Lead Fouling

C

cdbeagle

New member
I have a Colt Cobra and DS. The only ammo I have been able to find lately is Winchester White box 150 grain lead round nose, which I have been using. Will these bullets cause fouling in the barrels? And this may seem like a stupid question but how can I tell if there is lead fouling? I have a bore light but don't know what lead fouling looks like. I am new to revolvers as you can probably tell.
 
Will they? Yes but only if you shoot a lot of them.
What you look for is at the start of the barrel. You will see gray streaks along the lands. It’s easy to get out as long as you don’t let it build up. A good brush and cleaner like Hoppe's will take care of it.
I have never used Win lead so I don’t know how hard they are but most bullets will take up to 1000 feet per second without causing a lot of leading.
I shoot almost nothing but lead and I reload, I shoot a lot during the summer and have never had a problem.
Do a Google search for “Leaded barrel” and select images and you can see what leading looks like.
 
Lead buildup will be obvious when you see it. It will be dull compared to the surrounding metal. The best solution I've found is the Lewis Lead Remover tool, along with a home brew cleaner known as "Ed's Red" (equal parts kerosene, acetone, mineral spirts and transmission fluid). There are some variations in the additives, so you might goodle "Ed's Red" to do you own research. Makes a very good, affordable lead remover that is safe to use on blued finishes. FYI, the Ed's Red by itself works pretty good, especially if you soak to bore and chambers right after shooting. Just remove the grips if they are wood.
 
I get some copper Chore Boy and wrap it around my copper brush, it will scrub it right out.

If the lead bullet is sized right and lubed right you'll get very little lead in your barrel.
 
I have been shooting the 240 grain Winchester 44 special cowboy action rounds in my Model 21. Leaves a lot of lead in the barrel, but very accurate.
 
The DS didn't have any fouling but the Cobra did. I used some Hoppe's Copper and Lead remover. Let it soak for a couple of hours and still had a hard time getting the lead out. Took a lot of scrubbing with a bronze brush. I purchased both revolvers in November and have fired about 75 rounds through each of them. I imagine the fouling was there when I bought the Cobra. Thanks for the advice.
 
Where can I buy the Copper Chore Boy? haven't seen them at Walmart and would like to save some time driving around looking for them.
 
I got mine at Walgreens. Looks like this.
Chore-Boy-Copper-Pads.gif
 
I have used both methods .... the Lewis Lead Remover and the chore Boy. Both work great. The Lewis Lead Remover is gathering dust though as the Chore Boy is much faster as you just use it like a brush. You don't have unscrew, rescrew for another pass down the barrel like the Lewis. When the strands break you just pull another strand and wrap around the brush to get a tight fit in the barrel. Don't have to use often, but nice to have around! Just make sure it is pure copper ... not copper plated...
 
Okay I found some pure copper Chore Boy. This may sound like a stupid question but do I wrap one strand around my brush or just cut off a piece that is still webbed and wrap it around the brush?
 
Wrap about a 3" long piece around an old bronze brush, make it as tight as possible. Form it with your fingers so it is close to the right size and push it into the barrel. It will be tight going in but will form to the rifling right away. Scrub about a dozen strokes and run a patch through. That is about all my barrels need. Depending on the severity you might need more.
 
It breaks easy when you pull hard on it :) . I just pull a 'long' strand from the mesh... as long as I can get.... Then I just wrap the brush until you really can't tell it is a brush. Just so long as you get a nice real tight fit in the barrel.

Something like this:

CopperChoreBoyBrush_zpsacf49506.jpg
 
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