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Old February 14, 2000, 08:13 PM   #1
Bill Daniel
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Join Date: February 10, 2000
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Another question from a newbie. My wife bought a Smith & Wesson model 60 Lady Smith in 357 mag. I bought some reloaded 148 gr. HBWC in 38 SPL for her for target practice but found that they fouled the cylinder with a lot of lead which I am still trying to clean up. Can I load 357 brass with a bulky powder and SWC bullets to 38 SPL pressures safely? Would this push the bullet out further and decrease the lead fouling of the cylinder?
Thanks,
Bill Daniel
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Old February 14, 2000, 08:45 PM   #2
Hal
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Yes. I use 38 data for many of my .357 rounds, and yes it does cut down on the circle in the chamber. Watch out for certain powders such as Win 296 though, and watch out for jacketed loads that are too "weenie". I stuck such a round in the barrel of my Marlin rifle, but never had a problem with any of the 4" revolvers that I used the same load in.
One easy method to remove that circle is to push a fired, but unsized .357 Mag case into each chamber. It cuts the worst of the crud out, and makes cleanup a whole lot easier.
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Old February 15, 2000, 10:05 AM   #3
Bill Daniel
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RAE:
Many thanks!
Bill Daniel
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Old February 15, 2000, 02:29 PM   #4
Trigger Jerk
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I'll tell you another secret on how I get the cylinder crud out. As you know the cylinder crud is really bad with lead bullets and here is what I do.

1) have the chambers polished. Crud comes off a super smooth surface easier.

2)chuck a "Chamber brush" (available from Midway and others) into a cordless drill. Dip the brush in your favorite solvent and scrub it out.The "chamber brush" is larger diametre than a bore brush. About 10 seconds in each hole, depending on how dirty they are.

3) Dry with clean patch.. Wahlah! It's that easy.

Helpful Hints:

You can hone your own cylinder with oil and hones from Brownells

remove the cylinder from the gun

Instead of a "chamber brush" you can use a smaller bore bush wrapped with either 100% copper mesh (cleaning pads from Wal Mart) or a product called "gun Brite" cleaning pad from Midway

You can also use the method dry but it takes longer than with solvent. The dry method works great in the field for a quickie clean.
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Old February 15, 2000, 10:04 PM   #5
Bill Daniel
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Trigger Jerk:
Great ideas!
Thanks,
Bill Daniel
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