Lead removal help

[ian-NH]

I'm brand new to shooting lead ammo, I've always been a FMJ guy and cleaning guns was easy. Please help me get this lead out of my cylinder and barrel. Hoppes 9, CLP, and Remoil have all proven useless so far. What's the secret?

 

Thanks

 

Ian

[Michigan Slim]

I use a GOOD (i.e. FREE) penetrating oil, soak time and elbow grease. Repeat. And my 12 YO little angel does it for me. So I guess my real method is just sayingh "Here, clean these". She smiles and 'bingo' their clean an hour later. Then she cleans brass and reloads the ammo.

[Big Whiskey Jim SASS 74667]

You can get a lewis lead remover or go the cheaper route like I go, get an all copper, not the copper coated, chore boy scruber, cut it up and wrap it around an old brush. A couple of pulls and all the lead comes out.

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

And if it is for cowboy shooting using softer lead will usually help. My wife shoot smokeless with my Blackpowder bullets, soft lead with a softer lube, and she NEVER has leading, pistol or rifle. I use the same lead alloy through my 45 acp and they work fine there also. If the lead is to hard it wan't seal the bore and you will get blowby and melted lead in your barrel. Softer bullets seal and usually eliminate this problem. On guns I have bought with leaded barrels the choreboy works pretty well. If it is real awful I use my Outers Foul out.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Soak with gum turpentine, tight fitting patch, and add elbow grease.

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

It is SO Much easier to prevent leading that it is to figure out an easy way to clean it, that I'll suggest ways for you to fix the problem instead of cleaning up the mess that results.

 

If you are leading the forcing cone or first part of barrel, you don't have the bullet fitting the barrel very well.

Can be several causes, the most common is that you don't have a large enough bullet diameter.

 

A .38 special or .357 USUALLY needs a .358 inch bullet. But, it really depends upon your particular barrel groove diameter. To find that, you or a good gunsmith can precisely slug and precisely measure the groove diameter on the slug that you used. Exact technique can be found in good reference materials, but if you have to ask, you should get a knowledgeable pard to show you how the first time. The rule of thumb for a starting point is 0.001 inch larger bullet than the groove diameter. Some barrels like the bullet 2 thousandths over. Some like it best at exactly the groove diameter. Very rarely do things work well with bullets under groove diameter.

 

Bullet hardness. CAS loads don't usually generate over 12,000 psi (or close to 12,000 Copper Units of Pressure). At that level, a bullet, to be able to be expanded to tightly fit the bore, should be about 8-12 BNH (Brinell Hardness). Soft lead is about 5 BNH. Lots of commercially available cast bullets are harder - up to 16 BNH. Too hard a bullet can lead because when the bullet base does not expand to seal the bore, hot gas blows by the bullet and allows the lead from the bullet to solder or smear onto the bore.

 

If you are leading the throats of cylinders, then most likely the throats are way smaller than the bore diameter. That is also bad both for fouling the cylinder and getting poor accuracy. Cylinder throats are usually best when they match the bore diameter, or perhaps a thousandth of an inch over. Many Ruger Vaqueros have been cut with very tight throats.

 

Well tuned cylinder to bore diameters, and a good bullet diameter for your gun, and a well matched bullet hardness to load pressure, and a good quality bullet lube, will give you NO appreciable leading in CAS type smokeless loads.

 

Remember, if you can, back to the 1930s and 40s. Most folks shooting revolvers back then used SOFT lead bullets. And got no leading that would not push right out with a tight fitting patch. Only when they starting trying to shoot .357 magnums, at 1200-1500 fps, or 44 magnums, still using a soft swaged bullet in factory loads, did folks fight with leading problems. So, for the loads we shoot, a soft(er) bullet still works wonders!

 

Good luck, GJ

[Peddler Parsons SASS # 31281]

put a cork in the end of the barrel;

will with Ballistal or moose milk

for a couple of hours or

let stand overnight,even better;

drain and run a tight swab down the barrel

[Jackson Rose, SASS #45478]

Butch's Bore Shine works well, if you give it time to do it's job. Wet the bore with it and give it 10 minutes before brushing. Lewis lead removers work well on revolvers, but I don't think they make a handle long enough for rifles. The chore boy route works well too.

[Kulshan 20262]

Butch's Bore Shine works well, if you give it time to do it's job. Wet the bore with it and give it 10 minutes before brushing. Lewis lead removers work well on revolvers, but I don't think they make a handle long enough for rifles. The chore boy route works well too.

The Lewis Lead Remover will fit an a regular rifle cleaning rod.

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

Lewis lead remover in several sizes.

Way way easier than that elbow greeze.

