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Couple months ago I started using cast bullets(45acp 200gr swc) and shot probably about 30-40 rounds of it with little lead build up right where the rifling starts. Yesterday, I shot about 50-60rnds, and there was a lot of lead build up in the chamber. Is that normal? I'm loading 4.6gr of titegroup. Also what's the easiest way of removing lead in the barrel? Using a bronze brush with clp takes forever, and by the time I'm done, the brush is kinda loose in the barrel.
 
Try using a bronze rifle brush and solvent. A good one is not easy to find these days.
If you have slugged the bore and measured that slug carefully, add one thousands to the slugs overall diameter, then obtained the lube n size die in that size and are using that, well then.
Undersized boolits are the easiest way to lead a bore. Next thing I would consider is soft pure lead at high velocity at and above 1,000 FPS.
Using straight WW with 2% tin will make a beautiful boolit, with a good sizer die and boolit lube I have driven 260 grain pills in a .44 mag 1250 fps + - with no [0] leading and without a gas check in place. At times shooting several days without cleaning. Shooting dirty, accuracy does suffer a bit but steels either ring or they don't.
I have had the same results using straight ww [no tin] with the above load in a 44 under the same circumstances.
I use that caliber and weight as reference as it is the closest thing I have to your problem in diameter and weight.
A properly fit custom made cast boolit will out shoot anything you can purchase over the counter even the commercially made one size 'diameter' fits all custom jacked bullets.
Once correctly fitted to the gun, I have driven cast boolits accurately at or near to 1500 fps without a gas check and have had no leading.
This may not be the same kind of lead bullet of which you were speaking, if the box says Speer or something else like that but you get the Idea.
Silver Hand
 
Last Edited:
I agree with Silver Hand, keep the speed down to a reasonable level for the type of lead used in the bullet. Soft=Slow, harder ones can go faster.

To remove the lead there are several methods far better than CLP and a brass brush. One is as simple as soaking the barrel in KROIL overnight then going to work with the brush and tightly wrapped patches. Wipe-Away patches are another good method.

When I used to shoot cast lead bullets in my .357 I used the wipe-away patches. It wasn't unusual for them to pick up long slivers of lead that looked just like they were molded to the rifling.

If you're getting a lot of lead buildup at the throat, you might want to closely examine that area for a rough finish. Might need a little polish/lapping.
 
After TENS OF THOUSANDS OF RDS OF LEAD, IPSC. Andspeed steel, I been using the lewis or hoppes lead remover kits.

Clean 1st with hoppes then use the kit and watch the lead come off. Pretty easy and kool. Ti woorks!!!
 
Going too slow usually leads to this. You need enough pressure for the back of the bullet to expand and fill the lands. Gas going around the bullet in the lands can cause lead to come off the bullet and cause fowelling. Long story short, you MUST match velocity to hardness of bullet.

Here is a really good explanation:

Missouri Bullet Company
 
Going too slow usually leads to this. You need enough pressure for the back of the bullet to expand and fill the lands. Gas going around the bullet in the lands can cause lead to come off the bullet and cause fowelling. Long story short, you MUST match velocity to hardness of bullet.

Here is a really good explanation:

Missouri Bullet Company

It has nothing to do with ''Going to slow'' or the boolit base being filled out unless you found and will be shooting a hollow base boolit design mould or commercial H B lead bullet. Although this design works great when casting soft lead and is shot 900fps or less, 700fps and under in a S&W mod 52 .
A useful boolit epically when the cylinders diameter in a wheel gun are smaller than the barrel diameter. [Ideally you hope for the reverse]. It then becomes your only hope- having the flexibility to be reduced in size in a under sized cylinder mouth then skipping into a larger forcing cone and barrel and expanding again under pressure.
Leading is likely no matter the speed with this problem. but is usually tolerable.
These days most folks that have a wheel gun they like to love with this condition send it out and have the cylinders matched to within .005 or .001 larger then the barrel.

