NorthernPF
Regular
- Location
- Ramore, Ontario
I have a buddy that says he can't shoot lead in his Glock. Is there a specific reason for this? I want to start reloading and was thinking of using lead in a 1911 to punch paper.
Is it bad to shoot lead in pistols??
- Thread starter NorthernPF
- Start date
- Location
- Montreal, Quebec
Lead fouling is more difficult to clean... that is the only drawback.
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
All in the mix, get it right , a snap to clean your gun, BHN 12-14 is plenty hard..45 acp , 230 gr lee thumble lube molds make excellent bullets rn, and semi wad
I have seen a Glock jam up using softer lead bullets and a dirty lube; I used the cartirdges in my Beretta and had to have it dismantled to get it working correctly due to the lube jamming everything up. That being said, I have talked to gentlemen who say you can use hard cast lead bullets in a Glock, but one guy I know swapped the Glock barrels out for ones without polygonal rifling. That being said, I also know guys that have shot MANY lead bullets trhough their 1911s without a problem.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
MOST reloaders, will go the cheapest route possible. This usually means going to you nearest garage, with a bucket and work gloves, and begging off some auto mechanic, the wheel weights from auto rims.
This means you must have a good back/lifting technique
)) and go through the ritual of removing the steel clips and melting them down at least to get the road dirt off......(heat & skim)Viola, bullet casting material! It's not rocket science. Adequate ventilation required, with a sober sense of your skin and eye safety/fire safety, during the casting/melting process.
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Is it safe to shoot complete lead bullets out of a Glock? Absolutely. Some Glock pistols will have issues about feeding. Similar to every manufacturer in the world. Some will work, some won't. You just have to experiment with what load and gun combination you want to use.
Every gun manufacturer (or at least most that I know of) will state their warranty will not cover self loaded ammo, another discussion. But if you follow accepted, documented by manuals, safe re-laoding proceedures, with lead bullets, it is perfectly safe.
Just on another note, the Glock polygonal rifling actually makes cleaning the barrel easier than conventional lands and grooves.
Every gun manufacturer (or at least most that I know of) will state their warranty will not cover self loaded ammo, another discussion. But if you follow accepted, documented by manuals, safe re-laoding proceedures, with lead bullets, it is perfectly safe.
Just on another note, the Glock polygonal rifling actually makes cleaning the barrel easier than conventional lands and grooves.
It is not wise to shoot lead through any barrel with polygonal rifling. Leading in the barrel can cause increased barrel pressure.
If you want to shoot lead bullets buy an after market barrel with the normal lands and grooves in the barrel wall.
If you want to shoot lead bullets buy an after market barrel with the normal lands and grooves in the barrel wall.
Huh!
Every barrel gets leading if you use any amount of lead bullets. Matter of fact the leading starts with the first bullet. Physics. The chamber, forcing cone and barrel of any revolver that shoots say, 500 rounds in a day of PPC shooting has lead everywhere. Even well timed brand new guns, do. How would having lead in a polygonal barrel have increased pressure over a traditional land and groove barrel? As a matter of fact, Glock itself advertises as one of the advantages of a polygonal rifled barrel is less fouling. Therefore less lead or other material build up. So again, traditional barrels theoretically strip the lead more, and therefore more lead build up. So therefore the added question will lie, how does a polygonal barrel not withstand the pressures of a land and groove barrel? And HK, Glock and others will argue, the polygonal barrel will handle more pressure.
So, I've heard that rumor before, and always wondered where it came from. Other than anti Glock rumor web sites, can't find any real proof.
Providing you use jacketed or plated bullets. Probably 99% of factory 9mm is plated or jacketed for good reason.
Where does Glock recommend shooting lead bullets through a 9mm barrel with polygonal rifling?
Barrels with polygonal rifling lead up faster than barrels with lands and grooves. Talk to some guys with Browning FN's about lead fowling and increased barrel pressure.
