S&W14 Get the Lead Out

Roy8202

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Shooting 148 gr lead wad cutters in my Mod 14. 3.1 gr of 231. Accurate load.
Concerned of leading the barrel. Will shoot 6 rounds of FMJ rounds at the end of my range time.
Will this clear out any accumulation of lead?
 
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In my experience, shooting a few FMJ at the end of the session can help extract some, but not all of any lead deposits from the barrel itself. Leading around the forcing cone might be a different clean up task. I don't know what kind of bullets you are shooting, but your load is almost the exact same load I use with Hornady's 148 grain HBWC. This is a swaged bullet of pure lead and I am getting practically zero lead deposits at target velocities. The cleanup is easy.
 
May be dependent on condition of specific barrel, specific bullet and load. Have some well conditioned barrels that jacketed rounds will clean out lead residue effectively. Have others that using jacketed after lead makes a difficult to clean mess.
 
Don't depend on jacketed following lead to remove all leading. If you have leading (other than a mild coating or wash), it's best to determine the cause and avoid it.

Short of that, get either a Lewis Lead remover kit from Brownells or the Brownells "double tuff" brushes. They cost more than regular brushes, but they have extra stiff bristles and work very well.
 
A FMJ round or two will remove some leading -- and iron the rest into semi-permanent residency in the bore. It is far easier to just go home and pull out your brush and solvent. Easier still -- carry a dry brush on a cleaning rod with you to the range and run the brush through the bore after every cylinder-full.
 
If you get leaded up most will say get a Lewis Lead Remover. They do work. I have one, but I've found that cutting a patch from one of those lead remover cloths and running it down the barrel with a brass jag tip does just as well, and is cheaper. In fact, the brass jag and a regular patch will remove a lot of it by itself. You need a tight fit, tight enough that you have to struggle a little bit to get it started. I usually do two passes with a regular patch and finish up with the lead remover cloth. Plastic jags won't work, and slotted tips are useless.

I once shot up a bunch of 9mm lead reloads (that didn't work in my autos) in my Ruger Blackhawk convertible. Talk about leading, holy cow! Using this method it took me about 20 minutes to get it all out, and half of that was brushing it real well first.

A Pro-Shot jag is $7 and a Lead Remover cloth is like $10 on Amazon. The cloth will make 100 patches or more. Which is more leading than I'll ever get but there are other uses for the cloth. I don't normally get much leading.

The Lewis Lead Remover is retired. Except the forcing cone cleaner is so damn handy.
 
Firing jacketed bullets is not the best way to remove lead. Lead can safely be removed by using a Lewis Lead Remover. If you don't what to spend money on one, then buy some pure copper Chore Boy scouring pads. Make sure they are pure copper, there are some brands that are copper plated steel and you don't want that in your bore. Cut a small section of the Chore Boy pad and wrap it around a bronze bore brush, it will work very much like a Lewis Lead Remover.
 
A gun shop I used to shop at sells powdered coated bullets. I have used plenty. Clean up not bad. My 14-3 has eaten plenty of 148gr lead wadcutters. Clean up not that bad. Bob
 

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Shooting 148 gr lead wad cutters in my Mod 14. 3.1 gr of 231. Accurate load.
Concerned of leading the barrel. Will shoot 6 rounds of FMJ rounds at the end of my range time.
Will this clear out any accumulation of lead?

No, it will not. That is a urban shooting legend from 1973.

That is nice Wadcutter Load and I use it in PPC. You will not lead the barrel if you are using Speer bullets.
 
I find a few passes of a brass brush ( no solvent of any kind) every 300 rounds or so is enough to keep the bore adequately clean. I am not a white glove inspection clean guy, knock enough debris off to keep it running and ignore the rest. I have been shooting over 4 decades now and never needs any special effort to combat leading. While I don’t make any effort to get guns spotlessly clean, modest effort every few hundred rounds is sufficient
 
A little lead
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