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Barrel Fouling


Tennessee Snuffy

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Folks

I have a pistol caliber carbine, 45 acp with 16” barrel.  After shooting about 15 rounds, I have noticed the first couple of inches of the barrel is badly fouled but it is not leaded up.  It takes about 20 with various solvents and brass brushes to clean up the mess.

 

I am shooting a 200 grain RNFP lead bullets (just like I have shot for the past 10 years in my cowboy guns) with 5.1 grains of Nitro 100 and 3.8 grains of Clay Dot.  Both of these powders foul very badly.  If I use 4.3 grains of Red Dot, fouling is much less.

 

Any ideas as to what may be causing the fouling problems?  Would a tighter crimp help?

What you think?

 

Thanks

 

Tennessee Snuffy.

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Had same problems in my 1911 pistols.   The fouling really IS lead, just very thin coats of it.   If it were simply powder fouling, it would clean out immediately with any good powder solvent.  Much more leading occurs in the grooves than on the lands.  It comes from gas cutting of the bullet sides because the bullet is not sealing into the grooves fast enough.   Farther along the barrel, the bullet finally expands enough to stop the gas cutting, and thus there is no fouling out there.   The Red Dot load is producing more pressure than your Clay Dot load, and that helps a hard bullet upset enough to fill grooves.

 

Go to a Brinnell Hardness of about 9 on your bullets.  Most commercial casters are using a 6-2 alloy that has a hardness of about 15 BNH. Use a bullet matching or 0.001" over the barrel's groove diameter.  It will go away.  Desperado Bullets and a few other casters can provide softer bullets.

 

A poly (plastic) coated bullet will reduce (but probably not completely clean up) the fouling.  It's the better fit of bullet to barrel that helps the most.

 

good luck, GJ

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Would a tighter crimp help?

 

Can't crimp a .45 auto cartridge more than just tapering the mouth back to the case diameter.  If you roll it any, you loose the headspace location (the mouth of the case!)   That can lead to rounds going in chamber too far and not firing, and even no longer reachable by the extractor, so you have a loaded round stuck in chamber.  No, this is NOT a crimp problem, it's a bullet fit in grooves of barrel problem.  

 

Some carbine type guns might have a sloppy, oversize barrel that needs a 0.452" or even larger bullet!  You won't know unless you slug the barrel.

 

The .45 auto is a much different cartridge than Cowboy rimmed cartridges!   A great powder for .45 auto is Win Super Target (WST).  Very accurate in many guns.

 

good luck, GJ

 

 

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On 9/18/2022 at 5:55 PM, Tennessee Snuffy said:

 

Folks

I have a pistol caliber carbine, 45 acp with 16” barrel.  After shooting about 15 rounds, I have noticed the first couple of inches of the barrel is badly fouled but it is not leaded up.  It takes about 20 with various solvents and brass brushes to clean up the mess.

 

I am shooting a 200 grain RNFP lead bullets (just like I have shot for the past 10 years in my cowboy guns) with 5.1 grains of Nitro 100 and 3.8 grains of Clay Dot.  Both of these powders foul very badly.  If I use 4.3 grains of Red Dot, fouling is much less.

 

Any ideas as to what may be causing the fouling problems?  Would a tighter crimp help?

What you think?

 

Thanks

 

Tennessee Snuffy.

I offer 200gr RNFP bullet lubed Or Hi-Tek coated sized .454  just for the situation you describe. Let me know if I can help. These are hardcast bullets.

 

Hugs!

Scarlett

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I had a severe leading problem with my 1911s. I use 200g high tech coated bullets. Backed off the powder charge from 4.5g to 4.0g of titegroup and no leading. You may just be running them too hot.

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That 4.0 grains TG load will not make the WB power factor in most 1911s.   Probably is a nice soft target load, though.  I'd guess you don't have a bullet that is large enough diameter.   

 

good luck, GJ

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Snuffy,

I don't know the answer to your question, BUT...... try using CFE Pistol powder and see if that helps.

 

I use it in .45 acp,  .460 Rowland and 10mm with good, consistent performance and haven't noticed any fouling problems.

 

CFE Pistol is a Hodgdon powder.

 

..........Widder

 

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Looking at the Hodgdon load data, you are beyond maximum +P loads with Nitro 100 (4.9 was the highest I saw), and I can't find any load book data for Clay Dot. That could be because Alliant hasn't gotten around to handgun load development with it, or because they tried it and had bad results.

 

And I will echo what others have said about bullets...hard cast, bevel-base bullets with "crayon" lube are the worst offenders as far as leading. Softer, flat-base designs with softer lubes have a much lower chance of leaving behind lead deposits at most pistol/PCC velocities.

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