All the 22 rifles in the world shot nothing but lead for the last 100 yrs so lead bullets can't be that bad for your guns. If you don't like cleaning your gun shoot nothing but jacketed stuff. Problem solved.
no it won’t, modern ammo travel faster thru the barrels which will make the lead melt inside of your barrel. Thats why the use more copper now days. Didnt you knew that lead bullets are cheaper than every other round? so why they don’t sell those everywhere? because they will mess up your barrel with time.
Well no actually. Most bullets that are jacketed are steel jackets. And just copper plated for rust prevention. Steel wears steel morr than lead can ever wear steel. And most people dont shoot 100,000 rounds in a lifetime so never pertains to a normal person anyways.
John Heiring No they are not. Most commercial ammo you find is infact copper jacketed. Ammo from your combloc and other communist countries do however use bi-metal bullets, which are copper plated steel jackets. A simple magnet will tell if your projectile is regular copper jacketed or bi-metal.
Neither will damage your barrel, you can avoid leading in the barrel by making the mixture harder or powder coating them. The rifling will become damaged over time but were talking thousand and probably hundreds of thousands of rounds.
I run only lead out of my handgun calibers. A few handgun carbines as well. Even a relatively hard cast lead is normally not as hard as factory jacket alloy. Leading can become an issue in longer barrels & heavier bullets. For lead RIFLE bullets, I only recommend them with GAS CHECKS.
Pure lead will gum up your barrel's rifling, which is what people are referring to. Pure lead is really only used in muzzle loaders. Hard cast lead is an alloy that is perfectly fine to shoot in autoloaders and modern firearms (as you go up in velocity however you'll want to start powder coating or gas checking to prevent excessive lead buildup between cleaning sessions).
I shoot pure lead out of my low velocity guns quite alot, but I find that wheel weight alloy works for most occasions without having to pc or gc. One better use that I have found for dead soft lead has been to use it for jacketed bullet cores. The effect on target is great
I shoot dead soft lead and if it does lead the barrel big deal!!! Guess how to fix it? U shoot a few jacketed bullets ! The lead will be completely gone in 1-2 rds I’ve done it in .380 .500 s&w and 7.62x39 I’ve never used products to clean lead out so don’t sweat it. I’ll shoot full power soft lead and put a few jacketed rds in the bottom of a mag if I’m worried so no big deal.
Well. I put about 50 000 cast lead 230gr RN bullets through my Norinco 1911 clone. No issues. After that, another 40 000 or so of 125gr RN cast lead through my Vektor SP1 Sport in 9mmP... the shots were put through the barrel in batches of around 250 without cleaning. (250 was my usual practice ammo count. Competitions usually required around 180 or so rounds) The Vector had a compensator. There was some leading in the chambers of that (and grease) - easy to remove. Never had leading in the bore. The whole workings of the gun also is dirtier, but since it got cleaned every time after being out on the range, no sweat. Every other IPSC shooter in my country used cast lead. Some of those guys put 2000+ rounds per month through the barrel... Glocks, Colts, Baretta, CZ, HiPower, and full on aftermarket special race guns. Nobody ever had problems.
There's no myth. Cast bullets have been used for several decades. I'm not sure who you're listening too, but cast lead bullets will not harm pistols. Cast pistol bullets are usually a harder lead alloy vs pure lead. You mentioned using pure lead bullets in your video, but I'll bet your bullets are a lead alloy. Now treated your magazines by dropping them in the dirt isn't smart.
Police and cowboys used lead bullets years ago no problem... I know for a fact about Police... my dad was a cop many years ago.. I have his snubby backup 38 and my brother has his service revolver.. I even have 3 boxes of ammo they used back then
If its too soft going too high a velocity the lead can strip off some of the lead inside the rifiling, filling the rifiling with lead sort of like mud filling in the treads of a tire.
@@kidddogbites also, if your lead is too hard it can cause leading in the barrel. And I’ve seen someone run so many rounds out of an auto .22 pistol so fast that the barrel got hot enough to melt off a tiny bit of each round. That poor guy’s barrel was so full of lead he had to replace it.
