I'm new to reloading. I started with .44 Specials and Magnums, did some Googling and came across the classic Skelton and Keith loads.

Namely, 7.5 grains Unique and 22.00 grains of 2400 over 250 LSWC.

Found myself some 240 LSWCs and went to town. Did some more research and am seeing recommendations against using lead with higher velocities as it will lead the barrel. Anything over (going on memory) something like 1000fps.

I clean after every range session (Chore Boy Copper Scrubbers), but would like to know if it's anything to concern myself with. I'm guessing not as people have been shooting chunks of lead for a long, long time.

If I use lead for special loads and I switch to a fully jacketed bullet for magnums, can I use the same load data I was using for lead provided it is the same bullet weight?

I am not hunting, I am plinking and enjoy the big bang periodically.

Thank you

Edit: I am currently using Bear Creek moly coated lead. I don't think these are hard cast. Would hard cast make a difference in regard to causing leading in barrel?

Missouri Bullet Company

Hard cast lead bullets that fit properly should work without leading.
Don't use lead bullet data with jacketed bullets,the pressure will be higher with the latter.

I don't have trouble cleaning revolvers after shooting lead bullet loads but I clean mine after every shooting session.

One cannot anticipate that jacketed bullets will substitute for lead bullets with any given powder charge, even if both styles weigh the same. You really need to work up loads specifically for jacketed bullets. Jacketed bullets elevate pressures over lead due to increased friction. Won't much matter with light to moderate loads but you might come to grief if using maximum loads with lead bullets and a jacketed bullet is substituted.

While it is assumed that moly coated bullets would offer reduced friction it would be prudent to work up loads with them as well.

Even if two different bullets are the same weight and made of the same materials yet are of different styles or shapes, featuring varying differences in bearing surfaces within the handgun bore, it is still prudent to work up loads for each style.

i shoot pretty much all lead in reg.calibers as well as magnum....never get any leading...be sure the bullets fit the gun properly and are sufficently hard they will work fine

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

People do load lead to high velocities for hunting without problems. Go to Mo. bullit co.s web site and read up on leading, you'll find it interesting. All my shooting is at the range so I never load hot, no reason to. I do have some 296 so when I use that I load hot but you can't down load that powder .

I would recommend that you purchase a couple of reloading manuals and use the recommended loads. If you are interested in lead bullet loads, you should consider the Lyman manual.

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Dick

If you're shooting full-house magnum loads with jacketed bullets, I would recommend that you clean it before you go back to shooting lead. I've found with rifles,anyway, that the potential for leading increases greatly if there is still copper in the barrel. The copper acts like little razor blades when the led bullet go down the barrel, at least the way it was explained to me. Other than my hardball .45, I don't shoot jacketed bullets in any of my pistols, so I'm not speaking from experience with pistol loads. Just a thought to consider.

I switched to moly coated leadcast bullets and my barrel leading was 90% less. Maybe more. I stay on the low side of the powder charge using standard large pistol primers.

Moly coated leadcast bullets,GOOD++++++

I fire a few jacketed rounds at the end of my leadcast shoot to keep the feel of the Magnum recoil. I don't wash the bore. It's had moly burnished into the pores of the metal. I just use the mop. The bore will have a light tint to it in my stainless guns. Moly means no wear and higher velocities.

I never tried moly coated jacketed bullets.

A little history on moly and jacketed bullets. I was given some about 20 years ago to test with my comp AR-15. I recorded groups sizes and velocities as compared to Matchkings that had not been treated. I wasn't impressed when I turned everything back to the lab. Then, it semed everybody was buying an extra tumbler and coating their own. Best groups were when the bore was evenly coated the entire length of the barrel. If you ran a bronze brush thru the barrel you removed the moly and it would take 5-7 shots to re-season the barrel. So, competitors started to just run a dry patch thru after the match and that was all. A couple of years later Sierra and a well published ballistition noted that this practice of not cleaning the barrel would eventually leave a thin coat of rust between the moly and the barrel. The moly was trapping moisture. It will be interesting to see if this happens with moly coated lead.

when shooting oldschool lead .. accept the generation of guntan lotion.
its a function of the lube.
as for the speed limits of 1000 FPS ... it's a conditional statement.
if your bullet is swaged lead as is mass produced by Hornady, or Speer, yep .. you should obey said speed limit as best as you can.
However, cast bullets are made from harder lead alloys and can usually pass 1400 FPS.

Now if you really wanna throw a wrench in the gears ... Hy Tek or powder coated cast.
You lose the guntan lotion, the critical size issues and depending on coating type, you can run a plain base bullet from a rifle to over 2700 without leading and not a whole lot of drama.
what this means to pistols is that coated is a load pack and fire affair similar to jacketed, as you will never make a velocity capable of breaking its back.

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it just needs more voltage

I've never used anything moly but it would be hard to imagine such a bullet working any better or being more accurate (even at higher velocities) than a well-fitted cast bullet of proper alloy for the intended use.

As a new reloader and lead shooter, just go with Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook (if you can find a 3rd Edition get it, but a 4th will do). I would not get involved with "celebrity loads" until I got a handle on reloading using data from a published manual.

A good fitting bullet, with a decent lube can be fired at over 1K fps, my personal experience is a .358",160 gr Lachmiller SWC, cast from wheel weights, air cooled, lubed with Speed Green over a max load of True Blue in my .357 Magnum (my guesstimate of approaching 1300 fps), shot clean in my 4" revolver. A reloader using lead bullets should have a micrometer to make sure the lead bullets are large enough...

