Excessive cylinder leading PPC revolver with 148 DEWC

Folks,
Im having issues with my .38 Keefer PPC revolver and excessive cylinder leading. Im getting huge lead deposits in the cylinders, with big flakes of it coming off and then i have to scrub for a long time after a shooting session to get them to come clean.

1) the gun. S&4 mod 64 PPC by Jerry keefer. The cylinders are mirror-perfect, throated with a very extreme cone (11deg?) for wadcutters. I doubt the gun is the problem.

2) ammo: using the Summers 148 DEWC, loaded flush with a heavy roll crimp and 2.7-3.0 grains of WST.

Anything I can change up on this load to reduce the leading? Any ideas how to troubleshoot this? I use summers bullets in other guns and the blue lube they use runs very clean. Never have any lead in my .45 barrels.

Forgot to mention, i started with the gun clean, REALLY clean. I scrubbed the cylinder for days and was in there with a flashlight until it was absolutely, mirror spotless. So I know i started from a good baseline. One shooting session and it looked horrible again.

What size bullet diameter? Maybe without the skirt to expand, you're getting blow-by?

Dave

Thats what I was afraid of, they are .358 exactly. They are such a cheap, easy to load bullet I hate to give up on them. I have some zero HBWC's but I was hoping to save them for... well I don't know exactly. This revolver gets shot a ton by friend and family for fun, hate to waste expensive bullets on plinking.

what size are the throats? I had dewc and seated them out a 1/16" or past the bevel and crimped there before, that helped me. I also used a taper crimp seated out as above and it helped, but I think wasn't necessary.
Stan

Are these lubricated bullets or coated?  If lubricated you very likely have a size issue.  Buy coated and most of this problem gets WAY smaller.  I have found that coated are just as accurate.

Size DOES matter.
Try at least .001 larger than throat diameter.

Ugh, i have thousands of these bullets. Hate to have to switch. Going to try choppers advice and seat them out longer using the crimp groove, hopefully that helps. Only reason I had been loading flush was for my semi-autos, and those are all gone. This revolver is now my only .38.

I don't have the tools to measure throat size, but the bullets could not be seated in by hand so I would assume they are at least .001" smaller.

HERE YOU GO. 2.8 GR WST IS THE LOAD FOR HBWC. WITH 2.8-3.0 WST WITH A DEWC IT'S TOO LIGHT . NOT ENOUGH PRESSURE TO SWELL THE BASE . INCREASE THE POWDER TO 3.3-3.5 WST. THAT SHOULD EASE OR SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM.

NOW FOR CLEANING THE CHAMBERS. DON'T USE A BORE BRUSH. BORE BRUSHES ARE TOO SMALL. USE A CHAMBER BRUSH FROM BROWNELLS. RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB.

BROWNELLS ITEM NUMBER
084-450-137WB  
9mm, 38/357 Caliber Bronze Chamber Brush 3 Pack

 I KNOW I'M RIGHT ON THIS ONE. HOW ? THAT GUN USED TO BE MINE. JP

reload with unresized brass and compare. If it is better, the case was too small and swaging the bullet down. Big problem for soft bullets. Get a 0.360 expander plug full length of bullet
LMK
good luck

Thanks all for the information! Jim this gun is awesome, it is one of my favorites and I shoot it very frequently. 

I will increase the load with the DEWC bullets. That makes sense.

Bruce, good advice also, thankfully I solved that problem a while ago with a good expander for my 550... forgot where i got it but i can seat the bullet almost halfway in by hand.

Do known quality bullets lead the barrel? If the answer is no, the problem is clearly the bullets, or load for those bullets particular. DEWC will require more umph to cause them to obturate compared to a HBWC.

I had been using Remington and Winchester component bullets with no issues. I obtained some Zeroes that, treated the same, leaded like MAD. Small difference in BHN allowed damage in seating. Went to a larger plug and had no more issues, and they hold 10 ring or better at 50y

Zero had a batch of 148 HBWC that were too soft many years ago. They would lead the entire bore from the chamber lead to the muzzle. They fixed the problem but the bad batch could still be circulating.
Jon

Another plug for the Photoescape expander. Larger diameter and long enough for the whole bullet.

You are very lucky to have a Jerry Keefer revolver.    

I never had any luck, try as I may, with DEWC's.  Stick with swaged HBWC's

My load was 148gr HBWC
2.8gr/ Bullseye
Fed SP primer
Seated flush with a slight roll crimp.

My friends load was the aboce but with 3.0gr/ww231.

You can try to tumble-lube the bullets in Lee liquid alox. Wonderful stuff. I've used it on top of conventional lube with no issues.

Used the last of my SPP to load up all my .38 brass, Summers 148 DEWC with 3.4 WST as directed and Zero 148 HBWC with 2.7 WST. If that doesn't do the trick I will get some liquid alox and tumble with that as several have recommended.

I had the same problem with any non-hollow base WC in my 52. Tumble lube helped but even then they didn’t shoot as well as HBWC bullets. I finally used all of them up in practice ammo and took care of the leading with a Lewis tool. I now have a good supply of HBWC’s from Remington and Magnus so hope I don’t have to go back to the DEWC’s but the Lewis is there if needed.