.22 LR - Leading - Fact or Fiction

[Unk]

'Fessing up - old time trigger puller [paper puncher and hunter].

Used to dismiss folks that were whining about .22 LR leading as never my experience as cleaning my rifles and pistols for >55 years. Figured folks were seeing accumulations of unburned powder, copper washing jacket material or wax lube.

A shooting partner had his SR22 turn into a lead mine at 500 rounds fired at one outing and was experiencing key-holing. Gave hi, my standard just suck it up and clean it. Turned out the barrel was badly leaded [club supplied Remington Thunderbolts for a ladies day]. He couldn't get a .22 LR brush through so started with a .17 HMR brush and not making much headway. I suggested that he try copper strands from a Copper Scouring pad...however the determined guy that he is he wound up getting it all out using a 6 mm [.243] brush and elbow grease.

Now he's back to shooting Mini Mags which clean right up just like before.

Guess I want to go to school on you guys that have actually experienced heavy leading in .22LR. I am old however every day still has a teachable moment.

Did have heavy leading in a Colt .357 when the only bullets were lead [pre-Super Vel] and had to use a Lewis Lead Remover after every range trip. World class P.I.T.A.

Best.

 

[rugerguy]

well based on my actually shooting 22 's since the late 1957 to today and having owned 3 gun shops that specialized in 'service/repair/restoration' in between, I can tell you YES, 22 's are overall dirty, foul a lot and cause leading.promo ammo ( bulk,ala Thunderbolts for ONE example) were usually the worst offenders....we've had and seen some that the lead looked almost like it would be flowing out the end of the muzzle, with hot, rapid, lots of ammo down range.wish I had a "penny" for every 22 caliber firearm I cleaned over the years, many were thought to be "broken" were in fact ONLY dirty, many thought to be "shot out", inaccurate, were ONLY badly leaded up, scrub the bore ( and yes back in the day we even used mercury to clean out some bores,they don;t do that one today) :shock: and they shot fine, still shoot today ..................cleanliness is next to Godliness, as the old saying goes...............amen and pass the ammunition :wink:

 

[Rick Courtright]

( and yes back in the day we even used mercury to clean out some bores,they don;t do that one today) :shock:

Hi,

Lacking any mercury these days, I offer this home brew w/ the standard disclaimer: I've never harmed anything using it, but some claim it can be damaging. Use at your own risk:

A 50-50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide (medicine cabinet strength) makes very short work of lead in barrels. Swab barrel well and leave "wet" for a minute or two at the most, then run a brush thru, followed by a dry patch. Repeat as necessary. If possible, rinse barrel w/ boiling water like you would a b/p barrel, and finish w/ a light oiling when it's dry. If you can't do a water rinse, give it another swabbing w/ solvent followed by dry patches to get any residue out, then oil.

I've been shooting .22s for a hair over 50 years now, and don't recall any of mine having leading problems. But I have an old Marlin single shot obtained "very used" (read, never cleaned, rusty, wood dinged up and cracked) that looked like a smoothbore even after soaking in solvent for a while and brushing w/ a bronze brush. I dipped a swab in that mixture and wet the inside of the barrel well, then let it sit for about two minutes. Oh, my... inside the barrel looked like one of those clogged drain pipe commercials on TV w/ stuff growing everywhere! It's an early Micro-groove barrel, and the lead was really ironed into all those grooves: took three "treatments" to get it all out.

It's remained shiny ever since, and while the outside could use some more cosmetic work, it turned out to be a pretty good shooter, too!

Rick C

 

[rugerguy]

no substitute for GOOD ammo and any of the coated ammo these days clean up pretty good,,,,,, cheap, soft lead is just that and to be expected...............and yes a bit of copper or brass wool, or a bit of Chore boy wrapped around the brush also does wonders..........

 

[Snake45]

I've only experienced .22 bore leading twice, once with some cheap foreign ammo and once with an unusual, unlubricated lot of Winchester Xperts.

In both cases, I found something that cleaned it out most rikki-tik: Two or three passes with a brand new USGI M16 bore brush. :wink:

 

[GeorgeP]

I think the over use of cheap, uncoated or unwaxed lead is going to leave lead. I discovered several months ago that inexpensive (not cheap) CCI's Blazer are lightly waxed and do not leave lead, and the wax is very easy to remove with a simple bore snake. Plus, they have proven to me to be the most reliable 22LRs I've used. I've put brick after brick through my Buckmark, MKIII 22/45, Beretta NEOs (now gone to a new home), Bobcat, and have just started on a Bersa Thunder 22 and Ruger SR22. I buy the Blazers by the 5000 case. OBTW, that's Blazer boxed bricks, not the loose bulk pack. Yes, I love owning and shooting 22s.

 

[Ladobe]

Old school here, stuck in a rut, whatever...

I sarted shooting 22RF in the early 50's, using the cheap messy ammo of the day as it was about all that could be afforded on the ranch. And it picked up lots of crud just tossed loose in a pocket, tackle box, etc. Mattered not, like all my family did I was taught not to clean RF's until they "tell you" they need cleaning, and even then no more than to get acceptable accuracy back. Whether right or wrong didn't matter, just the way it was. "More barrels are ruined from over cleaning than from not" was my families guide. Applied more to the RF's than the CF's (but I did and always have cleaned my CF's). All the RF's always got the jobs done just fine, vermin control and cook pot fodder, and later plinking when ammo wasn't so hard to come by.

