Is it bad to shoot lead bullets, and then shoot some hot jacketed bullets without cleaning, or vise versa? Im talking specifically about in a 357 or 44 magnums. I appreciate the help.

Just read some similar thread links, and it seems like its not the greatest idea to do so without cleaning

FROM MY NOTES FROM THE S&W ARMORERS COURSE. IT'S A NO NO TO GO FROM LEAD TO JACKETED. INSTRUCTORS STATED IT CAN RAISE THE PRESSURE IN THE BORE 4 TIMES NORMAL.BUT THAT BEING SAID; PEOPLE DO IT ALL THE TIME WITH REGULAR PRESSURE LOADS . JP

Unless the leading is severe, the gun will probably survive, but shooting jacketed "to remove the leading" results in removing a lot of what is easily seen, but the remaining thin layers of lead and copper seem like they are soldered in, and can be a bear to remove.
Much simpler and smarter to run a lead remover through the barrel first before shooting high-pressure jacketed.


Some revolvers that are inaccurate with lead have serious copper fouling, which is hard to see.

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Science plus Art

Also, if you lead that barrel up that much in one session in pistol shooting, you need to do more to prevent leading than to clean it up after shooting.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Clean the gun before and after switching why spread the problem down the barrel. And how much leading are you getting?

You shouldn't be getting leading.
Fix that problem and it won't matter what ammo you shoot.

Neither, but a cleaning before changing is a good idea.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

S&W has to assume the worst, and thus the armorers course advise against shooting jacketed bullet after lead bullets.

The devil however is in the details.

If the load produces a great deal of leading in the bore, then there's a risk of increased pressure with subsequent jacketed rounds as you are in essence shooting the bullet through an effectively smaller bore. But..we're talking about an awful lot of leading to get a significant pressure increase.

A larger problem is when a shooter thinks a few jacketed rounds will remove the lead that has accumulated. It will remove some of it and "iron" the rest of it flat, but it will still need to be removed.

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I'm in agreement that if a load produces significant leading you need to figure out why and change something.

There are two major factors involved.

First, the lead alloy has to match the pressure of the load not, as many people think, the velocity.

If the alloy is too hard, the bullet will not obturate in the throat and bore fast enough (and not at all if it is way too hard). This allows excessive amounts of gas to flow past the bullet, which causes gas cutting of the bullet and much of that lead is then deposited in the bore. If the alloy is too soft, the pressure will deform the bullet and create similar issues.

In terms of overall pressure you'll want a harder alloy for a hot load than for a light to moderate load.

As a rule of thumb you'll want an lead alloy hardness of 10-12 for a light to moderate load in a .357 Mag, and you'll want to increase that to a hardness of around 15 for a maximum load.

If all you have is bullets of one hardness, you'll need to adjust the load up or down as appropriate until you get good accuracy and no leading.

Powder choice sometimes impacts leading as well, even within a given pressure range. For example, in the .357 Mag, IMR 4227 is generally produces less leading bullet at near maximum loads than Win 296/H110.

Second, bullet diameter matters. The traditional wisdom is that a cast bullet should be .001" larger than the groove diameter. That may be ideal for theoretical accuracy but when it comes to leading, what matters is that the bullet be well fitted to the throat. If the throat is significantly larger than the bullet, them you get inadequate obturation, gas cutting, and leading.

Gas checks can cover a lot of alloy related sins when it comes to leading, and will eliminate the leading issues with too hard and too soft bullets, but the wrong alloy still won't allow for optimum accuracy. And quite frankly a gas check isn't required at .357 Magnum velocities and pressures.

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Removing lead is a fairly easy process.
I've found that a few strands of a Chore Boy copper kitchen cleaning pad wrapped around an old bore brush and wetted with cleaning solvent will remove lead in just a few passes. If it's heavily leaded, you may need to remove the old strands and repeat with some new strands. Once the lead is gone, clean the bore with solvent and patches in the normal manner.

