That's strange, as most of the ammo fired through my P322 so far has been Federal Auto Match and I haven't had any leading issues. I too suspect you have a bad barrel. I have an early S&W M&P .22 Compact that would lead badly until I ran a bunch of JB bore compound through the barrel on some tight-fitting patches.
-
SigTalk is a forum community dedicated to SIG Sauer enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about Sig Sauer pistols and rifles, optics, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!
Leaded Barrel
Hi,
new here but own almost all the P Series SIG's. So I lucked out and found a P322 at my local Academy Sports for suggested retail. Snatched it up. First trip out went good. Just a break in. About 150 rounds of Federal Auto Match. No problems. Went home cleaned and lubed gun. Second trip a mixture of Winchester Super X, Aquila Super Extra, and Federal Auto Match. After about three mags started having 2-3 rounds chamber but not go off. Happened with all the different ammo. Got tired of it so I set the gun aside. Fired my wife's tricked out Ruger 22/45 same ammo no problems. Got the gun home and couldn't get a bore brush through it! Finally had some lead flakes fall out of my gun. So I tried a bore snake. Took a tremendous pull to get it through. Still couldn't get a bore brush through. I had a Ruger and another gun lead up like this from Thunderbolts. Never Federal Auto Match. Only lead bullet in the group. So I sent the gun back to SIG for them to have a look at. Talked to a friend of mine and he said for the to get that clogged up their was either a bur in the barrel or the barrel wasn't properly polished. And it seemed like the barrel was mainly having problems getting anything through a particular area. SO wonder if I am having a bore and firing pin problem. Again same boxes of ammo through the Ruger no problems. Any thoughts?
new here but own almost all the P Series SIG's. So I lucked out and found a P322 at my local Academy Sports for suggested retail. Snatched it up. First trip out went good. Just a break in. About 150 rounds of Federal Auto Match. No problems. Went home cleaned and lubed gun. Second trip a mixture of Winchester Super X, Aquila Super Extra, and Federal Auto Match. After about three mags started having 2-3 rounds chamber but not go off. Happened with all the different ammo. Got tired of it so I set the gun aside. Fired my wife's tricked out Ruger 22/45 same ammo no problems. Got the gun home and couldn't get a bore brush through it! Finally had some lead flakes fall out of my gun. So I tried a bore snake. Took a tremendous pull to get it through. Still couldn't get a bore brush through. I had a Ruger and another gun lead up like this from Thunderbolts. Never Federal Auto Match. Only lead bullet in the group. So I sent the gun back to SIG for them to have a look at. Talked to a friend of mine and he said for the to get that clogged up their was either a bur in the barrel or the barrel wasn't properly polished. And it seemed like the barrel was mainly having problems getting anything through a particular area. SO wonder if I am having a bore and firing pin problem. Again same boxes of ammo through the Ruger no problems. Any thoughts?
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
One thing I found out it wasn't the Auto Match. It was Winchester Super X. I don't buy the Winchester hardly anymore. But their is another guy on utube that ran the Winchester ammo through his P322 and it leaded the gun up after a few magazines. It was like mine. You could see lead at the front of the bore it was so bad. He was tying to chrono some of the bullets and kept getting error messages. Turns out the Winchester ammo was blowing out residue so badly he stopped trying to chrono and found out his barrel was all leaded up. Bullets were going everywhere. He shot them into Gel and when he pulled the bullets out the copper washing was almost totally gone on the bullets. All you saw was lead. Won't shoot anymore of that junk for sure. Funny thing is like I said my wife shot it through her Ruger 22/45 and no leading. Hope they check the barrel over for me. The only other time I have seen leading like this is from Thunderbolts. Seen those lead up 2-3 guns.
Same here w/Thunderbolts. They even leaded up my decades-old Ruger 10/22 with a bazillion rounds through it already.
Hydrogen Peroxide + Vinegar. 50-50 mix. I used 1/3 of a cup of each. Wear gloves and eye protection. Take a cleaning patch and soak it in the solution. Run it through the barrel a few times and wait about 2-3 minutes. Then run a bore brush through the barrel back and forth about 6 to 8 times. Then a clean cleaning patch or two until it stays white. You will be amazed at all the junk and residue that comes out! While doing this; Make sure you hold your gun over a trash can or a towel underneath. Good luck..!
SIG replaced the barrel. Just got it back today. Don't know if it was polished improperly, burr, whatever. Hopefully will get out to fire it over the next couple of days. In the past few months I've bought a new P365 that had to go back for major work. Bought a P365x so I could put a Holosun on it. Front tritium sight burnt out in a couple of weeks. Every time they fixed it and got it back to me quick. Think the bean counters must be pushing them out too fast for profits before fully proofed. Not just SIG doing it. But I am 3 for 3 on new SIG's. That's bad. I didn't buy one but throw in the bad start with the P320. Think they need to slow down a bit. No problems with my old German SIG's or P229. We'll see what happens. Got mine fro MSRP $399.99. See some places gouging over $200.00 over MSRP. That stinks.
