Lead fouling removal

[rcupka]

I have been shooting a lot of Hard Cast handloads lately and am experiencing lead fouling in several of my handguns. I have reading about a mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and White Vinegar and also "Ed's Red" to remove the lead.

What are your experiences with these remedies?

[QBall45]

Good question.

I have think I must be lucky. knock on wood...I've yet to find a problem with lead buildup. Guess I run em slow and cast hard.

Think I'd better look for something...now I'll start having troubles.


What are you shootin that your experiancing lead fouling?

[Farmland]

I have been a lead shooter for over 15 years and I shoot a lot of it. For the most part after tossing so much lead down a barrel I can safely say they are leaded. I however never understood the pain of getting it out. It comes out and doesn't take that much work. Just about any regular lead remover works well. I clean the powder out first with any regular gun cleaner such as Hoppes then I wipe the bore and start to clean with a lead remover, or just regular Shooters Choice. You still have to brush it and I have brushed these bore many times over these years with out wearing them down.

It doesn't take all that much time to clean a bore with heavy lead, just messy. Now three times a year I will use the Outers Foul Out. This is the best product for those that just have to have the last bit of lead removed.

Now some bullets and powders leave more lead faster than others. Getting the right bullet for your caliber and load helps.

To answer your question I have never used the two that you asked about.

[Unclenick]

I'd be afraid the peroxide mix could eventually start to work on the steel. I wouldn't go that route. There is a newer product called No Lead by Sharp Shoot-R, the makers of Wipe Out, a successful copper removing product. No Lead can be bought at Midway and from other sources.

You can use ordinary penetrating oil to coat and soak into the leading. Overnight is best. It will then often loosen by brushing more easily. If that doesn't do it, wrap a strand of pure copper pot scrubber, like Chore Boy, around an undersize brush until it fits the bore tightly. This will scrub the lead out better than a brush.

The Foul Out device is the ultimate authority in the matter and will remove any lead, no matter how stubborn.

All that said, if you are having significant leading, it is hard to beat firelapping as a way of reducing it and making the bore easy to clean. The kind of gun matters, too. If it is happening in a revolver it is common for the barrel to be slightly constricted where it screws into the frame. That constriction causes terrible leading, but it can be easily straightened out by firelapping.

Another revolver issue is the chamber mouths need to be at least a thousandth over barrel groove diameter for lead bullets. You can slug the chambers with pure lead balls (like Hornady swaged lead balls for cap and ball revolvers) and measure the OD with a micrometer to get the diameter. If they are equal to or under groove diameter or are uneven you can get the chambers reamed. This is the first and most common step to revolver accurizing anyway, so it can't hurt. Cylindersmith.com offers this service.

Much the same is done to find a bore constriction except it is done to the bore; you run a lightly oiled patch down the clean bore and tap the slug in with a plastic hammer or a dowel rod and regular hammer, then push it slowly through with a cleaning rod. You'll feel tight spots then.

If this is an auto-loader, try seating the bullets out to headspace on the throat of the barrel. If they will fit in the magazine when they are out far enough to stop with the back of the case head flush with the breech end of the barrel when a round is dropped into the chamber.

[Gun 4 Fun]

Get a Lewis Lead Remover, and you won't bother with anything else.

Here is a link to Brownells-
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=0...s_lead_remover

[dewcrew8]

ive had that problem too, the best thing i did was at the end of the day ran one clip of fmj's down,and it cleaned all the lead out.

[LHB1]

Perhaps I've just been lucky also but have been shooting cast bullets in several different guns/calibers (.357 Mag, .45 ACP, and .44 Mag) since 1964 without any major leading problems in the barrels. I clean the barrel after each range session with a bronze brush dipped in Shooters Choice Bore Cleaner. Have used hard cast bullets miking .451", .4515", and .452" in the .45 ACP without leading. I prefer to use .451" bullets when available or when I cast/size my own. My preferred bullet lube is an ALOX mixture.

I clean the barrel THOROUGHLY BEFORE switching from cast to jacketed bullets or vice versa. I do NOT fire jacketed bullets thru the barrel after cast bullets without cleaning it first. YMMV. Actually, there have been very few jacketed bullets fired thru any of my revolvers or pistols in the last 45 years. My pistol shooting has been done almost exclusively with hard cast lead bullets, even in the .44 Mag at 1425 fps.

[Kyo]

i have just shot a few hundred rounds of lead SWC through my 45 and my barrel didn't even look that bad. I googled lead fouling in barrels and saw some nasty pics. I just clean my gun the normal way, and use ballistol as my lube and the barrel looks just fine after. I just don't see how a barrel can get so much free flowing lead stuck in it like that.

[wezalsgunsupply]

If your loading hot with lead try imr 4227. This stuff is the berries. Hot loads with either swagged or hard cast will leave little to no leading. I trust my lewis lead remover and get stainless brushes from kleen bore. If you get leadded use kroil and a sectioin of cleaning rod with the stainless brush and use a drill. The rpm's and work it back and forth pull it very well.

[Randyralph]

I have used a mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and White Vinegar for years in my stainless 357. I just mix it up and hold my finger over one end of the barrel, and pour it in the barrel. I let it set for 3 minutes then pour it out and pull a few patches through. I repeat this a couple of time until all lead is removed.
I would not use a stainless brush unless all else failed.

