Sidearms & Scatterguns Glocks and cast bullets.....

[hangunnr]

I don’t keep up on anything Glock related but seem to remember in years past that it was verboten to use cast bullets due to the type of rifling used. Is this still a concern, was it ever really a hazard?
Have a buddy that bought one (his first ever handgun) and is having trouble with it jamming. I haven’t seen it or whatever loads he’s using but would like to assemble some practice loads for some rudimentary training.

 

[Alabusa]

I know a lot of guys that shoot cast bullets in theirs. I "think" they resolved that issue from the gen 4 forward. Maybe a glock person will verify that.

 

[seanh]

Back in the early nineties a gun shop that I worked at was given several Glocks for testing. One of the things we were told was to not use lead that it very well may cause problems. So of course what do we do... Use lead. The only time those guns failed was whenever we didn't clean them... which just happened to be part of our testing. I don't know how many rounds were put through the gun before we cleaned them had to be a couple of thousand.

Of course, we did clean them properly... With a pocket knife or screwdriver to carve out that Caked Up lead and carbon... LOL

 

[308pirate]

The Glock user manual is written for the lowest common denominator. If you know how to select bullet hardness, leading is a non-issue in Glocks or any other firearm with polygonal rifling.

If the bullet is too soft, you'll get heavy fouling from galling.

If the bullet is too hard for the chamber pressure generated by your load, the back of the bullet won't obturate (expand at the base) enough and won't seal tightly against the bore. This lets the heat of powder combustion get to the bullet's outer diameter, softening the lead there enough that you get huge smears of lead down the rifling.

The same thing will happen if the bullet is too small in diameter for the barrel.

Leading is: Deposits of bullet alloy that have been smeared into the surface of the gun's bore. In extreme cases,

From the pages of The IHMSA News, Shooting sports, hand gun, ammo, cartridges, xp 100, reloading, firearm, cast bullet, bullet casting and more information articles

www.lasc.us

Comments on cast bullet alloys

From the pages of The IHMSA News, Shooting sports, hand gun, ammo, cartridges, xp 100, reloading, firearm, cast bullet, bullet casting and more information articles

www.lasc.us

Missouri Bullet Company

Missouri Bullet Company offers premium lead bullets at affordable prices. We make hardness optimized bullets for the velocity of the loads you shoot.

missouribullet.com

Based on that reference material I chose bullets in a hardness of 12 - 15 Brinnell for shooting through a Glock 17 that I had about ten years ago. The result, very minimal leading and all of it was on the very last third of the bore (towards the muzzle) the throat and the mid point of the barrel were always free of fouling thus never being a danger of spiking barrel pressure.

 

[myronman3]

supposedly, the hexagonal rifling is prone to leading. and THAT depends largely on what type of lead bullets you are shooting, swagged vrs hardcast. another big factor is how you are shooting.....rapid fire? stay away from swagged. another way to avoid issues is to put in a barrel like a lone wolf.
and yet another way is to stagger a copper bullet in every 3rd or 4th shot to clean out any potential buildup.

i shot plenty of lead bullets in my glocks.; they were hardcast. i never had an issue

 

[Gustav7]

Another way to get around this would be to get coated lead bullets.

I used Brazos Precision. They use the Hi-Tek coating thats very common in the cast lead world, and in Cowboy Action. Pretty much reduce any and all fouling this way.

IF you're just loading plinking rounds around the 800-900fps area, as long as you're buying decent bullets that are sized properly I wouldn't worry about BHN. If you're getting up into the 1100-1200fps, pretty sure 12-15 BHN will be just fine.

You can also select the size of bullet you want, so if glocks are known to run a tad wide as far as barrel/rifling diameter, you can go a size up. Or you can slug your barrel to see....but I would say fitment to your barrel is probably the most important factor. Using HI-tek coated bullets gives you a more forgiving window as well. I'd pick up some 9mm in either .356 or .357 and get to shooting. --> Brazos Precision 125gr 9mm

Plus at $0.05 a bullet...hard to beat lol

 

[308pirate]

Another way to get around this would be to get coated lead bullets.

I used Brazos Precision. They use the Hi-Tek coating thats very common in the cast lead world, and in Cowboy Action. Pretty much reduce any and all fouling this way.

IF you're just loading plinking rounds around the 800-900fps area, as long as you're buying decent bullets that are sized properly I wouldn't worry about BHN. If you're getting up into the 1100-1200fps, pretty sure 12-15 BHN will be just fine.

You can also select the size of bullet you want, so if glocks are known to run a tad wide as far as barrel/rifling diameter, you can go a size up. Or you can slug your barrel to see....but I would say fitment to your barrel is probably the most important factor. Using HI-tek coated bullets gives you a more forgiving window as well. I'd pick up some 9mm in either .356 or .357 and get to shooting. --> Brazos Precision 125gr 9mm

Plus at $0.05 a bullet...hard to beat lol

I should clarify that when I had a Glock 17, polymer coated lead bullets either didn't exist or were unobtanium so it was just plain lead with lube in the grooves.

Now, yeah, there's zero reason to shoot anything other than coated lead.

I've used Blue Bullets, SNS Casting, Missouri Bullet Co, Brazos, and Cimmaron. Of all those only Brazos has been a leading issue in my CZs so I no longer buy them.

YMMV

 

[Gustav7]

I've used Blue Bullets, SNS Casting, Missouri Bullet Co, Brazos, and Cimmaron. Of all those only Brazos has been a leading issue in my CZs so I no longer buy them.