I have been casting bullets since the early 70s. I currently load ammunition for 81 different cartridges and have at least 1 bullet mold for every cartridge I load and shoot except .22 centerfire rifles. (only because casting those tiny bullets is a pain in the @ss). This includes rifles, revolvers and semi auto handguns. I began collecting wheelweights in the 70s when all you had to do was put a bucket at a local tire shop or service station and ask them to throw their wheelweights in it. I would change the buckets every week and now I still have quite a few 5 gallon buckets full of wheelweights (and yes, they are a pain to move and I'm glad I am now in my retirement "forever home"). I cast all my bullets out of straight wheelweights and reduce velocities for rifle cartridges. These are my practice and plinking loads. They have never damaged any firearm I own. Leading is only a problem if you do not size the bullets properly, do not lube them properly OR you load them to velocities which are too high for the hardness of the alloy. This is almost never a problem in handguns, except powerful magnum cartridge. Leading will not damage the firearm, but it is a pain to clean out. You'll learn your lessons. I have never bothered with gas checks as I just don't load lead bullets to those velocities, even in rifles. I use reduced loads and they are fun and cheap to shoot. I shoot a LOT of .38 Special, 9mm and .45 ACP in a variety of handguns and, by far, most of it is with cast lead bullets. Probably 95% +. They work fine.
I USED TO use only plain straight wheel weight. But it began to fail in my 10mm and 357 carbines. It's just NOT hard enough for that. (Plain wheel weight is only about 4% antimony. Negligible amounts of tin.) I add a bit of 95/5 PLUMBING SOLDER to my alloy for most general uses. One can buy "hardball" & other specialty alloys from ROTO METALS, CA.
@@lestergillis8171 I don't load cast bullets to the velocities that would cause wheelweights to "fail" in any cartridge, including rifles. For any purpose needing higher velocities, I simply use commercial jacketed bullets or commercially available hard cast bullets in small quantities. There are simply WAY too many commercial options available, in nicely labeled boxes that stack so well on my shelves, to mess around with making various alloys for various purposes for multiple molds for 80+ cartridges. My head spins even thinking about it. These are plinking and practice loads, they need to have enough velocity to make a hole in paper or ring a steel target. Anything more than that is a waste of resources in my opinion. For example, in my .357 Magnums I usually shoot a 148 gr. button nose wadcutter in .38 Special cases at about 700 fps. And that is about 98% of what goes down the barrels of my .357 Magnum revolvers. I use the same load in my .38 Special handguns. But...you are welcome to your own preferences.
proper lead bullets will work just find out of ANY gun - even glocks!! (there is NO warning in their manual about lead). I've shot 10s of thousands of lead bullets out of semi, revolver and rifles - as long as you don't go nuts pushing velocity it's never a problem.
I just heard about this while watching Iraq veteran 8888 review the Glock P 80 which has a polyiginal Rifling. Sorry about the spelling. Is there any truth to this at all. I’ve got a P3 65 and I just got done loading 2000 rounds with a hard cast lead bullets 125 gr.
Its the glocks pistols that have issues because of how they are built. And glocks have not one but TWO issues. 1 barrel ruptures reloaded brass due to unsupported chamber! 2. Gloack barrel can not use lead bullets safely due to poly rifling READ YOUR GLOCK MANUAL THEIR IS A REASON THEY TELL YOU TO NOT DO IT PERIOD. Most guns other than glocks will do just fine.
Lead bullets for smokeless cartridge's are the best thing you can run through your barrel. The ammo manufacturers and reloading suppliers have been screwing shooters over for years so they can sell them more guns and reloading supplies. Copper work hardens and expands under pressure so by the time a jacketed bullet exits the muzzle its grinding the riffling down. I will say that with higher velocity gas check should be used but many might disagree with me. I will admit that with black powder lubing is a must, I tried cheating with a muzzleloader to see what would happen after 4 shot it was impossible to seat the projectile without a mallet. If you barrel gets dirty just clean it. Lead is far more easy to remove than hardened copper that has fused to corners of lands and grooves
saxonforge is correct. You can shoot lead out of your weapon of choice for the rest of your life and you will never ever ever have to replace a barrel from so called "shooting it out" . Its all the jacketed bullets out there that are wearing down the rifling. I am 55 years old and have grown up in a gun smith family all my life and before I was even born and I will tell you with 100% fact that you will never shoot a barrel smooth using lead. I will not happen it has not happened and it never will happen . Copper and brass as well as some steel will DESTROY a barrel in due time if you shoot often . Shoot lead and you will never have a problem 100%% fact !!!
anything will destroy anything if you don't know how to use them right. just like greasing bearings, not enough and to much will ruin them just the right amount is perfect.
Powder coat. If our grand dads had known of it, they'd have done it too. That being said, home made Alox /45-45-10 from toilet rings works fine. If it doesnt set up non sticky? Dust it lightlly with corn starch.