[hornady]

I know this will start a fire storm of debate. But here goes. The 3 main cases for leading are. 1.Bullet Dia, to small for bore If you are going to shoot lead. You should slug the barrel. 2. Pushing a soft bullet too fast, or 3. Pushing a hard bullet to slow. If you have heavy leading. The lewis lead remover works best, moderate leading. J-B bore cleaning compound. Both at brownells.

[CraigC]

If you get leadded use kroil and a sectioin of cleaning rod with the stainless brush and use a drill.

Lord have mercy!!! A stainless steel brush chucked in a drill??? I can't think of an easier way to ruin a good sixgun's bore. For God's sake, leave the power tools out of the equation. More good guns have been ruined by Dremels and drills than anything else.

Keep the vinegar away from your blued guns too!!!

I know this will start a fire storm of debate. But here goes. The 3 main cases for leading are. 1.Bullet Dia, to small for bore If you are going to shoot lead. You should slug the barrel. 2. Pushing a soft bullet too fast, or 3. Pushing a hard bullet to slow. If you have heavy leading. The lewis lead remover works best, moderate leading. J-B bore cleaning compound. Both at brownells.

Exactly, good advice!

[Farmland]

Hornady has it about right with the bullets/guns that I was trying to say.

Now I can't say that I have done it but I was always taught that shooting jacketed bullets down a barrel with lead fouling was not very good to do. It might result in a Kaboom.

Since I don't do I never really researched to see if this is true.

Now the drill press with stainless steel brush that is just too funny.

[hornady]

I don’t know if just lucky . But a friend in Delaware ruined a Ruger 89 Barrel shooting lead Bullets. He got at a Gun show. The slid came back and froze. I had a time getting the barrel out of the frame. After the getting the lead out. With a bore light you could see A Bulge about half way down the barrel. It did not split. But still junk. I don’t know how many he fired or the load he used. But he gave me less than 300 of a box of 500 to melt down for new bullets. That I added Lyno type to By Adding the Lyno it brought them up to about 18 BNH so they must have been pretty soft to state with.

[BigDog(RE)]

An easy way to get the lead out is to pick up some ChoreBoy copper scrubbing pads. Cut some off and wrap it around your bore brush, run it through a couple of times and the lead is gone.

http://www.choreboyscrubbers.com/metal.htm

[LHB1]

Quote: "With a bore light you could see A Bulge about half way down the barrel. "

Sounds like he had a squib load (no/not enough powder to get the bullet out of the barrel) and fired another round behind it. That can ruin a barrel whether done with lead or jacketed bullets.

[hornady]

Very possible, I was not with him when this happened. I only say the end results. He seemed to think it was the lead. I don’t know for shore. I know there was a lot of lead in the Barrel.

[Gun 4 Fun]

Yea, like maybe a full caliber bullet!

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Hornady hit the nail RIGHT ON THE HEAD!

[Unclenick]

I shot many thousands of relatively soft swaged Star 185 grain SWC's in my Goldcup for 50 ft gallery loads for years with no problem. It's just a matter of not letting the load headspace on the extractor hook so it doesn't send the bullet down the tube slightly cocked and shaving lead at the end of the chamber. Good lube helps, too.

Likewise my 3" Charter bulldog loves the swaged Hornady 240 grain SWC. Puts them into under 2" at 25 yards over a cat sneeze load of about 3 grains of Bullseye. The softness is fine for loads appropriate to it.

Most of the severe leading I've seen has been in revolvers. In every case, slugging the barrel and the chamber throats has shown either a barrel constriction where it screws into the frame, or chamber throats at or below the groove diameter of the barrel. Neither condition is workable with lead. Firelapping cures both, but for best accuracy firelapping followed by uniform reaming of the chambers to maximum also helped. Timing the cylinder to correctly line the chambers up with the center line of the bore also helps.

Let me echo the warning about peroxide and vinegar on bluing. It may be safe in a stainless gun, but I would not use it on plain steel. I'll double-check, but I'm pretty sure you could get that to attack nails if you left it in contact long enough.

[Edward429451]

I have been a lead shooter for over 15 years and I shoot a lot of it. For the most part after tossing so much lead down a barrel I can safely say they are leaded. I however never understood the pain of getting it out. It comes out and doesn't take that much work.

My experience exactly. I just never saw the big pain in cleaning it out. I had to clean the gun anyway. I will say that since I started paying more attention to casting quenching and sizing my lead bullets, the lead problem is almost non existent.

I think shooting jacketed after lead to clean it out is idiotic and asking for a kaboom. The few jacketed bullets I shoot I always shoot first and end the range session with the lead.

[Unclenick]

Someone suggested turning a jacketed bullet into a lead scraper by turning a sharp concave edge into the jacket at the front of the bearing surface with a lathe, but I have never tried it and won't vouch for it.

[MDB]

Another vote for the "Chore Boy Copper Scrubbers". Put a magnet to them and be sure they are copper. They are a whole lot cheaper and do the job faster than several of the mentioned liquid products. Try them I think you'll like them.

[PCJim]

Copper Chore Boy strands wrapped around an old barrel brush and scrub the lead out. Works extremely well dry. Must be copper, not copper plated.

[A_Gamehog]

Bore Cleaners for lead

Ed's Red

http://www.flat5.net/eds_red.html