I had a cylinder so full of lead I couldnt put a 38sp into

a 357 cyl. Thats a lotta lead.

best

CR

[John Boy]

put a cork in the end of the barrel;

will with Ballistal or moose milk

for a couple of hours or

let stand overnight,even better;

drain and run a tight swab down the barrel

I'd sure like to see the before and after using Ballistol or Moose Milk

Peddler - your the First of many hundreds of experienced shooters to recommend these

[Virgil Ray Hality, SASS# 37355]

+1 for the Lewis Tool. Garrison Joe is offering some good advice... fix the leading before you shoot!

[Marauder SASS #13056]

If possible, adjust your ammo, but that isn't always an option for all of u.

 

As to cleaning there are two methods - friction - like the Lewis Lead Remover.

 

Chemicals. They key to chemicals is time. Be sure to give them time to work - at least 10 minutes and even over night sometimes doesn't hurt.

 

You can also use a combination of friction methods and chemicals.

 

I've used wire brushes a little, then put the cylinder in a plastic bowl (used 1/2 a milk bottle) filled with warm water and dish soap and it has cleaned up really well.

 

Finally, don't worry too much about a little leading as it doesn't usually hurt anything. So you do not need to have the barrel and cylinder sparkling clean and the cloth can be still a little dark and the gun is clean enough.

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

some leading is due to shooting lead thru a gun that already has copper fouling. starting with a clean gun helps immensely. I shoot BP with a soft bp lube and heavy loads and haven't experienced leading in years. Some folks might say it is those heathen smokeless loads, but I tend to think it is in the alloy and the lube. I don't believe any chemical alone will give a completely satisfactory result. You will need to scrub it out. A great way to do it is to use a brass choreboy pad cut into strips that will fit your cleaning rod.

[Ol Number4]

Like garrison Joe said, eliminate the problem by not creating it.

 

Soft lead alooy, soft "lube" and proper forcing cone and bore relations.

 

Take a read:: http://www.cowboybullets.com/FAQs.html

 

Ol' #4

[Jackson Rose, SASS #45478]

The Lewis Lead Remover will fit an a regular rifle cleaning rod.

The average Hoppes or Outers rifle rod handle won't handle the strain of pulling the plug through the barrel.

[Marshal Mackenna]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide will dissolve lead in about 15 min. Just dont get it on your stock finish.

 

Mackenna

[Kulshan 20262]

The average Hoppes or Outers rifle rod handle won't handle the strain of pulling the plug through the barrel.

That could be, I use Dewey rods with no problems.

[DOUBLE OUGHT HAGEN SASS#74836]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide will dissolve lead in about 15 min. Just dont get it on your stock finish.

 

Mackenna

 

Agree 100% No Negative Results

Used a Lewis Lead Remover for years untill a Shooting Buddy told me about the mixture 4 or 5 years ago

00

[Virgil Ray Hality, SASS# 37355]

Doesn't the vinegar remove the blue from the barrel?

[Snakebite]

Doesn't the vinegar remove the blue from the barrel?

 

Dern tootin it will!

 

Snakebite

[Ranger Sgt. Jake McCandless #3368]

Doesn't the vinegar remove the blue from the barrel?

It sure can.

Saw a semi auto barrel that the owner swore he only soaked it in pure vinegar in a plastic container over night and the rifling was almost gone,pitted and the outer surface was severely eroded and pitted.

He said he was trying to get the lead out,well he got all the lead out along with most of the rifling and massive amounts of steel.

I knew better than to ever use it straight but have a new outlook on using vinegar in or around my firearms. Adios Sgt. Jake

[Caliope Cupcake #13981]

what about that li'l chunk o lead in my finger? drives me nuts

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

what about that li'l chunk o lead in my finger? drives me nuts

 

If it bothers you, cut it out. If you can see the dark shape of it, it's close to the surface. An Xacto knife blade works, disinfect the area and the blade, slice along the longer length of the fragment. Squeeze the surrounding tissue a little and work it loose. Disinfect again after done digging around.

 

But you already knew all that, right? GJ

[Fillmore Coffins, SASS #7884]

The best thing I ever used to remove lead was black powder. I'm not currently a BP shooter but when I tried it a few years ago, the insides of my stainless Vaqueros, after I cleaned them with Windex, were never cleaner. As I mentioned in another post, it even removed the black build up on the front of the cylinder.

 

Fillmore

[Caliope Cupcake #13981]

If it bothers you, cut it out. If you can see the dark shape of it, it's close to the surface. An Xacto knife blade works, disinfect the area and the blade, slice along the longer length of the fragment. Squeeze the surrounding tissue a little and work it loose. Disinfect again after done digging around.

 

But you already knew all that, right? GJ

 

You read my mind--- just needed affirmation gettin out the betadine... danke schoen!