Shooting 38/357 Reloads Today

[clelaj]

In the past have used bevel based 158 g lswc from a well known commercial caster over medium and heavy loads of Unique in 38 and 2400 in 357. Got very heavy leading in the cylinder and at forcing cone and a little way into barrel.

Today I shot similar loads but with flat base 158 g lswc nearly same hardness as the bevel base. Now have very light leading starting past the forcing cone and to the muzzle. Much easier to clean now.

Perhaps next step is playing with the lube.

 

[sloughfoot]

I admit, I am not a lube guy with cast bullets. Whatever is in the grooves or not doesn't interest me.

You are going to "play with the lube".

I play with powder type and charge and crimp.

I have found that heavy charges of fast powders lead more than heavy charges of slow powders. And a very heavy crimp with a heavy charge of a slow powder leads least of all.

In general. I like WIN296 behind my 158 LSWC bullets. The bullets are like 20 years old and a lot of the lube has dried and flaked off. No leading.

 

[Lancem]

There is a pretty large group that will agree with you that bevel base bullets lead up a barrel worse than flat base. So hearing of your experience doesn't surprise me.

I would suggest for your next step to slug your cylinder chambers and barrel, you may find that one or more of the chambers is tight compared to the barrel and in effect sizing the bullet down below optimum for the barrel.

Typically you want to shoot a bullet .001" over the size of the barrel, so if your barrel slugs out .358 you want to shoot a .359 bullet, if one of your chamber mouths is .357 every bullet fired out of that chamber is going to add to your leading problem because now it is undersized.

 

[Aszerigan]

Typically you want to shoot a bullet .001" over the size of the barrel, so if your barrel slugs out .358 you want to shoot a .359 bullet, if one of your chamber mouths is .357 every bullet fired out of that chamber is going to add to your leading problem because now it is undersized.

Agreed. Slug your barrel and size accordingly.

 

[Skip]

In a revolver, it is most important that the lead bullets are bigger than the throats first, then hopefully they will be bigger than the bore. If the bore is bigger than the cylinder throats, you need to have your revolver worked on.

I have cast for awhile now and here is what I have found. The lube has to be sufficient, there is no "super lube". The hardness has to be hard enough to obturate. That depends on the type of powder and the pressure it generates. First and foremost though, size. It has to be big enough to have the front end stop in the throat or rifling, and then the back end squishes, obturates, causing the bullet to seal the gases off and reduce leading.

I have some 44Mag loads that I cast that absolutely do not lead. I drive them @ 1800fps from my Marlin 1894. They are soft by most standards, being cast of pure clip on wheel weights and not water quenched.

I have also driven my H&G #290BB (the bb stands for bevel base) bullet to 1800fps from my wife's Marlin in 357Mag with no leading.

I am going to suggest that your bullets get pushed harder than you are right now. Step down to a faster powder and run them at maximum load, working up from minimum of course. The faster powder will give you slower velocities BUT, you will have enough pressure to seal off a small hard bullet, which I almost guarantee you have.

FWIW, and I hope this helps!

 

[clelaj]

Thanks to all for your input. I have some homework to do.

 

[Lancem]

Wealth of info here, give ya something to read for... Months!

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