I have a shield gen 1 that has seen more lead than jacketed. I also powder coat my castings. But I'm sure tumble lube or standard lube would be okay too 🤷🏼♂️
The only pistol I know of that is a bad idea to shoot led is a stock glock barrel i forget exactly what it is but its something to do with the rifling they say it causes led splatter or something idk i don't shoot glock
Plain cast lead is 100% fine as long as you are using a harder lead with some tin and antimony. Plain cast bullets must be properly sized and lubed. Typically you want them oversized by .001 to .002 larger then the exact diameter of a jacketed round. The softer lead should fill the rifling properly negating gas blowby which is the #1 cause of any type of heavy leading issues In the barrel. Done correctly plain cast bullets work great if not better then jacketed rounds, you can achieve a more accurate load with plain lead then copper because they seal tighter against the rifling with more consistency then jacketed bullets. Competition target pistol shooters with the most accurate pistols in the world shoot home made plain cast bullets.
My grandad poured thousands of pounds of cast bullets for all calibers for ALL his firearms. He bought a Desert Eagle .44mag. He decided to run his cast bullets through it rather than buy fmj or jacketed bullets to build cartridges. He traded it 6 months later for a Kimber 1911, because "that piece of shit gas system keeps leading up..." bwahahahaha no amount of explaining would convince him his wheel weight bullets were the cause. Miss that old cuss. R.I.P. John Smith.
Wheel weight are the prime starting alloy for cast bullets. The first thing that causes problems with cast bullets is diameter. The diameter is the most important factor in the game. Speed is second. With the right alloy, the correct hardness and the correct diameter, you can push a .44 magnum to its maximum capabilities, with zero leading.
@@Cradletothegrave67 no argument here. But grandad explained, "my bullets are good enough for all my guns, this gun ain't good enough for my bullets..." bwahahaha don't argue with a ww2 navy man.
Awhile back a buddy gave me a bag of random rounds and there were a handful of 9mm leadcast and my g2c ate them up no problem barrel didn't look none the dirtier
Lead will never wear down steel, been a welder for 10years, and never seen such silly arguments ever 😂, ive climbed into steel and stainless tanks and used a lead hammer to lay down patches never scratched and if you need something harder a solid brass hammer was a go to, lead is not corrosive to steel in any way either, and again depending on how you clean and treat your fire arm for storage and how often you clean it even if you don't shoot it oil and grease is your best friend
Only issue I’ve heard of is with glocks. Long story short...cast lead bullets are typically sized .001” over bore diameter. Glock’s polygonal rifling creates a bit of a geometric bottleneck (best short explanation I can come up with. FortuneCookie45 -peace be upon him- has a great vid on this) which can cause over pressure issues when firing “over sized” cast bullets. Nothing an aftermarket barrel won’t fix. Which most glock owners will already have, along with aftermarket slide, sights, trigger, custom stipple job, aftermarket mags, etc. Because, you know, “perfection”🧐. In my humble and uneducated opinion, most glock kabooms are probably an issue of reloads using brass previously fired from a glock. (Here comes more perfection) Glock chambers have an unsupported section, which is what causes the infamous “Glock bulge”. Supposedly this is a design feature not a flaw. This, along with the super sloppy chamber tolerance allows for more reliable feeding. Somehow nearly every other mid range semi auto pistol has accomplished the same level of reliability without these “features”, but I’m getting off topic... This bulge, even after proper brass prep, leaves a weak spot in the brass. If that weak spot happens to realign with that unsupported section again (pretty unlikely, but so is winning the lotto...happens pretty damn often though) there is a very good chance of a catastrophic case rupture. Especially when running higher pressure loads. Couple that with a pressure spike from an over bore cast bullet...and the failure can be pretty epic. Long story short, there are 2 solutions, 1. Get an aftermarket barrel which will be more accurate and have a fully supported chamber, so safe for reloads. Or, 2. Just buy any one of the dozens of other high quality, highly dependable, reasonably priced polymer lower, striker fired, semi auto pistols on the market. You know, the ones that are made by companies that don’t have such massive egos that they label the single most commonly modified, least innovative (to modern standards), over priced semi auto handguns on the market with the word “perfection” on the box. So perfect that you can’t wait to order a bunch of parts to make it better. And now, a word from the fanboys......... “BUT MY GLOCK IS DER MOSTEST DEPENDABLE GUN EVER! They fired one 30 billion times without a single malfunction!!!!!!” Yeah, they’re dependable, but like the AK, that dependability comes at a cost. And because Glock refuses to make any real innovation in their design they’ve been left in the dust by damn near every other manufacturer. All of which have managed to make equally dependable pistols without the glock’s drawbacks. All of my XDs, XDMs, M&Ps, my VP, and even my caniks have had little to no malfunctions over the thousands of rounds I’ve put through each of them. It’s 2020. Time to move on from the 80’s. There’s better options out there. Damn...really didn’t mean this to become a glock bashfest...but that felt pretty good. And they have it coming.