Wow... to SIG and back in only four days??? That has to be a new record. And to think it took Taurus four months to get around to my guns and replace a couple of $1.50 extractor springs!
Yeah I have had to send three new SIG products back in the span of a few months as I stated earlier. But the service has been excellent. Two of them back in a week. One a bit longer but the P365 they basically rebuilt. Kudos for that. Over the years I've owned about a dozen Taurus products. About half worked out of the box. When I had to send them back they were sometimes gone for half a year. No joke. And it was iffy if it came back fixed or worse.
My last one was a TX22. It was an amazing gun. I thought I would shoot it to pieces. It finally broke. Sent it in four months later got it back. Only problem was when I got it back every time I would shoot the gun the manual thumb safety would engage. Called them. They said to send them a video tape of the gun doing it. Or if I wanted to I could send it back for $50.00 and they would look at it. It was still less than a year! So no more Taurus guns. Couldn't fix it myself because I couldn't get parts for it. Ended up finding a way to fix it myself.
Long story short S&W, Ruger, Springfield Armory, and SIG have always taken care of problems. No questions and it came back fixed. No charge, no games. Other guns in my collection have never went back. But they didn't need to. To be fair though the above mentioned guns are the ones I shoot the most. So I still wouldn't recommend a Taurus to anyone on principle. They make some great innovative guns. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Going to take the P322 out this weekend. Let you know what happens.
My last one was a TX22. It was an amazing gun. I thought I would shoot it to pieces. It finally broke. Sent it in four months later got it back. Only problem was when I got it back every time I would shoot the gun the manual thumb safety would engage. Called them. They said to send them a video tape of the gun doing it. Or if I wanted to I could send it back for $50.00 and they would look at it. It was still less than a year! So no more Taurus guns. Couldn't fix it myself because I couldn't get parts for it. Ended up finding a way to fix it myself.
Long story short S&W, Ruger, Springfield Armory, and SIG have always taken care of problems. No questions and it came back fixed. No charge, no games. Other guns in my collection have never went back. But they didn't need to. To be fair though the above mentioned guns are the ones I shoot the most. So I still wouldn't recommend a Taurus to anyone on principle. They make some great innovative guns. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Going to take the P322 out this weekend. Let you know what happens.
A Taurus is a second tier gun. You wouldn’t expect excellent service or performance from 2nd tier guns.
On cleaning lead out of a barrel, Choir Boy (ONLY) wrapped into an old brush. You use up a bit of one pad. I had to shoot lead for CAS, and always cleaned my six shooters with that. They are the ONLY pads that are COPPER, not STEEL, so you get the lead out without damaging your barrel. Good idea for any gun you shoot lead through.
On cleaning lead out of a barrel, Choir Boy (ONLY) wrapped into an old brush. You use up a bit of one pad. I had to shoot lead for CAS, and always cleaned my six shooters with that. They are the ONLY pads that are COPPER, not STEEL, so you get the lead out without damaging your barrel. Good idea for any gun you shoot lead through.
My expectation is for a company is to honor their warranty. I keep reading Taurus has cleaned up it's game. But then I see this kind of thing so I will just leave them alone. The TX22 has been a great gun as far as shooting. Just even if you get a good Taurus product heaven help you if you need service. The barrel was faulty that's why it leaded up so bad. As I said my wife shot the same stuff through her tricked out Ruger 22/45. No problems. But I will leave Winchester .22 alone form here on out. I'd rather not shoot than have such a high failure rate. One of my shooting buddies tried to put some Super ex in his revolver and some of them wouldn't fit in the chamber.
AK47Man, thank you very much. I will try this, it sounds great. I have a few thousand rounds of Remington Thunderbolt from years back and a lot of lead Sub Sonic for suppressors. Looking forward to shooting these and removing the dreaded lead. Thanks again.Hydrogen Peroxide + Vinegar. 50-50 mix. I used 1/3 of a cup of each. Wear gloves and eye protection. Take a cleaning patch and soak it in the solution. Run it through the barrel a few times and wait about 2-3 minutes. Then run a bore brush through the barrel back and forth about 6 to 8 times. Then a clean cleaning patch or two until it stays white. You will be amazed at all the junk and residue that comes out! While doing this; Make sure you hold your gun over a trash can or a towel underneath. Good luck..!
