Hornady swaged bullets

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  • Last Post 11 August 2016
Gene posted this 24 June 2016

A few years back Hornady stopped coating their lead bullets in LA and started using some kind of powder lube.They will not shoot in my guns w/o leading. I had to resort to coating them in LLA to get 'em to shoot in my guns...........Has anyone else had this problem and solved it a different way ??

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 24 June 2016

if you are talking about hornady target wadcutters ... they are intended for about 800 fps ... low pressure .... they are intentionally soft to enable bump-up .

if these are them ... it is interesting that you get better results with what is no doubt better lube ..

i used to shoot their hollow base wadcutters backward in my 38's to get devastating expansion at low pressures ... low recoil ...

ken

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Gene posted this 24 June 2016

NO, these are the LSWC's in 38 and 45.  I'm pushing 'em at about 750-800.  They shoot great if I coat 'em, but it's a lot of extra work to do that.  The last time I shot the 148 HBWC, I had to coat them, too...........

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 24 June 2016

the most common cause of leading in revolvers is that the bullet diameter is loose in the throats .

this can be because the bullets come that way ......sizing home-cast too small ..... or over-crimping which could size bullets already seated too small .

i have heard that the lee factory crimper can be mis-adjusted too tight and cause such .

if you have shot your gun with various lead bullets quite a bit and have previously not seen leading i bet the bullets somehow are undersized .

if a new gun, you might lap or firelap your throats and barrel . 6 shots with 400 grit should help.

just some thoughts.

ken

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358156hp posted this 24 June 2016

The last I knew, Hornady was still using a light wax coating, then tumbling the bullets with mica. The wax coating is clear, and I don't believe they ever used Liquid Alox. I haven't bought bullets for many years, but I had issues with swaged bullets leading the bores, and that's when I started making my own. Hornadys website still claims to use a wax coating over the bearing surfaces of the bullets. If you're already keeping the velocities low, you could likely have a dimensional issue somewhere like Ken suggests, or something else may be afoot.

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Gene posted this 24 June 2016

Thanks fellows, but as I stated originally as long as I go to the trouble of coating them in LLA they don't lead in any of my guns!!! I can't just open a box of them and start loading because the powder lube on them causes them to lead in my guns. It would be nice to just crack open a box of Hornady 158's or 200's, just load 'em and shoot 'em....... I've shot all of my supply of old Hornady bullets. They may not have been coated in Alox, but it sure looked and smelled like alox. They didn't lead...... If your guns will shoot the new Hornadys, that's great.... Thanks again

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fecmech posted this 11 August 2016

IMO it's not the lube on Hornady bullet. I purchased some .38 SWC's last year and when loading them they dropped 2/3 of the way into sized cases of their own weight. Put a mic on them and discovered the base was.354” and did not get .357 till halfway up the drive band. Accuracy stunk and they leaded. Sent them back to Hornady and two months later they sent me replacement. Slightly better,.356 at base and .357 about halfway up still NG. Bumped them up in my Lyman 450 with a .358 die to .358. They shot good and no leading but that's more work than I want. Tossed them into a pot of WW's and cast some rnfp's with my 6 cav mold and ran them through my Star. I can cast and size faster than I can bump 300 bullets in a Lyman and easier on my arm.
I had bought them to try before purchasing an NOE Hornady “clone” mold(old BRP design). Bought the mold anyway and it's an excellent shooter in my K-38 and Rossi rifle. Obviously there are no more swaged Hornady bullets in my future!

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Gene posted this 11 August 2016

The ones I have were bought 3+ years ago and they mic out to .357 to .3575.  They're about a 7 or 8 on the scale, so they obturate good in my GP and 686.  Of course my sorry ole 686 has .3565 to .357 cylinder throats so if I can get it in the cylinder , it'll shoot 'em !!!!I've also noticed that my Horn .490 RB's are NOT .490 they're .385 to .387.   American quality is going to Hay in a basket !!!!!

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