A couple of cautions:

1) Use Chore Boy copper pads as they are 100% copper, while some other brands are actually copper plated steel. The comparatively soft copper won't damage the bore, while the harder steel strands might.

2) Don't use your wife's sewing scissors to cut the strands of the copper pad. If you do, she'll take your .357 Mag away from you and probably shoot you with it.

As long as you don't have any built up lead deposits in the barrel it will not hurt anything.
A build up of lead in the barrel rifling will cause higher pressure in the jacketed rounds when fired. So use some common sense here , inspect the barrel after shooting lead prior to shooting the hot jacketed rounds....Don't do it if the barrel is leaded.
Gary

Funny, I was wondering the same as the OP, saw a video on YouTube by FortuneCookie45LC, he uses jacketed bullets to clean the leading out of his barrels. I had always hated it's a no-no, too. But as stated, probably using common sense on this one helps alot, remember, what blows up guns typically is obstructuon of the barrel...... so i think this whole idea runs into alot of grey area, more than what can be explained online without pics, etc. I've shot jacketed after lead before, bUT there wasn't much leading.

If your unsure, I think you're better off playing it safe and just cleaning.

I used to hear this all the time in the '70's. It would be interesting to see an experiment performed using a borescope to get to the truth.

I like the wording:''use common sense''.Normally,if the lead bullets fit the chamber throats and barrel,there won't be any leading.BUT,it is a well known fact that normal accuracy with lead bullets will deteriorate if shot after jacketed bullets.
Also,I don't subscribe to the fact that you can clean a leaded barrel by shooting jacketed bullets down that barrel.I can't see the copper removing the lead from the barrel;just iron it very tight into the metal,making it a cussing chore of removing both copper and lead from the barrel.
Qc

Barrel leading with lead / cast bullets is a problem. If you have 12 more boxes of that ammo sitting on the shelf, this is a real problem!!

Time for a wack-a-matic bullet puller.

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S&WHF 366

We most often talk about the cylinder throats and the groove diameter of the barrel measurements . But very seldom do we realize that there is another critical area ? It's the barrel to frame fit . When tightening down a barrel to index the front sight to the rear sight , if over torqued then a " tight spot " will appear at that junction spot . Pushing a lead slug all the way through the barrel tells the story . If you get to that spot and it stops like you hit a brick wall , you have a severe tight spot there , and it must be dealt with otherwise it down sizes your cast bullet resulting in mediocre accuracy and leading of the barrel . Very seldom have I been fortunate enough to get a revolver without that problem .

Local Gunsmith tells me that the cause of most bulged barrels in revolvers is folks using the old "shooting a hot jacketed after a session of lead to clean the barrel" trick, or folks shooting jacketed without realizing they have a leading problem. As others have said, with good judgement and without severe leading, shooting jacketed after lead should not be a problem, but if your barrel is leaded and you think shooting jacketed is the easiest way to remove it, there's a bigger problem at work.

In a word, yes. The two metals have diff coef of friction & often, depending on alloys, shooting one after the other just adds to the fouling problem. If you want to do it right, cleam the bore before switching bullet types.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I shoot mainly hard cast bullets and never had a leading issue, that been said I have shot jackets bullets after lead one with no issues. On my last shooting session with my model 29 I shot 450 rounds of lead SWC and them shot 50 rounds of Jacketed hollow points without a hitch.

Professionals give advise on the worst case scenario, and as usual the answer is it depends. I have several pistols with smoother barrels that lead slightly during extended (over 100 rds) of lead that shooting a jacketed through clean right out, not iron out.

I have other revolvers that lead up right quick when using swaged bullets. Shooting jacketed after even a couple of swaged creates a real mess, and pain to clean.

The best advise is given above, in regards to loading appropriate lead bullets suited to individual firearm. This can be a pain with multiple types of pistols in same caliber, so I standardize somewhat.