You will never have a bullet that cycles the action and are going to slow lead anything.

Pressure has nothing to do with fitting custom boolits to the gun, or any bullets for that matter. This is the only bullet design I know of that is sensitive to pressure and expansion to any realistic degree.

KTM530XCW If you have a real interest in why, Read post #2
Silver Hand
 
You guys are completely overthinking this...

I've shot probably well over 100K rounds of .45ACP 200gr SWC through several of my .45's, my typical load is 3.8grs of hodgdon clays, a very mild load, but totally adequate for punching holes in paper and making steel go "ding". When it comes to firearms, fouling is a fact of life, this is why they make "gun cleaning kits", and it's also why over 100 years ago they started putting jackets on bullets for military use (the lowered maintenance made up for the higher cost of the ammo).

The best thing to do, if you have a stainless barrel (non blued) is to take your barrel out, put it in a cup, and fill the cup with 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar. This will eat the lead out of your barrel. However it will also generally strip bluing. After letting it soak for an hour or so, use a rifle brush, just like everyone said, and repeat the process if there's still lead in there.

The real trick to this, clean the barrel out with brake cleaner (remove all the oil/wax) first, and then let the chems do their job. Oil the barrel like normal afterwards.
 
You guys are completely overthinking this...

I've shot probably well over 100K rounds of .45ACP 200gr SWC through several of my .45's, my typical load is 3.8grs of hodgdon clays, a very mild load, but totally adequate for punching holes in paper and making steel go "ding". When it comes to firearms, fouling is a fact of life, this is why they make "gun cleaning kits", and it's also why over 100 years ago they started putting jackets on bullets for military use (the lowered maintenance made up for the higher cost of the ammo).

The best thing to do, if you have a stainless barrel (non blued) is to take your barrel out, put it in a cup, and fill the cup with 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar. This will eat the lead out of your barrel. However it will also generally strip bluing. After letting it soak for an hour or so, use a rifle brush, just like everyone said, and repeat the process if there's still lead in there.

The real trick to this, clean the barrel out with brake cleaner (remove all the oil/wax) first, and then let the chems do their job. Oil the barrel like normal afterwards.

I don't have leading problems.
Silver Hand
 
After some shooting of lead bullets, you could run full power jacketed loads through.

Later, when you're at home. Clean it with your standard the brush and solvent routine. If you still see lead streaks try the Lewis lead remover kit.

The Lewis kit is available at Brownells.

Aloha, Mark
 
After some shooting of lead bullets, you could run full power jacketed loads through.

Later, when you're at home. Clean it with your standard the brush and solvent routine. If you still see lead streaks try the Lewis lead remover kit.

The Lewis kit is available at Brownells.

Aloha, Mark

Shooting the lead out
I have seen it work some what well! But it is still an obstructed bore.
I also know of a case where a barrel was bulged and that gun ruined from putting a jacked bullet through the fully leaded bore. Did I say through? Not two inches to the bulge. Just like a primer sending a slug into the barrel and firing another round into it, or a blooper in a shotgun leaving the wad behind and pumping in another shell and capping it off finding your barrel split, Not every time but it does happen.
Silver Hand
 
Some barrels will lead up a little and then it won't get any worse. If that's the case, like in my barrels, I don't worry about it and clean it with a tight fitting patch wrapped with a strand of copper from a Choir Boy scrouring pad.
 
Some barrels will lead up a little and then it won't get any worse. If that's the case, like in my barrels, I don't worry about it and clean it with a tight fitting patch wrapped with a strand of copper from a Choir Boy scrouring pad.

I want to try that stuff for some fouling I deal with in a friends .44 He has a .431-.4315 bore and my largest sizer is .431 he needs a .432 sizer die. Custom shop or lap a smaller one to size to eliminate the leading. He shoots fewer boolits than I do every time we go out. Same boolits, he just won't listen.
Silver Hand
 

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