After 137 years, Is the 40 grain lead round nose still the best for target shooting, and all around best grain bullet in 22LR ? Seems like all of the high dollar target 22LR ammo is 40 grain lead round nose, why are they not using copper washed in the competition stuff ? Maybe the soft lead will get a better gas seal. I have seen 29-32-36-38-40-42-45-60 grain bullets and more.. Did they know the best 137 years ago ? Why don't they make a nice clean burning powder by now for a 22LR ? and the .22 Short from 1857 in 29 grain, 167 years ago.. Just something to think about..

I figured the lube on the bullet is more of an issue in the 22RF as compared to the powder burn. The gunk that builds up is a mix of soot and the waxy stuff. Unavoidable unless you switch to 22RF magnum. I guess they figured out the optimum bullet weight and barrel twists for it long ago. Manufacturers like industry standards, makes design easier.

Two reasons. The copper wash makes it harder to maintain a match level tolerance on the bullet diameter and the velocity at which a match grade bullet travels is slow enough that leading isn't an issue. As far as clean powder is concerned, it's pretty clean all things considered and there's only so much you can do with the chemistry necessary to produce it.

Okay, will the copper washed run cleaner, because it has less lube, or do they have any lube on them, which type of 22LR Ammo will be the best for NOT leading up around the forcing cone used in a Revolver ?

The type that you don't shoot as fast as you can pull the trigger of your revolver. All .22 LR ammo seems to have some lube. Feels like a bit of wax to me. I've never seen lead build up in the forcing cone of my .22 revolvers.

Both of my new M-617's lead up around the forcing cones for some reason..

If you're getting leading from standard velocity 40 gr soft lead 22 LR ammunition, the problem is the gun!
I fire thousands and thousands of plain lead 22 LR in my Hämmerli free pistol, my Pardini SP target pistol, etc, and I never touch the inside of the barrel. Not a trace of leading. Of course, there's not a trace of tool marks anywhere inside those fine barrels.
Same thing with my brother's pre-war (1936) Colt Officer's Target revolver. So, it's not a "revolver problem".
Gun makers today are too cheap to invest in the labor, skill, and tooling to make nice match grade barrels for consumer grade product firearms. (Both Smith & Wesson and Colt made better .22 barrels a hundred years ago than they do today.) In addition, both of those companies employed real gunsmiths who hand tuned the timing and alignment of each individual revolver chamber with the bore. Today? Just grab the next CNC part out of the bin and call it a day!

To maintain the top level accuracy of my match pistols I would never fire any plated or coated 22 LR ammo.

If you feel you need that stuff, ask yourself what the difference is between a symptom and the problem!

But, to address the OP's concerns, the manufacturers of best grade match 22 LR ammo (ie: Lapua, Eley, RWS, etc) devote an incredible amount of research and testing refining the 22 LR cartridge. It is NOT the same thing as was made 137 yrs ago.

If you like, you can even send your match rifle to the Lapua laboratory and they will test and analyze it in their facilities to determine its true accuracy capabilities and recommend the best ammo. (Hint: it won't be CCI Stingers!)

It's possible that the build up that you see is carbon and not lead. Your revolver should be able to handle just about any modern 22lr without leading the barrel. If you are getting leading, it might be that the forcing cone may be a bit rough. There is a couple of ways you can handle it. You can ignore it and shoot the gun in hopes that it smooths itself out or you can lightly polish the cone. Polishing or re cutting will require some specialized tools that you can get from a place like Brownell's but it's not all that hard to do. Unless you can see some really obvious defect, sending back to Smith will be a waste of time as they are going to tell you that it is within their factory specs. The copper wash on rimfire cartridges is about lubing the bullet and really has no role in preventing leading with those soft bullets. In this day and age, the copper is mostly cosmetic. The issue you have has been around since S&W brought the Number 1 to market in 1857.

Yes, that may be what both of my M-617s need, polish the forcing cones, will that take special tool ? I wonder if the copper washed is just for looks, I have tried around 10 types of 22LR ammo with no luck, I have a 100 box of CCI SV to try maybe Thursday at the range, I think it will do the same thing, It takes around 30 minutes or so to get that lead off. Think I need to try that polish, thanks for the info..

I’m very satisfied with the CCI std. vel. 40 grain ammo out of my M41. Aside from being super duper accurate I do not have any leading issues.

Out of revolvers I shoot CCI 40 grain Mini-Mags and have absolutely no issues or leading with them either. I will typically shoot 100 rounds per range session and clean all my guns properly when I get home.

I am not a fan of lighter 22 bullets such as 32-38 grain stuff. I do have some in stock but only bought them during the ammo crunch when that was all I could get.

That is what's so interesting. The 40 GRAIN bullet in 22LR seems to be the best since 1887, and The 29 grain 22 Short since 1957. someone sure new what they were doing back in the old days..

To the best of my knowledge, lighter than 40 grain bullets only became popular about 20+ years ago when the first ammo crunch started. I believe the ammo company's took advantage of this buying frenzy to save money by reducing the lead, copper, wax, & powder by 10%. They in turn charged more money for less product, got a great payday and gouged the customer.

Now less than 40 grain bullets are here to stay and they now charge a "premium" for the 40 grain weight bullets which used to be standard.

I personally will not buy less than 40 grain bullets and all my guns are sighted in for 40 grains. Since that is what I have seen work best out of my guns, that's what I will stick with.

If it's not broke, Don't fix it...

Remember hollow points are lighter than identical solids by a few grains. But I have not seen where a difference occurs in sighting like between Mini Mag solids or HP. Back in the late 80s I bought some bricks of PMC solids because they were just dirt cheap, about what a single 50 of premiums cost now. They were plain lead and seemed kinda greasy and unimpressive. But my experience was that they shot good and were accurate, no duds. Wish I bought lots more at that price.