Examples of excessive leading?

[maschronic]

No, bad idea. Never shoot FMJ rounds to clean out lead. The pressure from the leading could build up around the FMJ and Kaboom your pistol. If you shoot lead always clean it out before switching to FMJ rounds. You can however shoot FMJ then switch to lead.

thanks for the info. i've never shot lead before and don't plan on it. ya know.

[mif_slim]

They are hardcast, fps for this load is 1000 based on hodgdon's data and they are lubed.

Might be too hard and your not pushing it fast enough to seal the bore? If your not at max load yet, try upping the powder charge to see if it goes away. Might be the pressure isnt enough to make the bullet sealing the bore.

[cjskalka]

I planned on upping the charge some, the max charge is 4.1 of titegroup so I guess I'll try that and see what happens, thanks -Chris

[AJD]

Might be too hard and your not pushing it fast enough to seal the bore? If your not at max load yet, try upping the powder charge to see if it goes away. Might be the pressure isnt enough to make the bullet sealing the bore.

That's possible, and harder is not always better, which is a common misconception. Sealing the bore is important in stopping leading from happening, and obturation does help, but first and foremost selecting the proper bullet diameter after measuring the groove diameter is most important. With 9mm most factory cast bullets run at .356. However, most 9mm barrels have large groove diameters in the throats between .357-.358. Penn bullets cast their 9mm bullets with .357 and .358 diameters for this very reason. Some 9mms shoot fine with the .356 diameter with no leading, and some don't. This may or may not be the OP's problem, but I just wanted to state something common with 9mms.

[pdq_wizzard]

That's possible, and harder is not always better, which is a common misconception. Sealing the bore is important in stopping leading from happening, and obturation does help, but first and foremost selecting the proper bullet diameter after measuring the groove diameter is most important. With 9mm most factory cast bullets run at .356. However, most 9mm barrels have large groove diameters in the throats between .357-.358. Penn bullets cast their 9mm bullets with .357 and .358 diameters for this very reason. Some 9mms shoot fine with the .356 diameter with no leading, and some don't. This may or may not be the OP's problem, but I just wanted to state something common with 9mms.

^^^
This, in my PT-99 I have had very good luck running the lite (148gr) .38 round nose sized to .357, if I run .356 I get bad leading. Also you should keep your loads running at 1000 FPS or slower. As always YMMV

[ireload]

I stopped using lead bullets a while now. Since the plated bullets and hard cast lead are close in price.
There's another possible cause of those leading strips, rough rifling cut. If that is the case a decent gunsmith can lap the bore tno smooth it out a bit.

[CGK60]

I cast my own for my 45acp and seem to get more leading than when buying hart cast online. maybe my lead is too soft?

[cjskalka]

Just got back from the range, after upping the charge to 3.8gr of titegroup with the same oal of 1.125 the leading has gone away completely and the barrel is just as clean as if I had been shooting fmj. On another note, the leading noted in the picture wasn't very bad and was removed with 3 passes from my bronze cleaning brushes. -Chris