You have to take Glock's advertising with a huge grain of salt. After all, they are the guys who convinced mall ninjas everywhere that a turd-shaped gun with an unsupported barrel is "Perfection".
From my experience with polygonal barrels, they foul no less than traditional barrels. There is an argument that they are easier to clean, because there are is no sharp change in elevation between lands and grooves, but this seems to be largely hypothetical. The real advantages of the polygonal barrel are prolonged service life and increased barrel strength (polygonal barrels are usually hammer forged, while traditional land and groove barrels are not).
Having said that, the only other major manufacturer who uses polygonal barrels in their pistols - H&K - does not warn against shooting lead. Perhaps there are other aspects of Glock's design that make shooting lead inadvisable.
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Lead bullets are cheaper to buy than jacketed ones. And you have more styles and weights to choose from using lead bullets. For 1911 there should be no problem at all, all serious shooters that I know of reload with lead bullets. Some lighter bullets may have problems feeding beacuse of profile of SWC lead bullets but 175 and up should be no problem.
I don't know, as far as I know they don't. I didn't say they did.
I don't have to talk to anyone as there isn't anyone alive the can detect anything about barrel pressure from shooting. There are probably only 2 pressure barrels in Canada. One at Energy Mines and Resources, and one at Colt Canada. There might be another, but probably not. Check that, Para Ordnance may have one as well. I don't know how active a company they are right now on this side of the border.
And leading problems can and do exist with any kind of gun and barrel when using a variety of lead only bullets. It all depends on the % mixtures, is it linotype, is it wheel weights, how much antimony, how was it cast, how hot, was it a swaged bullet, how much lube on the cast, etc etc etc. There are a million, OK maybe only thousands of variables when dealing with leading in a gun.
The point is, anicdotal talk is worth the same on any range.
Absolutely, but saying that, the question and answers given, talks about Glocks fouling and exploding more because of polygonal rifling. It just isn't true.
. And that's the point. No less, no more. Again referring to the preceeding answers.
Gotta be honest here on this issue as well, there is no documentation to support a longer service life with a polygonal barrel.
The only problems have been documented are resulting from feeding issues with lead bullets combined with certain bullet shapes, ie. truncated cone. The feed ramp on most Glock pistols is fairly sharp. My opinion is, it is that design that increases the feed/fail to go into battery problems with lead bullets.
When you consider most guys don't know how to check the recoil spring assembly to determine if it is worn, and cleaning issues, if all is up to performance, there usually is not a problem using and shooting lead bullets. Any problems will only be the failure to feed. If it's going to be your SHTF gun and ammo combination, you better know if it's going to work before using it, and that means shooting more than a mag full to determine reliability. And that can be said with any gun.
They also convinced the majority of police depts with any type of budget in North America. Only our Fed dept in Canada would choose, 1. Gun in 9mm, 2. Gun with mag "safety", 3. Gun heavier than 2 Glocks, 4. Gun that needs a squad of armourers to keep them going. I mean come on.......
Are Glocks asthetically pleasing, nope.
Are they the most accurate, nope.
Do they have the best trigger, nope.
Can they be tricked out with cool stuff, other than light and sight, nope.
BUT, they do all of that well enough, and all of that is better than all the rest. Am I a huge Glock lover, not really. I own one, G27, prohib length. And I only use it while I'm in the US at matches. And to be honest, I didn't even buy it. I won it at a match, so didn't cost me anything. But they do work.
I've used the analogy before of racing a car at Indy. Would you want a Crown Vic doing laps at the brick yard, nope. Would you want a Ferrari to carry around a member with duty belt, shotgun, duty bag, patrol carbine, and room enough to toss in a dirty drunk? Probably wouldn't be satisfactory. Fun for a while, but wouldn't work for everyday, especially in this weather.
Same as a Glock, it ain't a tricked out 1911, but for certain applications, it's exactly what is needed.
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