BTW, "Hardcast" in not indicative of a higher BHN lead bullet. It has been applied to any bullet that is cast, regardless of BHN. When I started using lead bullets, there were two types; swaged and cast. Cast bullet alloys were expressed in lead to tin ratio (20-1, 15-1, 10-1 etc.), and rarely in BHN (BHN being less important than bullet to gun fit).

There is a long standing debate about shooting lead bullets and jacketed bullets without thorough cleaning. Personally I don't have an opinion as I have not seen any advantage to cleaning between lead/jacketed, nor any reason not to, but I don't.

Mikld, why do you prefer the 3rd edition of the Lyman cast bullet manual over the 4th?

neat quote, but my thoughts exactly, if you shoot lead with lube on it, be ready to clean up a tad (it's all I shoot)

Never found the gun I could shoot without cleaning it up afterward. Probably available now, in stainless steel with Tupperware stock or frame.

Swaged and soft cast bullets are limited to about 1000 fps. Hard cast that fits correctly can be pushed much higher at magnum velocities. A lot of the 'dirt' that comes from cast bullets is the traditional waxy lubes they put in the lube groove. The stuff smoke and stinks and a lot of stuff ends up on your gun.

Speer and Hornady swaged bullets have a dry coating that shoots clean.

I've been using traditional lubed bullets and I'm going over to the coated bullets. What I've seen so far they work really well without the mess. I'm going to skip plated bullets because I thought it was a lousy solution. Maybe they shoot a little cleaner but that's about all. The velocity can't be pushed much past that of plain lead.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

22 gr of modern 2400 seems like a pretty HOT load for a 29/629. You may want to consider working your way up from something a little less stout.

Glen E. Fryxell, Cast bullets and firearm information and history

Read the
"Ingot to Cast Bullet" file. It will answer a lot of your questions as well as educate you on casting, lubes, leading, proper fit, etc.

Done properly cast bullets are in my opinion THE way to go for most revolvers. I don't shoot jacketed slugs 5% of the time. And those are factory rds I had, traded into, free , etc.

I agree on dropping that 2400 load down a bit to 21.0 or even 20.0 grs. They reformulated 2400 several years back and it gave it a tad quicker burn rate. so the OLD 2400 data is a bit HOT.

THIS IS SOUND ADVICE. ALSO, THERE IS NO NEED TO RUN LOADS TO AT, OR NEAR MAX LEVELS, FOR TARGETS OR PLINKING. RUNNING AT MODERATE VELOCITIES IS EASIER ON YOUR GUN, YOUR BODY, AND YOUR WALLET………...

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

In my opinion the 3rd Edition is more "new caster friendly". Many (most) of the articles are aimed at new casters with a lot of easy to read basics. The 4th Edition is fine, if you are a Black Powder Cartridge shooter (Mr. Venturino has several articles just for that purpose) and have a Phd in metallurgy to be able to understand the alloy chapter. I find the 3rd easier to understand and leaning more towards the average caster (I have both) and the 4th may have a bit more reloading data (different powders and bullets from other mold manufacturers). The 3rd is my preferred resource and the load data is quite acceptable. Hint; buy them both!

I've been shooting mostly jacketed bullets out of my magnums for years. But I've recently tried the plated rounds with good success in the heavier bullets for caliber (158 grain for 357 and 240 for 44) and loading them moderately hot with no leading issues. Now I just ordered some of the Hi-Tek coated cast bullets from Bayou Bullets to give them a try. From all I've read, the Hi-Tek coating should hold up well with any pistol caliber round shot from either pistol or rifle and they are even cheaper than the plated bullets. After all, if all I am doing is killing paper at the range, it doesn't have to expand or anything, just fly straight.

I have used Skeete'rs loads for 40 years now, they are accurate,plenty of power and work well for me.
Cleaning the gun is no big deal, I always do it withing 24 hours of the range session, and my 40 year old revolvers are just fine.

If it was good enough for Skeeter, it's more than good enough for me.

Me neither, but I do load to something seriously M-A-G-N-U-M. Otherwise, I would shoot my 44 S&W Special. I like the wild guns, but not without a glove and maybe only for 3-5 reloads. I have to stop when I start to flinch or to take a break for dry firing a bit to get back in the groove, but hey, it's a 44 Magnum. Kaboom!

Yesterday I used my S&W 629-1 with coated Missouri Bullets and 20.0 gr 300-MP. It was 24 rounds, as I recall. A quick wipe out with Slip2000, and the gun was ready to be put away.

That perception is out there, but 2400 is the same now as it has always been.

I find that 18.5/2400 and a Missouri Bullet 240 Elmer K does anything I need a LSWC to do in .44 Magnum. I do like the the 7.5/Unique in a Special case. Both loads perform well in my 629 and Ruger SBH.

AND mimicking Keith and Skelton? Even those guys with reputations to uphold didn't start with loads that hot. JMO, but walk before you run. Sorry for blaspheming on sunday, but Skelton is known to have had multiple negligent discharges and Keith hunted at times with a 270 (when nobody was looking). Those loads are warm for sure. Not saying they are outside of manuals max loads but very close. A lot of the dirt is from the bullet lube as well as the large amount of powder. To each his own, I prefer to shoot milder recoiling/ less powder burning rounds (if I do not need the extra horsepower) & save powder & wear & tear on the gun & myself. If Elmer jumped off a bridge?

When I shot lead bullets, I would always run a cylinder or two full of jacketed bullets thru the gun. It cleaned most of the lead out and made subsequent cleaning later easier.