Barrel Leading

[Oudoceus]

Hello,
At the velocities we're talking about here do we need to be very concerned with barrel leading when shooting bare ball with wadding? I'm still working on finding a load that my fusil likes best but I have found that it likes the ball to be very close to bore diameter. I know from experience that Ballistal will take out leading in barrels. Would using copper wool on a jag be OK? Is this something I even need to worry about? Although I do intend to find a patched RB load my gun likes, just because, I do prefer to shoot the "old" ball and wadding way.

 

[Britsmoothy]

When ever I bare ball I use plenty of my patch lube and have never found lead from a ball down the bore!

B :hatsoff:

 

[paulab]

Copper or bronze wool will take out leading very quickly with absolutely no harm to the bore. Cheers Paul

 

[donk56]

I use a greased .559 ball over a 28 gauge wad
in my TC 56 smooth bore, Never had any issues with lead fouling.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I usually shoot patched round ball. But I have not had a leading issue when shooting bare ball.

My traditional load in my 28ga. (.540” bore) is 60 grains of 3f, tow wadding packed the same thickness as the bore diameter or a bit more, .526” bare ball, a thin patch of tow on top to hold the ball.

Tow can be almost any shredded fiber such as binder twine or sisal rope. To my surprise a .490” ball was just as accurate as my .526” ball.

Let us know what you find out.

My cleaning procedure finishes with Balistol and I will use a bronze brush if I shoot shot.

 

[cynthialee]

it ocurs to me that if most your shots are PRB that the patches would clean out any leading so long as you didn't shoot alot of bare ball or conicals

 

[Dane]

you'll get more leading from shooting shot, than from a ball.

 

[cynthialee]

makes sense