New Barrel for Lead Ammo?

[Viracnis]

Over the past few weeks I've been progressively more wince-prone whenever I walk through the ammo aisle at my local Walmart. When they've got .45acp food for my 1911, the price causes heart palpitations With my wife's calibre of choice quickly becoming the .380 I'm not sure my heart (or wallet) can take it much longer.

So when I started talking to my shooting buddies about an inexpensive winter hobby to replace shooting every weekend, Rich The Enabler suggested reloading. It's genius really, two birds with one stone - a winter hobby that I can do regardless of the outside weather that will save me money! Brilliant! This idea grew on me the more I read on this forum about it. Especially several posts by Dolomite detailing the equipment needed ($240 for all the tools is too cheap for words) and Caster planting the lead bug in my brain.

I've got a propane knifemaker's forge along with various torches and metal working tools already setup in the garage so I'm reasonably comfortable working with the hot metal. What I'm really concerned about is the posts I've seen hinting at replacing the gun barrel before shooting lead. Is that something I need to worry about on my Rock Island .45acp 1911? What about on a Bersa .380 or HiPoint 9mm carbine? It would steal a lot of the benefit of casting if I had to replace all those barrels. I'm not even sure HOW to replace the barrel on the Bersa or where to buy one for the Rock and HiPoint.

Is this just something I should take into consideration in my starting cost? I was trying to keep everything (including the beginning cases, powder, primers and pre-made bullets for practice before casting my own) under $300. Is that feasible or am I missing something dramatic? Everything else I think I can manage on that budget but new barrels...

- V

Edited October 18, 2012 by Viracnis

[RED333]

I dont know about you pistlos, but I picked a Lone Wolf barrell for my G22 for 100 dollars.

Shoot lead in all the time. I can put the factory barrel in less than 1 min.

[Static_USMC]

No need to change barrels if it is uses traditional rifling. Glocks and HK's use polygonal rifling and can cause some problems if incorrectly sized bullets (lead) are used or not properly cleaned if leading does occour.

[LCPfraTN]

I think you should be OK with lead bullets in all of the pistols you are talking about, especially if you load lighter target loads.

[musicman]

Ditto the other dudes. No issues shooting lead in traditionally rifled barrels. I use lead, jacketed, and plated bullets of all types in bottom-feeders and wheelies all the time. Depending on your loads, you'll probably get a little leading in a longer range session, but that's no big deal and cleans up easily.

Just out of paranoia, if I am going to be shooting mixed ammo in a single range session, I shoot the jacketed stuff first, as I don't want to have a mildly leaded barrel and THEN shoot jacketed stuff through that. Copper doesn't give and slide like lead. I've not seen any cases of damage due to that, but it just makes sense to me so I'm probably a bit over-cautious. I usually have a bore brush with me though, so sometimes I'll give a hot scrub and go back and forth like that.

Start loading, you'll love it! There's no way I could enjoy my .44 mag as much as I do without reloading.

[East_TN_Patriot]

To echo and add to what has already been said, the issue as I understand it is that polyginal rifled barrels have a tendency to lead up excessively fast in comparison with a traditional rifled barrel. As a result, pressures build up very rapidly and you risk a kaboom. Now, how likely that is to happen depends on a multitude of factors, but since it doesn't sound like you'll be shooting a Glock or H&K, you should be just fine. You just need to make sure you clean your barrel reasonably often if you are going to shoot lead bullets. I actually got in the habit of shooting a mag or two of jacketed ammo after shooting lead bullets with the idea that it may help clean some of the lead out of the barrel. I don't know if it actually works that way or not, but I figure it doesn't hurt anything.

Reloading is therapeutic for me. It's a fun hobby. Get a loader and enjoy!

[Viracnis]

Nope, no Glocks or H&Ks here - though some of my "shooting buddies" do have H&Ks. That makes it more likely that I'll cast my own - no more ammo mooching!

Thank you for the answers, folks. I think a Lee single-stage might be in my future.