Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Glock and cast

Are there any cast bullets out there that will not lead up a factory Glock 20 barrel. I tried some HSM cast bullets and I guess they were too soft and leaded up after just a few rounds. Thanks, David.

Personally I would look to a hard cast around 18 BNH. At that hardness I have zero leading in a couple magnums but a G26 factory barrel shows slight leading after 100 rounds. Maybe a Hi-Tek coated hard cast would be the ticket.

I generally run the bullets for poly rifling heat treated, the same goes for Colt 1911's, 1917's and Smith 25-2's. Sized snug to the throat. If that's not doable, at least over groove.

With my present alloy it Brinell tests at 28.

The key to cast in shallow rifling is eliminating the stripping at land engagement which is done by shooting the largest bullet diameter that ALWAYS functions and as hard as alloy as possible.

A powder coating may eliminate the leading, but it won't account for the accuracy loss of stripping on the lands.

I was always told cast and Glocks were a no/go

I’ve shot tons of hard cast bullets through Glocks with no problems whatsoever. It’s the soft pure lead type bullets that will get you in trouble.

If you bought these bullets I would love to know what they are, as I don’t cast my own. Just looking to find a brand of hard cast bullets I can safely shoot in my Glock 20, if possible.

If you want to shoot lead you will want to look at a coated bullet. There is no problem with uncoated lead if the alloy and sizing is right, but the coated bullets are 99% cleaner out of the box from the loading dies to the target.

Correct bullet diameter is still important with coated bullets for best accuracy, generally minimum .001 over YOUR bore diameter.

Top competitors fire millions of coated rounds annually through Glocks with no problems. I don't know any high volume shooters using lubed lead in autos. They use coated from a handful of trusted suppliers and bulk Jacketed for a critical match if the best accuracy is needed. If you buy in bulk JHPs are maybe only 10% more.

I buy from these guys:

Precision Coated Bullets

Precision Delta Jacketed Bullets

All the top manufacturers will sell you a small sample if you want to try them first.

This sort of question comes up a lot.

The #1 consideration is making sure the bullets are at LEAST .001" larger than your barrel, and ideally they should fit the throat. Unfortunately most commercial cast bullets seem to err on the small side, which causes what you found.

They do not need to be "as hard as possible"; in fact your HSM cast bullets were probably harder than necessary but too small for your barrel; that is a guaranteed recipe for leading. Moderate hardness of 12-18 BHN is adequate for most Glock barrels depending on the load; softer for light loads and harder for hot loads.

Boogaloo has it right above, and since he buys his bullets I'll defer to his suggestions there. Personally I shoot a LOT of cast bullets through Glocks, including the 10mm, but cast my own so I don't know who's best to buy from. Regardless, make sure those bullets are large enough. If in doubt, I'd want them to be at least .402" diameter, and coated of course.

If you can get them from a company that uses powder coating instead of Hi-Tek, that's even better. Unfortunately the only one I know of who does is Blue Bullets, and they tend to size their bullets like jacketed bullets, which is a little too small.

I cast my own bullets as well...

I started when I was 9 years old and I've been coating bullets since the 80s, but for high-volume it's great to have the option to be able to buy from a reliable supplier.

Precision Bullets doesn't use hi-tek, they use a hard coating that is similar to Powder Coat.

Many suppliers offer different sizing diameters on request at no extra cost.

I was just shooting some 147gr Falcons today in a Glock 34. No problem.

I just put in a new barrel. One from the old Dasan company through Lone Wolf Distributing. They no longer use that supplier but they still have barrels. My Austrian High Point shoots pretty well. But the G22s we carried at work were not fun to carry. I always wished they went to the 23. If you carry it for duty the shorter gun is great. Mo better. Be Well, Rusty.

I've shot a couple thousand Missouri Bullet Company Hi-Tek coated bullets through a gen 3 and gen 4. They leave a bit of a whitish residue from the coating, but no lead. Barrels are always easy to clean.

Great information here, exactly what I’m looking for. I appreciate the very informative replies gentlemen. Very helpful.