30 Carbine Wildcat in 25 caliber reloading

[Brian Williams]

Lead in a gas operated Semi is a mess to clean up from the gas port and into the gas piston.
Not a recommended proposition, but with Gas checks to keep the hot gases off of the base of the bullet, maybe it would be ok.

Still lead and lube in a gas cylinder make for a mess, keep it clean

This is like shooting lead in a Glock or other polygonal rifling, done right and cleaned often then there is no problem

 

[Leftoverdj]

The others are it plugs up the hole that allows the gas to operate the piston that causes the weapon to reload and fire the next round.

At the velocity he will be pushing that bullet it is not a good idea even if it was not gas operated.

Also I have done this for awhile and thought it would be a good thing to tell him.

Leftoverdj, have you ever cleaned a gas operated rifle or pistol with lead in the port that sends the gas to the piston? I suggest you go ahead and shoot it with lead bullets, and then get back to me. I'd love to hear you then.

Harley

Not all gas operated weapons even HAVE pistons. And, no, I have never cleaned anything with a lead clogged port. Since I gunsmithed for about 15 years, you'd think I woulda seen it if it was gonna happen. And since I have shot thousands of cast bullets through gas operated weapons, you'd think it woulda happened to me if it was gonna happen. A good bit of that was through SKSs before cheap surplus ammo was readily available, but there were also a couple of M-1 Carbines and a Hakim.

Tell me, Harley, how many cast bullets do you shoot?

 

[Harley Quinn]

leftoverdj

I don't shoot lead cast in gas operated weapons, I do shoot them in revolvers.

Iwill stick with my post's and you stick with yours.
I believe Brian has some solid information on the topic.

Currently I am working on a load for my 44 mag with hard cast bullets.
I purchased some cowboy 427, am going to wrap with teflon tape and do a factory lee crimp. See if I can get some extra velocity and less leading.
I may or may not use a gas check, depends on trial and error.

I loaded quite a bit of lead when I shot 38's and 45 cal revolvers.

The deal with the 44 mags came from some stuff I read about regarding the hard cast bullets that seem to be popular with the 45-70 Gang.
Something I have wanted to do for a while. Many years ago we had the hard cast and shot them, now it seems to be in vogue with the cowboy loads.
Any suggestions?

I don't load for my 9mm or 40 cal Glock I fire factory. I fire special reloads in my 5.7 mm johnson M1 carbine conversion, but they are Jacketed since it is in excess of 3000fps. I dont reload for the SKS I shoot wolf or ???

I have been shooting and reloading for 40 years so you could say I have done some reloading, both lead and jacketed. I use to cast but it is not worth the hassle.
Harley

 

[Leftoverdj]

Luck with the patching project, Harley. I can't comment because I have not done that.

I'm satisfied with cast GC bullets in my Marlin 1894, the only .44 Magnum I shoot. It gives just over 1 inch fifty yard groups at 1700+ fps without leading.

Back to the SKS, I shoot 159 grain cast GC at 2200 fps from my CZ in 7.62x39 with a lot better accuracy than I get from Wolf and Barnaul. Have to heat treat them to do that, but that's not much trouble. Haven't used that load in my SKS because it throws the brass too far and my eyes are past good results with iron sights, but I know of no reason why it would not work.