Pure lead bullets.

Boolit Buddy Join DateMar 2013LocationI challenge your middle of nowhere, and raise you 5.Posts54

Can someone explain why a .22 bullet made of pure lead, shot at rather high velocities doesn't lead up a gun?
Are they even lubed?
It seems to me that a pure lead bullet would give better a seal and obturation.
I know for some reason this isn't the case, but I'm trying to grasp why .22 works.

they aren't pure lead.
they are lubed.
they are heeled and hollow based.
they work because of rule number one.

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.

Boolit Buddy Join DateMar 2013LocationI challenge your middle of nowhere, and raise you 5.Posts54

they aren't pure lead.
they are lubed.
they are heeled and hollow based.
they work because of rule number one.Well, they sure are soft.

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.

Boolit Buddy Join DateMar 2013LocationI challenge your middle of nowhere, and raise you 5.Posts54

Ok. Maybe this was a dumb question.

Just goes to show that some of our CF boolits don't need to be as hard as we seem to think.

R.M.

The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants and patriots alike..........Thomas Jefferson

Pure lead has a BHN of 5.0 or less.
The reclaimed 22 slugs that I have reclaimed have a BHN of 6.5 to 8.0 tested with my Lee hardness tester.
So they are NOT pure lead bullets.

Lafaun

Don't blame me, I voted for the American, again!

Garden variety .22 ammunition (Short, Long, Long Rifle) is surface lubed with a proprietary "waxy" compound.

?Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you?, Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Garden variety .22 ammunition (Short, Long, Long Rifle) is surface lubed with a proprietary "waxy" compound.i was thinking about wax dipping my loaded 45-70 boolits and then wiping off the exsece to get same efect

what I hand-load; 45 acp; 223 rem(5.56mm); 22-250 rem; 243 win; 30-30 win; 308 win; 45-70 gov.
on the list to start Loading; 9 mm; 270 win; 30-06 springfield; 222 rem

"You might be a gun nut if you load 45-70 on a progressive press" -HICKOK45<- was he talking about me!?!

---
Si vis pacem, para bellum

A few years back, I tested some pure-lead bullets in my .416 Rigby.

For this limited trial, I used stick-on alloy (which I treat as pure lead) and cast as-usual in an RCBS 416-350 mould. The bullets were sized (.417") lubed and loaded exactly the same as my regular .416 Rigby "hunting" load, with 55 grains of XMP5744 and a standard CCI 200 primer.

This load travels at 2050fps with clip-on wheelweight bullets, so I expect that the pure-lead bullets were about the same.

Firing 13 rounds through a clean barrel, I found ZERO leading afterwards....none! Accuracy from the bench at 100 yards was slightly "looser" than the WW load delivers, but still highly-usable for a hunting load.... 1.5" for five rounds, repeated twice. (With water-dropped WW, the combo is a 1" rifle...reLiably!)

I defy anyone to tell me that this level of accuracy is insufficient for big game at reasonable ranges. The conclusion I drew was that, at least in THIS rifle, I have a wickedly-effective instrument for anything that walks in North America. I still find a certain attraction to my cast softpoints, though.

Boolit Master Join DateAug 2005LocationUSAPosts854

Last edited by 243winxb; Today at 03:08 PM.

I made a waxy lube quite similar to 22 lube by using 3 parts jpw to one part b-wax.
it took 2 weeks to dry but acted very similar once it dried.
I figured out if I cooked the jpw down then added the b-wax it dried in the same day.
it needed to be applied melted to warm boolits then it would dry in about 2 hrs.
it was what lead to the recluse lube working.

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.

to take BruceB's comments further, I remember reading an article by Layne Simpson about ML boolits, and his suggestion was to never lube the first boolit. I can't remember why, but I for sure don't remember him mentioning any leading issues.

I am ONLY responsible for what I Say!
I am NOT responsible for what You THINK I Said!
====
If numbers killed I'd hunt with a Calculator!

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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