I never felt that shooting jacketed bullets in a leaded bore helped clear the bore of lead residue. A properly sized and lubed cast bullet is actually pretty clean shooting.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
+1 on the Chore Boy. Two is pretty close to a lifetime supply. Should cost less than $10 at the grocery store. Or you may already have one under your sink.
Okie John
Originally Posted by Brad
If Montana had a standing army, a 270 Win with Federal Blue Box 130's would be the standard issue.
So went to store and bought more, in case I ever need em. The 686 wasnt mine, was a buds. He didnt believe that stuff could be better than all the elbow grease he used previously
Made a believer out of him.
Problem was sticking mag cases in cylnder. Prev owner must have shot a lot of lead 38 spcl
For me, the best investment to do away with leading in revolvers was investing in a set of pin gauges for all my revolver calibers. After determining the throat diameter, go find bullets of that diameter. No more leading.
Lead away patches will also remove bluing, so be careful with them. And pin gauges and marching bullet diameter/appropriate hardness, etc are all well and good unless you are shooting a .22.
Brass brush and kroil for me. Jacketed bullets don’t do it.
exactly what I've said for years all it does is Polish the lead .. and the last couple years I've actually used a borescope to confirm this... even mentioned this a couple times somewhere in these forms and usually take a beat down for it because nobody will listen to that..
I don’t think there is a man alive with more knowledge and understanding on lead bullet performance and solving lead bullet problems than Veral Smith of Idaho. To those who are serious about shooting cast lead bullets at velocity his book ‘ Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets ‘ is the Bible. Honestly I don’t even know if the book is still available cause for years it wasn’t. Life has been a series of hard climbs for this man from having been hunted down and imprisoned for some politically motivated IRS infractions. Then he survives and restarts his mold and other accessories business when his entire shop burns down. You can’t keep this man and his Wife down. So don’t write them off. I sent them a check a few years ago for not a lot but thinking anything will help.
Anyway there is so much more than casting lead bullets, lubing and shooting. Barrels that lead up generally have a problem where hot gases are hitting the bullet base and the bullet design and size is allowing the high temp gas to escape around the base causing the lead to melt and smear the barrel. With softer lead and softer loads like Bullseye the bullet base obturates or upsets from the pressure wave hitting it. This generally forces the base of the bullet into the grooves so that it is fully engraved into the rifling and seals off and prevents escaping gas and smearing. To handle more velocity the bullet alloy needs to be harder or stiffer. Veral Smith explains and likes to harden or temper in the oven but that is beyond this post. Most of us just drop hot cast bullets into a bucket of water that quenches and hardens. Actually bullets will harden with some age. So the faster you go with your lead bullets the more the BHN hardness becomes critical. After alloying it may be your bullets and their base design need gas checks, another step but checks work and with a few of my SA revolvers improve accuracy.
Bullet design which is where a good mold comes in is so critical that lead, lube and everything else means zilch without a properly sized and designed bullet for your gun. A good mold maker will walk you through much of this but slugging your barrel, letting him know what kind of shooting you’re doing and some details about your revolvers and what weight and type of bullets you are shooting is all very important if you want a mold to drop an accurate bullet.
Then lube which since the early Schuetzen days is a well guarded secret made from all kinds of things no longer found. Anyway all bullet lubes have temp ranges and other characteristics that lend the recipe to different types of shooting, bullets and velocity. This subject and the ingredients will make you dizzy but it’s entertaining. Veral Smith covers all in his writings. I have to say this guy is an absolute encyclopedia on cast bullet performance and no matter whether you touch all the technical bases just his basics will improve things dramatically.
The Lewis Lead Remover was developed back when cast lead bullets were king. Why, cause it works
'Four legs good, two legs baaaad." ---------------------------------------------- "Jimmy, some of it's magic, Some of it's tragic, But I had a good life all the way." (Jimmy Buffett)
Lead-Away cloth wrapped around a jag to fit the bore tightly will work. I don't know if that's even still available though.
There's another product that works but I cannot recall what it is called. It is a soft metallic material shaped like those foil icecicles we used to hang in Christmas trees. Wrap a bronze brush with a few strands of that stuff and clean like you normally would (Hoppe's No.9 for me).
^^^This^^^
Been using it for years when shooting cheap, soft swaged lead bullets.
I will add that properly sized hard cast bullets do not creat a lead build up in my barrels. Not even on my Glocks, contrary to typical Internet Bullschitt.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
Used to use that years ago before I discovered the products mentioned in my above post.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
I don’t think there is a man alive with more knowledge and understanding on lead bullet performance and solving lead bullet problems than Veral Smith of Idaho. To those who are serious about shooting cast lead bullets at velocity his book ‘ Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets ‘ is the Bible. Honestly I don’t even know if the book is still available cause for years it wasn’t. Life has been a series of hard climbs for this man from having been hunted down and imprisoned for some politically motivated IRS infractions. Then he survives and restarts his mold and other accessories business when his entire shop burns down. You can’t keep this man and his Wife down. So don’t write them off. I sent them a check a few years ago for not a lot but thinking anything will help.
Anyway there is so much more than casting lead bullets, lubing and shooting. Barrels that lead up generally have a problem where hot gases are hitting the bullet base and the bullet design and size is allowing the high temp gas to escape around the base causing the lead to melt and smear the barrel. With softer lead and softer loads like Bullseye the bullet base obturates or upsets from the pressure wave hitting it. This generally forces the base of the bullet into the grooves so that it is fully engraved into the rifling and seals off and prevents escaping gas and smearing. To handle more velocity the bullet alloy needs to be harder or stiffer. Veral Smith explains and likes to harden or temper in the oven but that is beyond this post. Most of us just drop hot cast bullets into a bucket of water that quenches and hardens. Actually bullets will harden with some age. So the faster you go with your lead bullets the more the BHN hardness becomes critical. After alloying it may be your bullets and their base design need gas checks, another step but checks work and with a few of my SA revolvers improve accuracy.
Bullet design which is where a good mold comes in is so critical that lead, lube and everything else means zilch without a properly sized and designed bullet for your gun. A good mold maker will walk you through much of this but slugging your barrel, letting him know what kind of shooting you’re doing and some details about your revolvers and what weight and type of bullets you are shooting is all very important if you want a mold to drop an accurate bullet.
Then lube which since the early Schuetzen days is a well guarded secret made from all kinds of things no longer found. Anyway all bullet lubes have temp ranges and other characteristics that lend the recipe to different types of shooting, bullets and velocity. This subject and the ingredients will make you dizzy but it’s entertaining. Veral Smith covers all in his writings. I have to say this guy is an absolute encyclopedia on cast bullet performance and no matter whether you touch all the technical bases just his basics will improve things dramatically.
The Lewis Lead Remover was developed back when cast lead bullets were king. Why, cause it works
Rick
Veral Smith’s LBT bullet designs and molds are the best produced bullet molds I’ve ever owned or used. Barr none!
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
A good solvent like Hoppes #9 for a soak and then Remclean (I think it's called 40x now) or JB bore paste on a patch wrapped around an undersized brush. Works great on heavy copper fouling too.