10/10 would read again. new to the pistol world and this is some good info for me to know. personally bought a glock 19 to conceal carry. Ive never understood why anyone would do such drastic changes to their guns but now i know why. tbh tho for a simple starter gun for CCW its not bad
Monkeys1wormZ Thank you guys, was hoping my comment would help someone. It’s insane just how hard it can be to get a straight answer on some of this stuff. Especially when that info can be misconstrued as “insulting” an item/brand with a cult like following. Glad your carrying, it’ll get more comfortable over time. And, just remember...no, no one sees that your carrying no matter how bad you think you’re printing. Took a long time for me to get that out of my head! Oh...and stop touching it to make sure it’s still there :).
@@monkeys1wormz The Glock "problems" were addressed many years ago by Glock. The so called "problems" with Glocks and lead ammo is a very long and complex discussion. Go to the WEBSITE; CastBoolitsForum for really good info on cast bullets. There you will get the Plain and Simple TRUTH. I take anything fortunecookie45LC with a grain of salt. It's just his way isn't My Way.
@@outtodoubt "no one sees that your carrying no matter how bad you think you’re printing"......hell, I open carry everywhere that it's legal for me to do so and very few even notice then....
Pure lead will cause issues. It’s too soft. No commercially available lead bullets for 9mm are pure lead. They’re all alloys and much harder than lead.
I have been reloading for over 25 years and 99% of my loads for practice is lead... 0 issues.. have shot over a million rds in that time... lead is much easier on a barrel than fmj
I could only see cast bullets harming a firearm if shot out of a high speed round. Like 5.56 or something comparable. I dont think cast bullets could survive at speeds greater than 2700fps and fast twist rates.
If they don't like to shoot solid when and why do people shoot lead bullets out of 22lr. To be honestly probably just means you have to clean your gun a little bit more
Ok yes/no modern guns dislike lead.... Glock more so polygonal is a hard NO GO LEAD other than that in others lead is sustainable and works well. Folks tend to take their own bullshit too far. You however spot on. Lead will not hurt modern barrels and If the gun receives proper maintenance it is going to be fine. Unless it is a Glock
I think Glocks shouldent be fired with lead bullets? I think it had to do with the barrel type and rifling. Ive shot alot of lead ammo with no problems.
You're not supposed to shoot pure lead, or just really soft lead in general. Medium cast, and hardcast are fine. The reason they say not to shoot soft/pure lead is that it fouls really bad. And all you have to do to fix that is clean your barrel after your shooting sessions.
@James Heal Depends on how hard the coat is, but there's been a bit of experimenting with it. Honestly, hard cast lead should be more than fine. Truly hard cast lead closes the gap on copper pretty well.
Sorry guy but you don't know what you are talking about. I cast 9mm, power coat them and use my Kahr PM9 with no issues. If the lead is too soft it will lead the guns barrel. It's hard to remove the lead but not impossible. Why are you saying they'll destroy the barrel? Plus your shooting stance requires work .
When I first started casting my own bullets and shot them in my Glock (with a LW barrel) there was major leading in the rifling of the barrel. Now I powder coat my cast bullets and the barrel is completely clean with no leading at all
@@Sinatra192 No wonder you had leading. Using Lead alloy takes a combination of 3 things, proper alloy hardness, proper lubrication and matching the bullet diameter to the pistols throat. Pure lead was a mistake.
So, you're gun didn't blow up. The point of your video is stupid. Lead bullets cause leading of the barrel. This can be greatly reduced by using gas checks.
they do damage your barrel not your gun because the lead melts when leaving your barrel. Thats why modern guns use only a small amount of lead on the inside of the slug , it’s usually copper on the outside
BS , If you shoot soft lead you'll foul the barrel, if you cast a hard bullet and lube the bullet it DOES NOT foul the barrel. I've been doing it for over 40 yrs, My barrels still look like new, with 100's rds thru several revolers and Semi-Autos. Plus it's HELL-OF-LOT CHEAPER then Store bought ammo.
Ok.... if you know enough to load your own bullets or are watching to learn about reloading then you have probably done some reading. Everyone knows diameter and bhn is as important to your gun as the correct fuel for your car’s engine. So what’s the point of this vid as it’s not accurate
Watching you shoot that tiny pistol was painful you have zero recoil control . Second thing is why would it do damage to the lower LMAO the ammo goes thru the barrel not the lower...I think your slightly confused
I think your severely confused. He’s saying that lead ammo WONT damage your gun. Watch the fucking video before you go to the comments and act like a dick.
@@CringeLord16 you should take your own advice I wasn't being a dickhead I was stating facts sorry if your left liberal pussy finger doesn't agree you fucking jackass
