so I bought a big *** box of magtech .38 LRN and want to start shooting it. I have searched about shooting lead but don't find much other than "fouling" (never seems to be an explanation of what fouling is) and some people arguing about whether not you can shoot jacketed after lead. (without cleaning in between) if i shoot lead do i need to make the barrel absolutely spotless before going to jacketed? why cant (or can?) you shoot jacketed after lead?
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shooting lead vs jacketed
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Lead fouling is caused by any number of factors, the largest (in my experience) is due to poor bullet fit to your throats/barrel.
Lead fouling in the barrel shows up like dark grey streaks (at least at the outset).
When starting out, just keep the velocities down and you should be good to go.
If you get some leading (most likely you will), wrapping some copper Chore Boy around a bore brush will likely take it all out. If you have a particularly bad leading episode, you can buy a kit from Lewis that will take the worst leading out and leave your barrel like new.
Good luck, have fun.When asked what qualities he most valued in his generals, Napoleon said, "give me lucky ones." -
Leading happens, no matter how good you are.
Lead used to be easy to clean with the chemicals available in the past (the kind you would want to be careful with today, if you can find it).
The key to removing lead is friction. I have the Chore Boy, but you know what works better? :
Browse a HUGE selection of hunting rifles & shotguns, gun parts, gunsmithing tools, reloading equipment, ammo, and more! Brownells: Since 1939
I have the parts for every cal that I own. It WORKS. Run that down the barrel and flakes of lead come out the other end. BRILLIANT and EASY. It even has the needed parts to clean lead buildup on the force cone.
If you shoot lead, you will want the Lewis kit. You may not "lead up" fast but each shot does deposit lead. Eventually you will need to do lead removal.
Hoppes does not remove lead, nor really does any over the counter snake oil. Lead can only be removed chemically via a caustic process or a binding process (such as with mercury). No caustic solution would be something that you would find in a commercial product (at least in strengths needed to work worth a damn, kind of like the HCL in your highschool chem lab, totally harmless unless you dip your eye in it or imbibe gallons)...but their exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.Comment
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Leading to some degree will happen no matter what, if you use a slower powder and keep velocities down...that will help.
The only thing I dislike about lead and revolvers is that you have six chambers to clean.
Some guys like their powder like their women, hot, cheap, dirty, that would be TiteGroup. -CocoBoloComment
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Keep velocities below 1600 fps or so (a bit more if you have gas check bullets) and leading should be minimal."If we make enough laws, we can all be criminals."
Walnut media for bright brass
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=621214Comment
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Don't worry about lead fouling. It will happen and it's easy to remove via the copper chore boy method. I can remove some pretty serious lead fouling with a bit of chore boy wrapped around an old bore brush in just a matter of a few minutes.Comment
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...but their exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.Comment
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I call most gun cleaner products snake oil, because it is.
If you want ease and have cash on hand, you can take the technological solution..
It is $$ but it works....but their exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.Comment
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Must suck when something works. Always discontinuing what works.
All they are selling now is the typical snake oil, outers that is. The same concept as every other damn bit o snake oil, penetrating lubricants to allow friction removal techniques.
I suppose one could mix up the chemicals themselves.
Here is the MSDS if you want to compare chemicals to get an Idea what I mean when I say you can read these and see if they work or not.
web.mit.edu/.../MSDS915-Lead%20Out%20Plus%2007-01-07.pdf
This is the Lead-out formula.Last edited by meaty-btz; 06-28-2012, 9:30 PM....but their exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.Comment
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I have a easy and effective way to remove lead. I have a both a rifle and pistol in 38/357 I shoot tons of lead though both. The pistol doesn't lead up much at all. But my rifle seems to lead up pretty good no matter what I do. So every 50 or so shots of lead I run 5 plated bullets though it and end the day with 5 plated for good measure. When I get home there is hardly any lead in the barrel. I have also played with many many different loads and I have found that Bullseye is the best and Power Pistol is the worst. My theory is a faster powder hits the back of the bullet harder causing it to obliterate (seal) better, I only get leading in the first 1.5-2 inches of the barrel. A slower powder like Power Pistol burns longer and builds pressure slower failing to seal the barrel, when I tried Power Pistol the leading was really bad and went up the barrel a good 2 to 3 inches. Power Pistol works great with plated or jacketed though.
I have never had an issue doing this, I also don't load op +P++++++ loads. The accuracy has been fine too (out to 50 yards w/open sights as far as I can tell)
So I load up boxed of 50 the first 45 are lead and the last 5 are plated and I use the same load for the plated and lead. 3.5gr Bullseye under a 158gr bullet. YMMV
"They" say if you get leading at the start Chamber end) of the barrel you are not sealing the barrel, which might be a sizing issue or your not pushing the bullet hard enough, and if you are leading at the end (muzzle) you are pushing the bullet too fast.Last edited by mjmagee67; 06-29-2012, 7:58 AM.If you want change you have to put in your 2 cents, you can't just sit on the sidelines and whine.Comment
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