Solid lead bullets in ported revolvers

bsebast

In another thread, grab1 was asking about ammo for a ported 2" revolver. Several suggestions were for solid lead bullets.I had a friend tell me he used solid lead bullets in a ported revolver and the lead clogged up in the porting holes. Has anyone else ever heard of this happening, or was this problem unique to my friend's revolver?

Xracer

What do you mean by "solid lead"? If you mean "pure lead", that's too soft for modern pistols and revolvers....save that stuff for blackpowder weapons.If you mean a good, hard lead alloy (Lyman #2, Linotype metal, wheelweights)....a properly sized, well lubricated bullet, kept at subsonic speeds, should be fine.It's possible that the porting process left a lip or burr in your friend's revolver barrel that's scraping off some lead.

v35

Factory "solid lead" bullets are soft, swagedand sometimes copper plated, essentially pure lead. Jacketed bullets out of two inch barrels dont have enough velocity to expand thats why soft, factory lead, hollow points are recommended as being the best defense load. Best performance is the 158 grain hollowpoint. While soft lead bullets make the best self defense load, I would be concerned with lead particle spray to the eyes if the revolver is not fired at arms length and at eye level when using lead bullets.You could do a test by placing a piece of clean white paper a foot above and slightly behind the vents.

cliffdropover1

Lead WILL clog up the porting holes no matter how "hard" or "soft" the lead is. One just takes longer than the other. Your best bet is to use Jacketed bullets in the ported gun. Because of the copper jacketing, the ports will remain uncloged.

Der Gebirgsjager

Lead will clog ports. However, one can always clean the revolver after shooting it. A pipe cleaner and Hoppe's works well for scrubbing out the ports.