Lead Cast bullets through a Glock?

C

Cavè Canem

New member
I have a chance to pick on some reloaded cast lead .45 rounds from a friend at work but i've heard in the past that Glocks and lead cast bullets do not get along.

Is there any truth to this? Should I worry about it? This will be for Target only. I usually shoot Factory ammo but that can get expensive.

I've heard about the trick of shooting a few FMJ's after shooting Lead to clean out the barrel, is this a good idea and does it work.

Any and all info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Both subjects are highly debated.

It is generally agreed upon that the non conventional rifling that glocks have are subject to leading and it is advised to stick to jacketed bullets. Many users have reported shooting lead bullets and have had no problems doing so. Still, it is pretty much advised that you get an aftermarket barrel with conventional rifling if you routinely shoot lead bullets. Shooting a couple of boxes should not adversly affect your weapon unless the bullets are extremely soft or driven too fast. In this case most any weapon will have leading problems.

As for shooting jacketed bullets after shooting lead as an easy method to clean up , again, it is pretty much advised against. Are there folks who do this?..yes. But I would believe the majority of folks here would say that it is a bad practice.

Personally I don't mind shooting a couple of boxes or lead bullets in my glock followed by a thorough cleaning. I will not shoot a jacketed bullet in an attempt to clean up the lead.

Oh..and I WILL NOT shoot anyone's reloads unless I know them extremely well and know their reloading habits. Some folks love to push the envelope with their reloads. They are not only a menace to themselves, but to others. Some even proudly boast of how many weapons they have destroyed with their loads.

So be wary of reloads offered by a freind.

Good SHooting
RED
 
Thanks for the insight. The guy claims to load to factory specs and will let me shoot a couple boxes free of charge to try them out. Not sure what to do here, Factory ammo is getting expensive and I need an alternative.

Thanks again.
 
If the guy reloads, tell him to reload jacketed bullets for you. That wouldn't make any difference at all in his reloading process. Offer to buy your own bullets to have him load. This of course is if you trust him to begin with.
I shoot copper clad cast bullets out of my Glock 17 exclusively. I don't know if I ever shot a jacked bullet out of it.
 
False economy.

You can shoot a lot of factory ammo for what it costs to replace a blown-up gun.

Get a copy of the Shotgun News and page through it. Lots of good ammo deals.

1. NEVER shoot another person's reloads. You're betting your gun, your hands, your face and your eyes that they are competent to reload.

2. NEVER shoot jacketed bullets to clean out a leaded barrel. There was an incident posted on a forum in which a person claimed that a single jacketed round after a box of lead bullet ammo blew up a Glock pistol. The manual for my 92 series Beretta pistol also states that this should never be done so it's not just a Glock issue.

3. If you want to shoot lead in your Glock, you should do so with the full knowledge that lead bullets in Glock pistols have been linked with gun blow-ups. There are probably precautions you could take to minimize the risk if you are bent on doing it.
 
Wow! Thanks for the info John.

He has been reloading forever and I have never heard of him blowing anything up. I offered to buy him FMJ's and he said he would reload them for me.

I have 76lbs of .45 brass sitting around my apt. I dont have the money or the space to get into reloading so I was/am going to get a deal working with him so I can get rid of the brass.

I have never used reloads in my glocks, I have shot reloads through my Taurus 92 with no problems.

Decisions decisions.
 
I have shot about 15,000 reloads in my Glocks and the last 11,000 have been jacketed. I had two blow ups in my 40 and my 9mm. I do not shoot lead at all now in my GLocks. I also stay away from plated bullets, some are not plated very well and drive pressures. I did not know about Glocks and lead when I started reloading, but now I don't shot them at all in Glocks.

Mike4045
:D
 
I've had only one experience with plated bullets, but it was very bad. The copper plating wasn't thick enough and the bullets underneath were very soft. The plating stripped off along with some of the lead underneath.

After about 20 rounds, I couldn't hit anything with the gun. I finally stopped shooting, stripped the gun and looked down the bore. It looked like a smoothbore! The lead had completely filled the rifling. I thought I would NEVER get all the lead out of that barrel.
 
A shooting acquaintance of mine -- an internationally ranked IPSC shooter, and one starting to move up the ranks in IDPA (he made MASTER in stock service pistol shooting a Glock the first time he shot the IDPA classifier), shoots a lot of different guns, including several different Glocks, STIs, etc.

He reloads for Glocks, using lead. He says that Glock barrels are made to looser tolerances than other guns, to assure reliability, so when he reloads, he's found a bullet size that fits the barrel better. (He told me the specs, but since I don't shoot Glocks and don't reload, it went in one ear and out the other.)

The problem with the "polygonal" barrels, I'm told, is that they let more gas past the bullet. In lead, this equates to more of the lead melted or vaporized and stuck to the barrel.

I think there's ways of shooting lead in a Glock that doesn't require aftermarket barrels (although Federal and others make good quality barrels for under $100...). You've just got to talk to someone who's doing it successfully.

(A few years back, when my son was finishing up basic law enforcement training, he used my Glock 17 instead of the school's S&W 5606s... He had the top score in the class. They shot lead. We cleaned the gun every evening. There was some noticeable lead build up, but nothing I'd consider frightening.... I've since sold the Glock and got a CZ-85 Combat.)
 
Lead Cast bullets through a Glock

BEEN THER DONE THAT.........
Leave the cast bullet rounds alone. My experience was that if I shot 100 rounds of lead through my Glock 21 I had little or n problem. More than that I had to ckean for an hour with a Tornado Brush.

Go for plated bullets!
 
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