Thunderbolts=absolutely filthy ammo.Hi,
new here but own almost all the P Series SIG's. So I lucked out and found a P322 at my local Academy Sports for suggested retail. Snatched it up. First trip out went good. Just a break in. About 150 rounds of Federal Auto Match. No problems. Went home cleaned and lubed gun. Second trip a mixture of Winchester Super X, Aquila Super Extra, and Federal Auto Match. After about three mags started having 2-3 rounds chamber but not go off. Happened with all the different ammo. Got tired of it so I set the gun aside. Fired my wife's tricked out Ruger 22/45 same ammo no problems. Got the gun home and couldn't get a bore brush through it! Finally had some lead flakes fall out of my gun. So I tried a bore snake. Took a tremendous pull to get it through. Still couldn't get a bore brush through. I had a Ruger and another gun lead up like this from Thunderbolts. Never Federal Auto Match. Only lead bullet in the group. So I sent the gun back to SIG for them to have a look at. Talked to a friend of mine and he said for the to get that clogged up their was either a bur in the barrel or the barrel wasn't properly polished. And it seemed like the barrel was mainly having problems getting anything through a particular area. SO wonder if I am having a bore and firing pin problem. Again same boxes of ammo through the Ruger no problems. Any thoughts?
Clean it with Wipeout and Patch out
So ez.
So ez.
Leading is a problem with ALL lead projectiles, regardless of type. Leading is more prominent, and more of a problem in smaller calibre weapons because the bore is so small that smaller amounts of leading can cause problems. Commercial lead is relatively soft, so it will melt and smear a barrel - the reason for the invention of bullet jackets I believe.
I clean lead out of my .45 SAA’s and Win 73 with a nylon brush (old) onto which I wind some Chore Boy scrub pad. It MUST BE Chore Boy - that is the ONLY scouring pad that is copper, not steel. I usually do a foam cleaner first, then a vigorous brushing with the pad/brush, then another solvent clean, then finally a wipe with Tetra liquid on a clean patch; it leaves a film on the barrel that is supposed to help keep it clean, etc. - the usual “wonder works” a product claims.
I clean lead out of my .45 SAA’s and Win 73 with a nylon brush (old) onto which I wind some Chore Boy scrub pad. It MUST BE Chore Boy - that is the ONLY scouring pad that is copper, not steel. I usually do a foam cleaner first, then a vigorous brushing with the pad/brush, then another solvent clean, then finally a wipe with Tetra liquid on a clean patch; it leaves a film on the barrel that is supposed to help keep it clean, etc. - the usual “wonder works” a product claims.
The chore boy is a good trick and works well.Leading is a problem with ALL lead projectiles, regardless of type. Leading is more prominent, and more of a problem in smaller calibre weapons because the bore is so small that smaller amounts of leading can cause problems. Commercial lead is relatively soft, so it will melt and smear a barrel - the reason for the invention of bullet jackets I believe.
I clean lead out of my .45 SAA’s and Win 73 with a nylon brush (old) onto which I wind some Chore Boy scrub pad. It MUST BE Chore Boy - that is the ONLY scouring pad that is copper, not steel. I usually do a foam cleaner first, then a vigorous brushing with the pad/brush, then another solvent clean, then finally a wipe with Tetra liquid on a clean patch; it leaves a film on the barrel that is supposed to help keep it clean, etc. - the usual “wonder works” a product claims.
Then I started casting my bullets with linotype lead which was like shooting fmj.
About a decade later my supplier ran out so I bought Berry's hard cast and they are excellent.
But if you're still shooting soft lead here's an old country boy trick-finish your practice by running a few fmj down the spout it will chase that lead away making cleaning much less laborious
That brings up a good point, not all lead is the same. Many years ago my Dad and I cast our own .38, .45, .44 and 30-30 slugs from scrap wheel weight my Dad would get for free from tire shops. Very soft. Later found out that adding a bit of another type of harder lead made quite a difference. We'd always end any range sessions by shooting a few rounds of hot fmj loads after loads with soft lead, never had issues with leading. But that's centerfire, not rimfire.
I'm also wondering if maybe running a few hundred rounds of copperwash first might help 'smooth out' the bore before going to lead nose.
I'm also wondering if maybe running a few hundred rounds of copperwash first might help 'smooth out' the bore before going to lead nose.
Could never get my head around casting. It required really good ventilation, and yet another whole layer of “reloading equipment”. But your right - linotype can pierce 1/2” steel plate, it’s so hard.The chore boy is a good trick and works well.
Then I started casting my bullets with linotype lead which was like shooting fmj.
About a decade later my supplier ran out so I bought Berry's hard cast and they are excellent.
But if you're still shooting soft lead here's an old country boy trick-finish your practice by running a few fmj down the spout it will chase that lead away making cleaning much less laborious
Used to use free old wheel weights collected at the gas station but they are too soft and put a sheet of lead along the barrel then got lucky in finding linotype lead.
I think we’ve kind of hijacked this thread. Sorry OP.
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
SIG Talk
A forum community dedicated to SIG Sauer Pistols and SIG Sauer Rifles owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about optics, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Top Contributors this Month
View All
Harry_Gorilla
752 Replies
cremaley
716 Replies
dwg13013
330 Replies
