I picked up a box of reloading odds and ends at a swap meet and there was jug with about 300 38 caliber 148gr. semi-wadcutters in it.

I gave a couple the "fingernail" test and they seem to be on the soft side.

Because I dislike cleaning lead out of my revolvers I suppose I could load some 600 fps plinkers and hope they don't deposit in the bore but those kinds of loads don't satisfy very well.

I'm just curious what others here would do with them?

If you are a caster, you could melt them down and hard cast them. About 5% tin should make a big difference on the leading. Other then that, I would say you are on the right track.

1200-1500, and run a tsx down when it starts shooting funny

I'm not a caster so I won't be melting them down myself. Maybe just make some recoilless loads and practice double action shooting.

Jeffeosso, 1200-1500, as in fps? Not sure what you mean, except for the shooting funny part.

you can run them at least 1200fps .. and probably 1500 fps .. and if the groups get bad, o leading becomes obvious, shoot a TSX down the pipe,.. it will clean the lead out.

Sized properly to fit the gorrve dia, they should be good to 900fps w/o any appreciable leading.

those were designed for target shooting at target shooting velocities.
don't be ironing lead into your bbl.
iff they aren't what you want pass them along.

Clean your bore real good.
If they fit the cylinder/barrel, moderate plinking loads certainly won't lead the bore unless the barrel fit is bad.

If all else fails drop them in one of those USPS boxes and I will begrudgingly convert them to fun.

Great answers here, some have me laughing...

I've never tried blowing out a leaded barrel with a hot jacketed load. Not afraid to, just never tried it. And I also don't like to waste any of my ballistic materials.

I was shooting some hot lead loads years ago and leaded up a barrel. After that I was more careful about the lead slugs I bought.

I never felt the lube on them did much to prevent leading. Figured it was largely due to the hardness of the slug.

I'll try a few at around 800 fps and see what happens. Should be a decent load for one of my little 3" J Frames. I have some nice lead loads for my .357 and my .44's.

I appreciate the input here.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe from So. Cal.:
...I never felt the lube on them did much to prevent leading. Figured it was largely due to the hardness of the slug. ...

Actually it is bof'um.

You can go both too Fast and too Slow when shooting Lead and get totally different kinds of Leading, that when seen in the barrel looks just the same.

Just like Jeffe, I've followed Lead Bullets with a Jacketed Bullet or three to help remove the Lead. It did not "Iron In" the Lead on my barrels as Lamar apparently has seen.
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With all Lead Bullets, regardless of the Hardness, the Wax Lube is forced out of the Grooves as the Bullet Compresses(mostly the Larger Rear Groove) during Obturation. Then depending on the particular Lube being used, Leading is reduced. If the wrong Lube is used, you still get Leading.

The trick is to get the specific Lead Alloy going Fast enough to start Obturation(and Compression) without creating Skidding waaaaay down the barrel. Go too Slow and you have no Obturation(or Compression) which then results in Blow-By and another type of Leading.

Use a type and ammount of Powder to achieve the proper Velocity for the specific Alloy(and Lube) and the accuracy can be great. Likewise, you can get the correct Velocity, but with a Powder which begins "Melting" the Base and you get poor accuracy along with still another type of Leading.

It is not as difficult as it reads to get a good Lead Load after a person learns a bit about them. Plus, a barrel will last at least 10x longer shooting Lead than Jacketed.

Best of luck to you.

Very interesting. Everything you said makes perfect sense. What I'll do is try to find a load that will run in the high 700 to low 800 fps range out of an early S&W 4" I have.

As mentioned earlier, I've been shooting fairly hard cast slugs out of my .45 and .44 and never see any leading. And I push them pretty good too.

Great replies, great forum.