JHP Vs. HP question

[DEM]

I'm an old school kind of guy with a question. I've always preferred jacketed hollow points to keep leading down in the barrel. I shoot a 637-2 Airweight. Preferred ammo is not always available. My question is: if I shoot regular lead hollow points should I be concerned about fowling my barrel? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[akviper]

My personal experience is that extensive use of factory lead hollow point ammo will result in leading in most guns. Remington LHP ammo leads more in my guns but your experience will vary due to differences in bore smoothness. Most are soft lead bullets at +P velocity. A majority of the leading occurs in the forcing cone and a good brass brush or Lewis lead remover will get it out with a little elbow grease.

The trick is to clean the barrel more often when using soft lead bullets. If you let it build up your accuracy will suffer and it is much more difficult to clean out with a thicker layer.

 

[Steve C]

Lead will accumulate slowly and often not at all if your barrel is clean to start. Lead builds up on copper fouling and any lead fouling so make sure to remove all the copper left in the bore from all those jacketed bullets you've been shooting. A good copper removing solvent like Sweets 7.62 or any of those with a strong ammonia smell will chemically remove copper.

 

[DEM]

Thanks akviper and Steve C. I was raised to clean my guns after each day of shooting. From your responses, if I clean the bore with a brass brush, that should keep fouling from occurring. Thanks again.

 

[n4zov]

The recently reintroduced Federal Nyclads should solve your problem. They are soft lead protected by a Nylon-type coating to eliminate leading.

 

[Alk8944]

I'm an old school kind of guy with a question. I've always preferred jacketed hollow points to keep leading down in the barrel. I shoot a 637-2 Airweight. Preferred ammo is not always available. My question is: if I shoot regular lead hollow points should I be concerned about fowling my barrel? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks.

If you shoot lead bullets you will get fouling to some degree, particularly with factor ammunition or commercially available component bullets. This does not harm the gun, just requires cleaning.

I can absolutely guarantee you will not get the slightest degree of fowling under any circumstances unless you attempt to shoot Chicken bullets.

 

[flop-shank]

I'm an old school kind of guy with a question. I've always preferred jacketed hollow points to keep leading down in the barrel. I shoot a 637-2 Airweight. Preferred ammo is not always available. My question is: if I shoot regular lead hollow points should I be concerned about fowling my barrel? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks.

One more reason to handload. I use Rainier copper plated lead bullets for most of my reloads. You can stock a lot of components for the price of a few dozen boxes of ammo.

 

[DEM]

If you shoot lead bullets you will get fouling to some degree, particularly with factor ammunition or commercially available component bullets. This does not harm the gun, just requires cleaning.

I can absolutely guarantee you will not get the slightest degree of fowling under any circumstances unless you attempt to shoot Chicken bullets.

It looks as if I should have spell checked my post. Thanks for the correction.

 

[photoman]

One more reason to handload. I use Rainier copper plated lead bullets for most of my reloads. You can stock a lot of components for the price of a few dozen boxes of ammo.

+1

If you plan on getting good at shooting the Airweights, reloading is almost a must. Lots of practice with light loads (I used plated bullets also) is the way to go.

 

[Jellybean]

Lead fouling in a clean, smooth (as in no pitting) bore is the result of improper bullet fit rather than lead hardness.

 

[LuddhaBuddha]

The best way I have found to remove lead is to wrap a strand or two from a copper chore boy around a bore brush and run it through the barrel a few times. The sharp edges seem to scoop out the lead real nice doesn't take nearly as long as just using the brush.