Henry Rifle Forums

Travlin wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:21 am

I have shot cast bullets , mostly my own , in several calibers of rifle and handgun starting in 1969.If you are getting a lot of leading when you shoot , I would think that there is something amiss. It could be the alloy , or more then likely what the bullets are sized to.Have you slugged the bore?

Yes Travlin. I did slug the bore and it is .451" groove dia. in my Marlin 1894. My bullets are sized to .452". I usually like my bullets sized to .002" over the bore dia. My alloy is 100% COWW with sometimes 1%tin added and either air cooled or quenched. Sometimes I cast with 50/50 ( coww/pure) and quench. I do see some chatter in the grooves for about the first 4 or so inches from the chamber with the use of my bore scope but those cameras magnify about 15 % more then actual size so it just makes things look worse then they are. The rest of the bore looks good but not quite the equal of my Henry 44 magnum. However, the Marlin is shooting quite accurately. I have a 4.5 power scope on the rifle and at 75 yards, if I do my part I am getting anywhere from 3/4" to 1-3.4" for 5 shot groups. Any further then that then the cataract forming on my right eye interferes with my seeing the target clearly. I have to use a lot of elbow grease to get all the lead out and it is time consuming so I am merely looking for means to hurry the process while doing a good job at removing the lead. Chor-Boy is my friend along with my mix of 50/50 Hoppe's/kroil but it still remains slow.
Thank you for your interest.

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Is the Marlin a microgroove? Is it a J.M. or a New York made rifle. I under stand that some of those had a muzzle crown that was not quite up to snuff but on further thought you would not be getting such good groups if that were the case. How about shooting jacketed bullets, is the rifle accurate with those and is it hard to clean when using only jacketed ammo? Have you tried a different powder charge or maybe a gas check bullet?

Travlin wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 8:45 am

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Is the Marlin a microgroove? Is it a J.M. or a New York made rifle. I under stand that some of those had a muzzle crown that was not quite up to snuff but on further thought you would not be getting such good groups if that were the case. How about shooting jacketed bullets, is the rifle accurate with those and is it hard to clean when using only jacketed ammo? Have you tried a different powder charge or maybe a gas check bullet?

The rifle has ballard rifling and was made in 2017. I don't shoot gas checks since it is 45 Colt and my velocities are only in the 1150 fps range. I never shot a " J" bullet out of it and really don't plan to. My 45-70 and 44 mag rifles only see cast bullets too, some of my molds for them have gas check design.. I couldn't afford to shoot if I had to buy jacketed bullets.

Roper what bullet lube are you using.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:39 am

Roper what bullet lube are you using.

Off an on I have been using three different lubes. LBT Blue Soft, and Lar's BAC and Carnanuba Blue.

Im surprised at the leading with the LBT lube. Its some of the best. I have had Veral Smith make moulds for some of my guns when I was still casting. I wonder if powder coating would solve your leading issue.

It will certainly help Al. Between my naked cast and coated from MBC, the coated is way easier to clean.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 2:44 pm

Im surprised at the leading with the LBT lube. Its some of the best. I have had Veral Smith make moulds for some of my guns when I was still casting. I wonder if powder coating would solve your leading issue.

Agreed, but that is another equipment investment, a $50 oven, a sizer, grate baskets, and the powder coating not to mention the fact I have never done it before. I sure like the method tough and the results powder coating gets. My bullets are also of the one and two lube groove design and I understand that a cast bullet with tumble lube grooves is best to use.

Greetings from shooters' Paradise, i.e., the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. How about gas checks to reduce leading? A couple of years ago I switched from jacketed bullets to hard cast lead bullets in my .44 Mag BBB, S&W Model 29 Classic, and my Marlin 1895 CB .45-70. Initially, I did not use gas checks as part of my reloading process. After a 100 rounds or so, I noticed lead build-up in each firearm. A friend of mine who casts his own lead bullets advised me to use gas checks. Once I began installing gas checks lead build-up decreased significantly and accuracy improved.

I was hoping to get by without gas checks. My velocities in the 45 Colt rifle are such that I should not need gas checks. I have two 45 colt bullet molds equaling about a few hundred bucks so don't want to see them collecting dust like many things in the reloading room. Besides all the snake oil remedies out there for lead removal, only JB bore cleaning compound and elbow grease have become my friend and of course, Chor Boy.