Cast Lead And Polygonal Rifling

Glenfilthie

Glenfilthie

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Hey fellas, I have an HK USP with that funky polygonal rifling. Somewhere I read that this kind of rifling is not compatable with cast lead. Are any of you familiar with that rumour?

I have only been shooting jacketed stuff out of it anyways, but it would be nice if cast were a viable option...
 
Keep the barrel clean & you shouldn't have a problem. No, I am not being sarcastic.

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NAA.
 
Glock says it's a no-no. But a lot of people do it on a limited basses. That would mean shoot and clean, shoot and clean as already stated. I know a guy in Idaho who shoots Berry's plated bullets all the time in his Glocks.
 
Leo M said:
Glock says it's a no-no. But a lot of people do it on a limited basses. That would mean shoot and clean, shoot and clean as already stated. I know a guy in Idaho who shoots Berry's plated bullets all the time in his Glocks.
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Plated and jacketed bullets are OK.

I would not shoot bullets without plating or jackets as I have seen the results (bulged barrel).

If you choose to do it, use only hard cast bullets at lower velocities and clean often.

With Glocks, people who wish to shoot lead can buy aftermarket barrels with traditional rifling that eliminates this issue.
 
I tried it in my Glock. I couldn't even see the poly rifling after 100 rounds!

Aftert that nothing but jacketed in my USP or Glock.
 
I bought my Glock back in `92, and I was wondering about the same thing....On several occasions, I called Glock and spoke with their techies, and both times I got the same response:Officially, don`t use cast lead....Unofficially, if using light/medium loads, go ahead and use cast lead, just make sure to clean the barrel after 100 or so rounds.....I`ve been doing that for 17 years, and never had a problem.....
 
There is polygonal rifling and then there's polygonal rifling

Glenfilthie said:
Hey fellas, I have an HK USP with that funky polygonal rifling. Somewhere I read that this kind of rifling is not compatable with cast lead. Are any of you familiar with that rumour?

I have only been shooting jacketed stuff out of it anyways, but it would be nice if cast were a viable option...
Click to expand...

I bought an aftermarket barrel for my Glock so I could shoot lead bullets because I had been warned so many times about blowing up the gun. When I got my HK .45 Custom Sport I contacted some barrel makers in the states for a similar non-polygonal barrel. Their response to me was that "There is polygonal rifling and there is polygonal rifling." In the case of the HK they said, you can shoot lead out of their polygonal rifling til the cows come home with no detrimental effect. After that, I went through every page of my HK manual and it says nothing about not shooting lead bullets. This has since been confirmed by other shooters on this forum and on American forums. I shoot lead in my HK and it groups beautifully. It cleans up as nicely (and as easily) as my 1911's. Based on what I have learned, I would go ahead and shoot them.
 
First I hear about this, but I suppose it does make sense.

Speaking of turning a glock's barrel into a smoothbore...

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:D
 
There is no place in the glock manual that says no lead. It says no reloads so if you wanna be anal then you shouldn't shoot reloads anyways. Now I have personally put about 1000 cast lead bullets through my Glock, and just switched to plated because its cleaner and I shoot indoors. I think most Kbooms in glocks happen in the .40 cal guns, so if you have one be careful, but as long as you keep the barrel clean you shouldn't have any issues.
 
My Tanfoglio .40 cal barrel is polygonial and I never have experienced any kind of leading in the barrel. As the other poster mentioned not all polugonial rifling is the same. If the HK rifling in like the Tanfoglio you won't have a moments problem.

As an aside I have friends in the US who shoot lead out of their Glocks all the time. They do experience leading though and do clean their guns after every session.

Take Care

Bob
 
It's obviously one of those Egg-Head theory guys who spread that myth throughout the internet.

In reality, I don't have any problems with polygonal and lead bullets. My friends who have polygonal barrels don't have problems with lead bullets.

Only time we ever had leading problems was because of bullet problems... ie not good enough lube or alloy or sizing and had nothing to do with the type of rifling.
 
Well that is a load off - I will try it and hopefully I don't blow myself up! Some soft easy patty-cake reloads should be fine for practice...thanks for the replies fellas.
 
I think how hard you cast the lead has a pretty huge effect on the leading in a poly barrel. The projectiles I use are rather hard and I am hoping they won't lead much in my Glock. I just loaded up 850 of them to 1100fps so we'll see how it goes.
Cheers,
Grant
 
I tried lead and it was terrible. But that was in a Desert Eagle and you shouldn't use lead due to the gas port anyway.
 
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