An unexpected way to "de-lead" a barrel?????

Boolit Master Join DateJun 2008Posts779

Now we have all heard of folks following a boolit shooting session with a round or few of copper condom bullets with the intent of forcing the lead out. Sort of like chasing hard cheese with prunes? I never knew if it worked or not since I don't have any copper clads and I never gave it much thought (the bullet thing, not the cheese and prunes).

Well, I got into loading for 45ACP a while back and in my enthusiasm I made way too many rounds of various boolit design loads with both my attempt at Recluse and also straight Lee Liquid Alox. Boolits cast and almost immediately lubed after cooling, then sized, and tumble lubed again before "curing" at least two weeks. I got leading in all attempts, some worse than others, all bad. I got real good at cleaning lead out of my SR1911. I put that overly generous supply of lead slathering ammo in storage and began reading and asking questions on this forum, then applying the information gleaned. Little by little the leading improved, but did not totally resolve until I switched to NRA 50:50 lube. Success is sweet! No more leading A-Tall!

But, I still have all of that initial abundant supply of ammo that super galvanizes my stainless steel barrel. So yesterday I loaded up three magazines of 7 rounds each with that bad ol' lead slather'n fodder and 12 more magazines with the good stuff. I shot the three leading prone magazines first. Like always back when I was shooting this "stuff" it was GREAT at first and then accuracy fell off after 2 magazines, the third was minute of dinner plate at 20 to 25 yards. I removed the barrel and saw the familiar sight, ughhhh. I was gonna clean it, but I decided to shoot a few of the good 'uns first. I did not expect any change, at least not improvement and actually sort of figured it would continue to worsen since the barrel was already gunked-up pretty badly.

After a few shots I was wondering if things were getting better and by the end of those 7 rounds I was pretty darn sure it was. Removed the barrel and there was some grey color to be sure, but nothing like it was after those first three magazines of "lead slatherers". So, I finished my shooting session with the balance of the good stuff. Enjoyed excellent accuracy, in so far as I can tell with my ability on steel plate targets at 20 to 25 yards.

At gun cleaning time, that barrel looked just like it does when I shoot only the "good stuff". A Ballistol patch revealed only one tiny glint of free lead and the barrel was all shiny and smooth with crisp rifling. So now, maybe I can "get rid of" that crumby lead prone ammo by shooting alternate magazines of it along with the "good stuff".

Thing is, I don't recall seeing such a report as this before. Is it typical for good functioning ammo to "clean house" after poorly functioning ammo like I experienced? If this continues or fails to prove-out in the future, I will report back.
I was dreading the chore of impact puling all of those rounds.

prs

yes it is typical of 'good' ammo to clean up 'bad' ammo.

it's all an educated guess,,,, till the trigger is pulled.

the more i find out about shootin boolits, the more it contradicts everything i ever learned about shooting jaxketed.

After each range session I fire 2 gc'd 357's through my wife's and my 686's. Don't even have to run a patch through after that. But they only get a small amount of lead just ahead of the forcing cone.

PRS: For a number of years I cast all my boolits as hard as I could get them, water-dropping them from the mould, revolvers and .45 ACP. After reading a lot of posts here on Cast Boolits, last fall I started to air-cool my boolits and load them as I had before. In the past with the hard boolits, I had lots of leading. Surprise! The softer boolits did not lead the barrel. And that worked with three .45 ACPs (an old Chas Daly, a Ruger P90 and a Dan Wesson Pointeman II). Now I'm a confirmed air-cool caster of softer alloy. Going to try that with a .30-06 and a .243 Winchester. 'Tuck (as in Kentuck)

Great point Tuck. Glad to have a newer member making this important point, too.
Do recongize that with the rifles, you may NEED to add some hardness - but let the
target and barrel tell you if it is neededat your particular velocity/pressure level.

Bill

If it was easy, anybody could do it.

Boolit Master Join DateJun 2008Posts779

Good p ost, Tuck. I also use air cooled. I tried water dropping and the hard boolits were no better, if not worse. Boolit fit, adequate lube, cartridge to chamber & barrel fit seem to be key factors for me so far.

prs

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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