with black stuff on the stocks. Which is a grease they issued in the cleaning kits to lube the gun, but also to clean the bore. They used a little patch made out of some stuff like window screen, with the grease to clean the barrel.

I got ahold of one of these curly scrubbing pads, but it's zinc.

Cut a few strands off with scissors, wrap it around an old brush and it's magic. Works great in revolver chambers, too.

Thanks, I am using the proper size and I am really not seeing much buildup, but I like to keep my stuff really clean and something I know that will get lead out if there is any in there would make me feel better....I do notice some leading on my .22s with certain all lead rounds I am shooting so it would help with that as well

I just use a bronze brush and Hoppes every now and then.


Travis

I told my wife I could do a little better on the dishes if she got me some "chore boy" scrubbing pads - all copper, so they wouldn't scratch the steel.

She got them, and my guns look great.

Wise man.



Travis

I shoot lead in my 45 Colt (Blackhawk) and really never get any noticeable lead.

I do clean with a bronze brush every time I shoot it...

Snake

The larger calibers...41,44,45 seem to have, IME, less trouble with leading than do the smaller bores, as a general rule. I'm not sure why, just my experience.

A bronze brush and solvent now and then. I get virtually no leading in 45ACP, 44Mag, 38 Special. Still working on the 9mm. Proper size is the key-undersized bullets are generally the problem.

The classic product is Lew's Lead Remover. It uses little brass screens to scrape the lead out. The best thing I've found is a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Plug the bore and let it soak for a while, then take an undersized or worn brush and wrap a patch over it. Do this outside because all manner of nasty looking crap (mushy lead) will spew out.

I usually "clean" my Glock 17's leaded bore with a box of jacketed ammo. I don't reccomend that approach for a 40. Except for Travis, he should clean his that way.

You can save yourself quite a bit of time and mess by getting the brass scrubby thing and wrapping a couple of strands around a brush. As described above.

Kroil

You all are doing too much work, let the Kroil soak in and out comes the lead.

As long as the leading isn't too horrible - like filling up the grooves completely - just shoot some jacketed bullets through the gun. Two or three should clean out the leading completely - boom boom boom, it's clean. Some folks object to this for fear of causing dangerous pressures but as long as you aren't redlining your loads already it doesn't hurt anything. You still need to clean out the powder fouling but you'd have to do that anyway.

I use my own cast plain base for mid-range loads or gas checks for heavier stuff these days so leading isn't much of a problem, but in the past whenever I had a batch of commercial cast that caused leading I'd just load 5 rounds out of 50 with some jacketed bullets to clean out the barrel before going home from the range.

Kroil is amazing stuff. I guess I have been lucky but never had to spend much time cleaning lead.

the best way to avoid the job of removing lead in the bore is to prevent its build up,thats frequently done with proper sized gas check bullets that are well lubed, and generally not pushed to much past 1800fps-1900fps in my experience.
a good commercial powder solvent and a nylon bore brush and soaked patches are usually all thats required even after shooting 200 hand gun cartridges fired in my 44 or 357 revolvers or my 45acp pistol, or even a 357 mag or 44 mag marlin carbine.
a properly sized and well lubed bullet, with a gas check base, just won,t lead the rifling much if its not pushed excessively fast.
I long ago settled on a 95% wheel weights and 5% tin alloy and a good lube as the best way to avoid excessive leading.
generally size the bullets .001 over bore size after actually measuring the bore diam.
even pushed to fairly high velocities in my marlin carbine properly sized and lubed projectiles don,t cause much leading on a decent bore surface, that assumes your don,t allow rust in the bore by keeping it clean and well oiled in storage

If you match the diameter to the bore/throat and the hardness to your pressure/velocity, you won't get any significant leading. I've been shooting lead exclusively for years and can hardly remember the last time I had to scrub lead from a bore. Probably the last time I got too frisky with Hornady swaged bullets in the .44Mag.

Proper size, and (sounds odd) don't use bullets that are very hard. Very hard slugs tend to skid on the rifling and leading even worse than soft slugs.