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Old May 21, 2014, 07:37 AM   #1
tangolima
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Cast bullets through Glock barrel

I have seen heated debates over this topic, where folks were going for each other's throat. I have no intention to start one of those here. So please be civil and take this as one man's observation for information only.

I finally tried that yesterday. Total 15 rounds of 3 different loads. 150gr swc from Missouri bullet company and hs-6 powder. The pistol is the "infamous" g23 with its stock polygonal rifling. The barrel was checked every 3 shots for leading.

Absolutely nothing. The bore was as clean as with jacketed bullets. Speed was good, consistent, and the same as the felt recoil. Accuracy was superb.

Now I have found the load I like. I will load up more and try them next time. It is rather tiring to strip down the pistol every 3 shots, so I will do 5 shots, then 10 shots, 50 shots, and eventually and hopeful not to worry it altogether.

-TL
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Old May 21, 2014, 08:39 AM   #2
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I have put lead thru two flock 21 factory barrels. In one (gen 2) leading happened and was noticeable after 10 shots. In the other (gen3) no issues at all. Go figure.
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Old May 21, 2014, 08:56 AM   #3
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I have gen 3 g23.
-TL
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Old May 21, 2014, 09:15 AM   #4
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With certain precautions, it's not a problem.
I ran plenty of cast lead bullets through a stock model 17, over a five year period, without a hitch.
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Old May 21, 2014, 09:44 AM   #5
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What precautions do you take? Just want to make sure I didn't miss something important. Thanks.

-TL
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Old May 21, 2014, 10:07 AM   #6
Brian Pfleuger
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I'm sure the whole thing will be rehashed here but all you need do is search the forum for threads with glock and lead in the title. It's all there, including 2 pages on it from just a few months ago.
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Old May 21, 2014, 10:28 AM   #7
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^^^^^^
Yeah, do that; it's easier than doing a repeat, rerun here.
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Old May 21, 2014, 10:35 AM   #8
tangolima
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Got it. Thanks.

-TL
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Old May 21, 2014, 06:30 PM   #9
histed
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tango - that thread is a really good read. If you want still more, ask the guy in the casting section here, then take a look a at the multiple discussions on the "cast Boolits" forum.
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Old May 21, 2014, 06:58 PM   #10
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Sure thing. Will go through it tonight. Thanks.
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Old May 22, 2014, 05:18 PM   #11
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Oregon Trail Bullets work fine in the Glock, they are hard cast and I shot a bunch through my Glock 30. I usually shoot a mag of FMJ to kind of clean out some of the lead, don't know if it really does anything but I do it anyway. just keep and eye on the bore and clean as needed.

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Old May 23, 2014, 10:37 AM   #12
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I (continually) advise AGAINST IT

Bottom line: Shooting lead bullets in Glock barrels can cause catastrophic failure.






If one does not believe that one simply has insufficient experience.


Exceptions, as always, exist.
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Old May 23, 2014, 11:46 AM   #13
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No offense intended, but did try Google? I used your thread title and found several pages of hits on shooting lead in a poly bbl...
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Old May 23, 2014, 02:15 PM   #14
TMD
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Have shot about 8k lead boolits through my G35 without issue. The whole trick is to match the bullet hardness and pressure. Once you get that down its a non issue.
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Old May 23, 2014, 02:50 PM   #15
tangolima
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That's what I thought and found out. It is not too much a difference from other guns really. Maybe the real diiference is to check the barrel more often.

-TL
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Old May 23, 2014, 03:30 PM   #16
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Personally I bought a Lone Wolf barrel for shooting lead. Did I need too? I don't know but I certainly have not read all that many reports of problems shooting lead with aftermarket barrels. I figure for a very small amount of money why not error on the safe side.

Now there are other issues with lead other then the design of the barrel and support of the brass. You should be aware of how much lead builds up in the gun you are shooting. You need to clean the barrel after every shooting session with lead, not a time to be lazy. You really need to make sure your not pushing the limits with pressure - aka hot loads.

I'm not here to argue the merits of shooting lead in a Glock stock barrel, you have to make that choice. Maybe seeing a stock Glock Kaboom with lead was enough to make me do the change.
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Old May 23, 2014, 03:30 PM   #17
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My two model 21s are night and day regarding lead. The one that leads doesn't seem to like any combination. And the one that doesn't seems best with 230 at 800fps with any hardness over 10 but below 775/-fps it leads regardless of hardness.
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Old May 23, 2014, 04:02 PM   #18
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hence the remark about exceptions

It's not if a Glock barrel leads or not; it's about how quickly a Glock barrel MAY catastrophically lead.
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Old May 23, 2014, 04:58 PM   #19
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Some us started shooting lead through Glocks before the internet existed. I ran several thousand lead slugs through my Gen II G17 in the early 90's. Never had a problem but the accuracy was not nearly as good as with the more expensive jacketed bullets. Lately I've been shooting Bayou coated lead slugs through my 1911 .45's and a Steyr 9mm. This week I ran a couple of boxes through the G 17. Wow! They worked great, were accurate and the barrel was as clean as if I had used jacketed bullets. Still, I don't think I would shoot lead through a 40 caliber Glock. Too much pressure. Naturally your mileage may vary.
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Old May 23, 2014, 05:03 PM   #20
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Pressure shouldn't be an issue. You can always load it light, right?

-TL
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Old May 24, 2014, 02:46 PM   #21
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therein lies the misconception

Quote:
Pressure shouldn't be an issue. You can always load it light, right?
It is not about velocity ("load it light"); it is about leading, occuring so rapidly that catastrophic pressure results from the obstructed barrel.
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Old May 24, 2014, 03:31 PM   #22
tangolima
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Rapidly, you mean within a few shots?

I was responding to the previous poster. He claimed he wouldn't do cast bullets in .40 s&w because of "too much pressure".

-TL
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Old May 24, 2014, 03:35 PM   #23
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I built a my dream house at the top of a mountain in 1982 by towing materials up there on a trailer with a 1979 Honda Civic.
The 1979 Civic towing capacity rating published by Honda: zero pounds.
Front wheel drive cars cannot pull up really steep hills without slipping, so sometimes a guy has to go backwards. When I would start backing up on a really steep hill with a really heavy trailer, I would slip the clutch for quite a while while giving it lots of gas. I big cloud of clutch smoke would come up off the front of the car.
When I sold the car at 80,000 miles, it had no ill effects from pulling all those loads, nor from pushing them backwards.

When I design things, many components have ratings. Lots of things I can push 10 times harder than the rating and lots of things I cannot use it at 10% of the rating.

What does it all mean?
The manufacturer gives you their opinion.
You have to decide if you know better.
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Old May 24, 2014, 04:34 PM   #24
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I've had both good and bad results shooting lead out of a Glock which leads me to believe it's more about using the right size bullet than anything. I've shot lead through 9's, 40's and .45's without leading issues at all, and I've shot some before that after one or two rounds the inside of the barrel looked like it was made of lead, of course I may have been driving them too fast also.

Shoot a few, check the barrel. If a problem hasn't occured in the first dozen rounds then most likely you won't ever have an issue using that particular bullet in that particular gun.
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Old May 25, 2014, 09:09 PM   #25
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Glock rifling isn't true polygonal. It's a smoothbore with rounded 'speedbumps'. My Kahr has true poly rifling and it leads something fierce.
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