YMMV

Really?! Interesting. I just bought my first 2500 .38 bullets from them so haven’t had them long enough to notice any issues. Do you think they’re skimping on the coating or what? Who are you using now?

I used 1000 from Missouri Bullet and really liked them and was hoping Brazos was just as good. They definitely appear mildly lighter in color, so maybe their coating isn’t as good

 

[308pirate]

Really?! Interesting. I just bought my first 2500 .38 bullets from them so haven’t had them long enough to notice any issues. Do you think they’re skimping on the coating or what? Who are you using now?

I used 1000 from Missouri Bullet and really liked them and was hoping Brazos was just as good. They definitely appear mildly lighter in color, so maybe their coating isn’t as good

From what I've read on benos, after the leading issues I had, it seems they are really soft.

I never buy in bulk until I load a batch of 100 and run them through, checking for several things including abnormal leading.

I hope they work for you, but for me they are on the do not buy again list.

I've been buying a lot of SNS 125 RN and then conicals.

 

[Gustav7]

From what I've read on benos, after the leading issues I had, it seems they are really soft.

I never buy in bulk until I load a batch of 100 and run them through, checking for several things including abnormal leading.

I hope they work for you, but for me they are on the do not buy again list.

I've been buying a lot of SNS 125 RN and then conicals.

ya I can see that. I was shooting some out of my Marlin 1894 today and noticed they dent and scratch pretty easily. I may switch to something a little stronger for my lever guns.

most of the .38 i shoot is light Cowboy loads. Like 700fps out of a 5.5” barrel, so doubt I’m gonna see issues there.
I could definitley see it being more of an issue with 9mm though, and the generally higher pressures.

I’ll check out that SNS

 

[308pirate]

most of the .38 i shoot is light Cowboy loads. Like 700fps out of a 5.5” barrel, so doubt I’m gonna see issues there.

I can see why Brazos works for you there. I need to make power factor of 125 (muzzle velocity x bullet weight / 1000) for USPSA so I have to push 124 - 125 grain bullets to at least 1050 fps to make sure I never fall below the minimum.

 

[Powder_Burns]

Go to an aftermarket barrel with regular rifling, eliminate leading issues with polygonal bores and minimize glock belly bulges with your brass.

 

[Gustav7]

I can see why Brazos works for you there. I need to make power factor of 125 (muzzle velocity x bullet weight / 1000) for USPSA so I have to push 124 - 125 grain bullets to at least 1050 fps to make sure I never fall below the minimum.

Ya for sure, I get that. I know some places like RimRock offer a Hi-Tek 2 coating, which is just a stronger, thicker coating I believe on some of their bullets. They make some 180gr bullets I wanna load up for .357mag rounds for my lever gun. Pretty sure they're 18 BHN.

 

[mcfred]

Air cooled clip-on wheel weights work fine in my G31 . 125gr at 1135fps.

 

[Powder_Burns]

Powder coating was all the rage a few years back on castboolits.com, supposedly they will shoot like jacketed bullets and not lead up your bore.

 

[hermosabeach]

Powder coating is good to about 2200 FPS... Nice for lever guns....

If you reload... get a fully supported aftermarket barrel - $100- $250 based upon drop in or a match barrel to be fitted...

Eliminating Glock bulge will save the brass....


For self defense- stick OEM

 

[308pirate]

Powder coating was all the rage a few years back on castboolits.com

The overwhelming majority of USPSA and IDPA competitors, who combined send more pistol bullets downrange than any other group in the world, use polymer coated lead bullets.

It's a rage that won't end until something better (higher performance/price ratio) comes along.

 

[308pirate]

Go to an aftermarket barrel with regular rifling, eliminate leading issues with polygonal bores

Those lead too if you pick the wrong size or hardness in your bullets. If you pick the right size and hardness, leading is a non issue in polygonal barrels.

The glock bulge doesn't seem to be an issue with 9 mm which is all I shoot.

 

[Steel head]

Those lead too if you pick the wrong size or hardness in your bullets. If you pick the right size and hardness, leading is a non issue in polygonal barrels.

The glock bulge doesn't seem to be an issue with 9 mm which is all I shoot.

Never had glock bulge on my G23 either or amid the others I sold.

My original G23 barrel did lead up badly regardless of the bullets I tried
It has a aftermarket barrel now for shooting lead.
All my old Glocks shot lead just fine.

 

[hangunnr]

Was able to get my hands on a decent quantity of plated bullets so I’ll save what lead I have for my M&P.

Appreciate the info posted, thanks!

Haven’t been able to replicate the issue he had with the pistol “jamming”.
He’s a brand new shooter and I suspect the grip on the gun he was using was causing a thumb to drag on the slide slowing it down. I showed him a proper grip and the gun has run flawlessly.

 

[Disfunctional_Engineer]

The overwhelming majority of USPSA and IDPA competitors, who combined send more pistol bullets downrange than any other group in the world, use polymer coated lead bullets.

It's a rage that won't end until something better (higher performance/price ratio) comes along.

For darn good reason; I was running HF Red in my guns and never really saw any signs of leading. That includes my 3" 357 Magnum at 1660FPS with a Lee 105gr SWC backed by 23gr H110. I would also shoot em behind 8.3 of Bullseye as well. I really need to load a few more of those puppies up. Great way to be an attention whore on an indoor range and get people asking you if you've got a .44.