My first RF's were a Winchester 1890 (c 1901), a 1903 (c1909) and a 1906 (c1914), and all of them hand downs from other family members that had been in the family since brand new. They had been constantly used, and I did the same with them. I never got a brand new RF myself until 1959, a High Standard/JC Higgins Model 31 w/JCH Rifleman Senior scope.

Whether the only ocassional cleaning routine was the right choice didn't seem to matter much on longevity and acceptable accuracy with any of them. Shot the 1890 well into the 80's before trading it off, and it was still a great shooter; shot the 1906 so much followed by my wife doing the same that I had to retire it in the mid 80's when the action got so loose it spit lead; sold the 1903 in the late 80's because ammo got so scarce for it, but it too was still a great shooter. They survived the "routine" and shot very acceptably all those years, even the '06 that saw more use than the others was still plenty accurate. I still have the Model 31 and its scope, and it's still as good as the day I got it. But I never shot it as much as the pumps, not much of a semi auto fan. I have owned a truck load of RF's since the early 60's, rifle and handgun - commercial and custom, but most shot with better ammo. But still following the old school methods I was taught as a lad with them "mostly"... they got cleaned when they showed they needed it, and never "scrubbed". Worked fine for me anyway. Doubt my Ruger Super Bearcat (c 1971) has been cleaned in 10-12 years - back then I last shot it almost daily and as much as 3-4 bricks a week both for fun and hunting. Near the same with my Ruger 77/22 I bought new in the mid 80's. All but one of the 5-6 10/22's were a different matter though, the jamomatics had to be cleaned after every use. LOL Enter the 17HMR, then the 17HM2 and both when they first came out, and well, all my 22RF's more or less got retired. Can't get away with the no clean thing with them as long before accuracy starts to drop off, but still only cleaned them when i absolutely had to - very carefully. Their accuracy is so much better than the 22RF's that loosing a little makes no difference in the killing fields, even on very small game and at much longer ranges. Me bad? Maybe, but it's how I was brought up and I always dance with the one I brung. :wink:

 

[Pat-inCO]

I have an SR22P that leaded up in less than one box of Winchester Silver box SuperX. The same stuff I am running in all of my other 22s.

I think I will see how hard it is to get that barrel out and try the "50-50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide". With the barrel out it should clean up afterward quite easily.

 

[Tslepebull]

I have been working with a Chiappa M-4 upper for my AR. With CCI Blazers it shoots great for about 50 rounds when it begins keyholing from lead deposition. With Copper washed ammunition leading is not a problem. However, I am cheap. Therefore I have been smoothing the barrel by fire-lapping using copper washed ammunition dipped in automotive rubbing compound. The smoothing has progresses to the point I can shoot 200 rounds without keyholing. I will continue with the fire-lapping untill all the chatter in the rifling is removed and I can shoot cheap ammo at will. For what it is worth my MKIII 22/45 shoots the same Blazer ammunition with no leading and particularly nice grouping.

 

[VAdoublegunner]

I have experienced very heavy leading in a 22. The particular gun was a S&W Model 17-8, a ten shot version with those silly alloy cylinders. That thing would lead up after about 4 cylinders, regardless of the ammo type. When I brushed the barrel I would get long shards of lead out of it, sort of like those hanging icicles you put on Christmas trees in the late 50s (which actually were lead, or more probably tin, foil I think). I suspected the barrel hole had been drilled into the frame at a slight angle. I sent it to the S&W Performance Center to have the cylinder replaced with a SS 6-shot one and they ended up destroying the frame and building me a one-off new gun. Kind of cool actually. It is one of my most accurate revolvers and doesn't even lead with a brick of Thunderbolts now, so the PC did something right.

I have also had leading issues on and off over the years with particular types of ammo. Rem Thunderbolts are often cited as the universal offender. However, a friend of mine bought an old 3-screw Single Six that had had the barrel shortened and had some parts gold plated. It was pretty pitiful looking. We had it at the range trying all sort of ammo, and it shot OK enough, nothing spectacular. But I had a box of Thunderbolts and kidding said "here, try these". Danged if it didn't shoot those into 1" groups at 25 yards and still does to this day, with no leading! Go figure.

Other guns can develop a little leading buildup at the forcing cone, and you may find them spitting stuff back in your face. But most of it is easily taken care of. Good ammo is a key to avoid it, but the actually gun and its details of throat/bore/alignment seems to be as much if not more of an influence than the ammo itself.

 

[Montelores]

Rick C. Wrote, "A 50-50 mix of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide (medicine cabinet strength) makes very short work of lead in barrels."


Rick - a question: Can this mixture (the vinegar especially) harm the bluing?

Thanks -

Monty

 

[wolfee]

What about "tinning"? I want to try some of the Winchester solid tin LR ammo but have concerns about fouling the barrel with tin. The stuff melts at a lot lower temp than lead and it seems like it might be a problem. Anybody shoot this yet? Clean?