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Not trying to steel your thunder, David - this is merely what I do. I also want to know how you remove lead, etc.

I shoot cast too, from .22 cal. to .69 cal. - since about 1972. This is what I use for lead fouling, which happens less fequently now except when testing lubes, and loads.

Birchwood Casey sells a lead fouling solvent that works fairly well. I use it with patches only, no bronze brush - I really don't like them, but do have a use for them, noted further on.

Lead-Out patches - yellow in colour also work VERY well. almost scary stuff - WHAT IS IT???????? that merely wipes melted-on lead off the steel????? Lead that ignors brushes? See what I mean. It's incredible stuff - is it dangerous???? Will your body absorb it through your skin? Will it mutate future offspring? It didn't effect mine (much), so I guess it's OK. It is good if you can find it.

Now, my first use FOR a bronze brush.

Curly Kate kitchen scrubbers - made of spun and wrapped copper wire works wonders on lead without harming your bore. Snip a couple wires, pull the strands out and wrapp them around a bronze bristle brush, wet with a powder solvent and scrub out the lead.

0000 steel wool wrapped around a bronze brush also works to remove lead fouling without harming the bore or rifling. I use less steel wool, more Curly Kates, especially in softer steel barrels.

I normally don't use bronze brushs, except for undersized or worn out ones when holding onto something to assist lead removal, ie: steel wool or copper strands.

Lubes:

One way to tell if you have 'enough' lube, once you have a good lube, is if there is leading at the muzzle. Leading at the muzzle only, usually means not enough quantity of a good lube.

Leading at the breech and full length of the tube tells you the lube is not good enough for THAT job. Remember, leading at the muzzle only, tells you you don't have enough lube.

Total innacuracy or very poor accuracy usually means your bullet is too soft for the pressure generated by that load and is slumping too much and not perfectly. The alloy should allow some slight slumping in order to seal and maintain pressure to ensure a seal, or there will be 'slight' wash leading in an almost perfect load.

Large bores are very much easier to load for than small bores ie; .40 cal. and larger. Too, the pressures are usually lower and thus softer alloys that actually work well for hunting, can be used in large bores due to these lower pressures. I've had very good results from straight WW alloys here - standard antimony/lead/arsenic mix - NO ZINC - the addition of the WW's arsenic allows them to be hardenable to about Brinel 34 where pure lead is 5bn, CDN WW is about 12bn, Linotype is 22bn, Monotype is 24bn & finally dead soft copper is 35bn or 36bn, (I think). I have driven straight WW bullets in .45 and .50 cal. to 2,200fps and obtained 1" to 1 1/2" groups at 100 meters with them(off bags with scoped bolt gun or tang mounted peep & aperture sighted single shots). Straight WW alloys make good hunting bullets for large, heavy game, giving some expansion and deep penetration.

A hardened WW bullet is less susceptable to breaking up and gives deeper penetration than a bullet harded only with antimony. High ratios of antimony makes bullets very brittle and they can break up badly on impact.

WW really are a blesssing - cheap and hardenable for a variety of missions. Tin/lead alloys cannot be hardened nor can they be as hard as antimony and lead alloys. Tin is quite ductile in an alloy with lead - many match shooters like tin/lead for their alloys as the casting qualities are much better than antimony/lead alloys & they shoot well in their low pressure guns. High pressure cast bullet shooters use antimony/lead/tin alloys some with hardening, some without. 10:1 lead to tin is about as hard as a tin lead alloy can become. The addition of more tin will not harden the mix substancially - apparently, - but tin can be quite costly. Usually 50/50 bar solder is used for mixing in lead. Tin/lead mixes can make very good hunting bullets as they maintain their hardness longer with age and are ductile enough to expand, yet will hold together and penetrate fairly well.

Heat treated allows become softer with age. Straight WW alloys become slightly harder with age to about Brinell 13 for CDN WW. US WW have been listed as brinel 9 - tha't soft, but may have included some of the stick-on alloy wheel pure lead weight strips - be aware - the addition of pure lead stick on weights will soften your mix. Do not use WW with a Z on them.

Caution - Z marked WW are zinc which will destroy your alloy - if added to a melt, it then casts poorly and some have said it will actually go into the steel of a pot and foul it for future casting as well. Don't use Z marked weights, which are becoming much more prevelent nowadays with lead bans.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V