M52 barrel leading mystery

I ran out of my standard 38 special load (Precision Delta HBWC, 2.7gr BE, CCI primers) and opened a case of Remington 148gr HBWC ammo I've been saving for a rainy day. My loads were pretty accurate, but after each match there was a lot of lead in the first inch of the barrel which I could never completely remove. I shot about 70 shots of the Remington factory ammo yesterday, and when I looked into the barrel, it was bright and shiny and had just a bit of powder residue which I cleaned with my bore snake. The factory load felt much softer than my loads, it didn't even lock back the slide after the last shot, it had just enough oomph to barely eject the case, not all cases even made it to my brass catcher. So...I'm still scratching my head, what exactly made this difference? Was it the fact that the factory load was even softer? Was it a heavy roll crimp? Anything else?

Did the Precision Delta bullets have their white powdery lube on them?

I don' have a M52 but the 45 cal 185 swchp bullets I used from them in my wad gun leaded up.

I suspect my gun didn't like the powder lube, it does fine with Zero' s, similar bullet different lube.

Yes, the ones I ordered have their match lube on them. Do you think this might be an issue?

javaduke wrote:Yes, the ones I ordered have their match lube on them. Do you think this might be an issue?

Not sure about the match lube.

Jerry Keefer stripped the lube and tumbled the lead around in a bucket with some gas because he said 148 HBWC were some of the dirtiest rounds out there - lot's of loose lead on them, there is a thread on this site about this.  He would then relube them with 45-45-10 he got premixed from LsStuff.com (White Label Lube)
Link to 45-45-10

I took his advice (but use acetone) worked great for me.  I think mineral spirits would work too.
- Dave

disclaimer I am not connected to LsStuff I just like their product

Yep, what Keefer and droning said.

Firebrush it to remove leading, quick and easy.

bruce martindale wrote:Firebrush it to remove leading, quick and easy.

Excuse my ignorance, but what does Firebrush mean?

Leading at the beginning of the rifling usually is caused by undersized bullets or alloy that is too hard. Since swaged bullets are 10-13 BHN, they aren't to hard.
I would check the bullet diameter of some rounds to see if they have been swaged down during seating.
Never had any issue with Rem. HBWCs and the lube has always worked perfectly. I do shoot UNSIZED cases and use an expander that leaves the case ID at 0.358". If I had to size a case, I would first try using a Lee .38 Spl FCD with the crimp guts removed as my sizing die.
For leading, I just use some cutting from an all-copper Chore Boy scrub pad wrapped around a .38 brass brush and some Hoppe's #9.