It’s obvious that lead is the main element in cast bullets and all are aware of the old adage “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”. And surely you’ve led a group of folks at one time or another. But many of us inadvertently use lead when referring to the ramped transition from the chamber or free bore to the lands, for which leade is the more correct term. Many, many years ago when, as a novice shooter I was reading and learning about chambers and bores, I remember this being a point of confusion.

SAAMI (Sporting Arms & Manufacturer’s Institute) defines leade as: “That section of the bore of a rifled gun barrel located immediately ahead of the chamber in which the rifling is conically removed to provide clearance for the seated bullet”. The key word here is “conically”, as in cone-shaped, otherwise completely removing the rifling results in free bore, defined by SAAMI as the: “A cylindrical length of bore in a firearm just forward of the chamber in which rifling is not present”. But SAAMI does recognize that lead and leade are used interchangeably by some.

When writing about chambers and bores it helps me to remember to use the correct spelling if I think of leade as an abbreviation or contraction of the leading edge of the lands.

Wayne

Can you imagine the 'kornfusion' a furriner has????

Course...everybody north of Mason-Dixon is a 'furriner'!!

Was talking to a Ferengi just a few days back on this very subject. It gave me a headache.

English is a funny language.

"My great inspirations in life are my parents, the Pope, and Mother Teresa."

"My great inspirations in life are my parents, the Pope and Mother Teresa."

That's mis-leading

My Aunt told me to go down to the barn and help my Uncle Jack, off the mule.

My Aunt told me to go down to the barn and help my Uncle jack off the mule.



Ed

That's just grotesque.

Now that you guys have denigrated this thread I thought I’d mention “lead” in your pencil, which many of you old geezers have run out of.