can you shoot lead out of a beretta 92FS ?
- Thread starter Kryogen
- Start date
As far as I know Beretta barrels have conventional rifling so shooting lead is perfectly safe. As for your Glock you have two options: 1) buy a conventionally rifled barrel like a Lone Wolf or Storm Lake 2) simply clean your Glock barrel regularly. Lead buildup in polygonal rifled Glock barrels is only a problem if you shoot a lot of rounds without cleaning the barrel. As long as you clean the barrel every few hundred rounds, shooting lead bullets will never be a problem. Been doing it for years, still no kaboom.
If you make your own bullets using lead from wheel weights or old linotype metal, they will have tin in the composition and the risk of leading is significantly reduced. if you make or buy bullets of soft, pure lead, the chances are high that you will get lead deposits in your barrel, especially if you shoot to higher velocities.
The issue of lead buildup is one of those "it depends" sort of things. I've shot literally hundreds of cast lead rounds through my .22's and .38Spl cowboy action guns between cleanings and other than a couple of special cases have yet to find any significant deposit of lead in the bores. If the lead used for the bullets is the correct alloy and the bullet lube is proper to the job there is no reason to expect ANY lead buildup.
On the other hand if you end up with a bad combo expect issues to show up within around 20 to 30 rounds down the pipe. The clue will be sudden spreading of the bullet grouping.
Both times this happened to me was with new .22's. One being brand new and the other likely a safe queen for 20 or more years since it showed zero signs of being shot. Both lost their accuracy to the point where I was getting 3 FOOT diameter grouping at around 20 yards. In both cases I stopped shooting until I could check things out. In both cases this occurred in the first 50 rounds shot. In both cases I was able to push out enough lead to cast a new bullet. In one case the issue never came back after cleaning. In the other there was some lead buildup over the next range session and then it too was fine from then on.
I can only surmise that there was some burrs in the cut rifling that caught and held the lead passing by. But from shooting and running the bronze bore brush down the hole to clean out the lead buildup I guess I burnished the burrs away and from then on things were fine.
Getting back to your gun it's my feeling that if you manage to find that the bore is not building anything up and maintains accuracy 50 shots in then it'll be fine for 500 and more.
Oh, my CZ Shadow produces noticeably tighter groups when shooting lead loads. It's a good shooter anyway. But when I shot those lead loads it made me look DARN GOOD! ! ! !
On the other hand if you end up with a bad combo expect issues to show up within around 20 to 30 rounds down the pipe. The clue will be sudden spreading of the bullet grouping.
Both times this happened to me was with new .22's. One being brand new and the other likely a safe queen for 20 or more years since it showed zero signs of being shot. Both lost their accuracy to the point where I was getting 3 FOOT diameter grouping at around 20 yards. In both cases I stopped shooting until I could check things out. In both cases this occurred in the first 50 rounds shot. In both cases I was able to push out enough lead to cast a new bullet. In one case the issue never came back after cleaning. In the other there was some lead buildup over the next range session and then it too was fine from then on.
I can only surmise that there was some burrs in the cut rifling that caught and held the lead passing by. But from shooting and running the bronze bore brush down the hole to clean out the lead buildup I guess I burnished the burrs away and from then on things were fine.
Getting back to your gun it's my feeling that if you manage to find that the bore is not building anything up and maintains accuracy 50 shots in then it'll be fine for 500 and more.
Oh, my CZ Shadow produces noticeably tighter groups when shooting lead loads. It's a good shooter anyway. But when I shot those lead loads it made me look DARN GOOD! ! ! !
I shoot lead bullets 99% of the time, in all my guns. When I get home I give each gun a few (very few) strokes of a bronze brush, as the guns goes from the range bag to the locker. This includes the Glocks. Don't see any significant lead in any of them.
My Glocks are also 99% lead diet.
My Glocks are also 99% lead diet.
ambishooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Southeastern Canuckstan
Frequent cleaning is all you need when shooting lead. Our club allows lead, non-jacketed projectiles only. We have shooters successfully using lead projectiles in their Glock, Jericho and other polygonal barreled pistols. Whether a myth or a fact, since lead is softer than most jacketed bullets, barrel lasts longer.
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