USFA and leading?

[jphendren]

Yesterday I went out and fired my new USFA for the first time.  All I had on hand was a few boxes of Black Hills 230gr .45 Schofield ammo.  After around 40 rounds, the revolver had some serious leading, it took me nearly 4 hours with nylon and bronze brushes to remove it.  I will never shoot that stuff again.  Anyways, I am curious what lead bullets you guys are using in your USFA .45 Colts, and if you are having any leading issues.  I am so over cleaning lead off of revolvers, that I am about ready to shoot jacketed in my SAA's.  Both my Colt and my USFA seem to get leaded with smokeless and hard cast lead.

I have fired some cast performance 265gr., .452", hard cast bullets with gas checks in my Freedom Arms, and those did not lead at all.  I wonder if those would work in standard pressure .45 Colt loads?  I'd be willing to pay for them if they would not lead my revolvers.  I've also shot Swiss blackpowder with 235gr Goex Black Dawg bullets, that combination seemed to shoot nice and did not seem to lead badly.

Anyways, as far as the USFA Ainsworth revolver.  It shoots quite nicely, crisp, nice action, good trigger with a tiny bit of creep, and groups seemed fairly centered.  With the .45 Schofield ammo, it shot about 10-12" high at 25 yards, which I would expect, as that ammo runs slower than .45 Colt ammo will.  The ejector functions fine, but seems "gritty," for lack of a better term.

Jared

[RRio]

Hunh.    I've shot those and BH .45 Colt from both of mine, and never had a problem with leading. 

[Fox Creek Kid]

Black Hills CAS ammo is wimpy and wimpy loads + hard cast bullets = leading. 

[jphendren]

"Black Hills CAS ammo is wimpy and wimpy loads + hard cast bullets = leading."

I agree, compared to my usual full power black powder loads, these were "mouse fart" loads LOL.  Oh well, I have 100 .45 Colts loaded up with a case full of Swiss FFFg and soft lead Goex bullets for when the Ainsworth returns from USFA.  That load actually cleans your revolver.  My Colt SAA use to have leading on the face of the cylinder, leading in the barrel that was hard to remove, and after 100 of those black powder rounds, the gun looks just like it came from the factory.  Even the cylinder face is nice and shiny again.

Jared

[Kent Shootwell]

Years ago I had leading problems and started casting bullets of 1/20 tin to lead. Same powder charge and SPG lube in 45 Colt. Haven't had leading since.

[Hobie]

Proper fit of the bullet to chamber throat and bore, proper lube and a bullet design appropriate to velocity attained are probably the 3 most important things to consider in dealing with leading. 

[August]

Wow, sounds like you had a real bad time with that Black Hills ammo.

Soft lead is what you want.  Hard lead causes leading.

[jphendren]

Strangely, I just received a new Ainsworth from USFA, and fired some handloads in it using 7.8gr of Unique with a 250gr RNFP, and had virtually no leading.  You could not really see any with the naked eye in the bore, but a tiny amount did came out of the cylinder throats with a Lewis Lead Remover.  I was very happy.  The bullets that I fired in this case were commercial hard cast, sized .452", I'm not sure how hard, I believe that I read that they are around BHN 15 or so.

Jared

[Virginia Gentleman]

That's what it comes down to, the lube on the bullet and the load.  I have found that shooting 200-500 jacketed bullets through the gun, then clean it with a good bore solvent and then next range session shooting lead bullets and found that the leading was non-existant if it was a good load.  I think the jacketed rounds and the heat they generate with no lube smooths out the microscopic millling and machine marks that can catch lead and cause cleaning problems.  On my older guns that have lots of rounds through them, leading is a memory as the heat from the powder helps smooth the lands and grooves ever so slightly as more lead rounds go down the barrel.

[August]

I've never shot smokeless powder in my USFA SAs.  I shoot full goose Bozo Holy Black of the Shutzen or Goex variety.  I shoot soft boolits what I cast myself and grease 'em up with the lube I make (crisco+bees Wax + carnuba + lanolin).

I have never seen a speck of lead in my gunz.  Jim Finches forcing cone work might have something to do with that, I dunno.

[jphendren]

I recently tried some 235gr. Goex Black Dawg bullets sized .452" and lubed with SPG, loaded over 8.3gr of Unique in my Ainsworth.  These bullets were intended to be loaded over black powder, but worked fine with smokeless.  While this load leaded the least of any smokeless load I have tried, I did get a little in the forcing cone, and some in chamber mouths.  I have not yet tried a smokeless load that produced zero lead, but this is the closest I have tried.

Normally I shoot commercial cast 250gr RNFP bullets with a bevel base that I bought locally, they are harder I believe than the Goex bullets.  These shoot much better than any other bullet I have tried from an accuracy standpoint, but produce a little more leading than anything else as well.

For some reason, my black powder loads shoot the cleanest of anything I have tried, usually none to extremely little leading.  I normally shoot my black powder .45 Colts in my 3rd Gen. Colt, as it has handles that are easily removable for cleaning, whereas the USFA has one-piece walnut stocks that are difficult to remove (I don't want to mar those fire-blued screws!).  Black powder fouling, especially in the .45 Colt goes everywhere down in the action, and I like to wash it out with hot water.

Jared