Friday Evening News Dump

9 thoughts on “Friday Evening News Dump”

1. The lead-in-a-Glock link points to a NRA-ILA thing about Maryland.

   1. It worked for me. Maybe there was a screw-up and Sebastian fixed it?

      Now I’ll say that having read that “lead in a Glock” thing, I think it’s bullshit — or at least the author is talking authoritatively when he has little idea what he’s talking about. I don’t know personally whether Glocks have problems with leading or not, but if they do I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the polygonal rifling, at least in terms of lead bullets “skidding.” I would suspect something involving the quality and finish of the bore, or, the form of the throat, that may allows hot gas to leak around the bullet and gas-cut it before it fully seals in the bore.

      That lead bullets can “skid” is a very old myth, and one that will likely never go away. The famous Scheutzen Era riflesmith Harry Pope described an experiment wherein he “rifled” a barrel by using a “rifling cutter” that was no more than a soft metal slug charged with a very coarse abrasive, that cut scratches into the bore at a standard rate of rifling twist. According to his writings, the barrel performed reasonably well with the standard lead bullets and loads of the era, and when recovered showed they had “taken” the scratch-rifling with no signs of “skidding.”

      That doesn’t mean that you can’t find countless “authorities” over the century since who have blamed poor cast bullet accuracy on different rifling forms, and the cast bullets “skidding,” but it has usually been a convenient, throw-away excuse that was not adequately investigated. Possibly the greatest target was Marlin’s “MicroGroove” rifling, which had a reputation for poor cast bullet performance, but with which I personally had some good results. An associate of mine (a former member of the NRA Technical Staff) opined that the poor Marlin performance was simply due to lousy bore quality, which used the MicroGroove rifling to conceal (to the naked eye) that they simply dragged a broaching tool down an un-reamed, unpolished, as-drilled barrel blank, squashing the roughness flat to look at it, but leaving a still very rough barrel — that no once-a-year deer hunter would ever detect.

      That is not to say there aren’t more and less optimum rifling forms for the best lead bullet accuracy, but the point is, the problem, if there is one, probably has nothing to do with “skidding.”

2. I passed the “Glock” link along to my acquaintance, the former NRA Tech Staff member. I am happy to defer to his opinion, as he has probably done a hundred times more experimentation over the years than I have. He also has had a lot more “insider” intelligence from the industry than most gun writers. (I maintain his anonymity just because it’s what I do.)

   The leading of “polygon barrels” when firing cast bullets is well established.

   Another, more important reason for not shooting reloads of ANY kind in a Glock pistol is because the cartridge case is poorly supported in this design. This condition seldom causes problems in new factory ammunition, because new brass of good quality can expand without bursting and tolerate one such firing, although it may bulge noticeably at the head where the case is not supported by the feed ramp. Repeated reloading of bulged cases causes work-hardening of the brass when the bulge is forcibly reduced during the resizing operation. This reduces ductility of the case head and could cause a burst, aka “the Glock KaBoom” when firing cases which have been reloaded several times. Case head bulges are least objectionable in the 9mm caliber for which the pistol was originally designed, but become worse in the larger calibers.

   If I were to own a Glock (which I do NOT!) I would not shoot ANY reloads of ANY description in it without replacing the barrel with one having conventional rifling AND which supports the head of the cartridge case fully. Otherwise, my advice is follow the warnings in the factory owner’s manual to shoot ONLY new factory ammunition in your Glock pistol.

   On the other hand, I got this input from another acquaintance:

   I have been shooting Glocks in .45, .40, and 9mm practically since they came out. I have cast, reloaded and shot many, many thousands of lead bullets through them. The “no lead bullets” myth has been around since the beginning. I haven’t found that leading is any worse in Glocks than it is in any conventionally rifled pistol. If you clean your gun on a regular basis you will not have any problems. I routinely shot ~500 rounds between cleaning without problems.

   It is true that brass doesn’t last as long when fired repeatedly in a Glock, especially in the high pressure cartridges like 40S&W and 357Sig, due to Glocks generous chamber dimensions.

   Personally, I minimize either confirming or denying in writing what guns I own, or have owned, or will own, but put it this way: Except for rimfires, I would not own a gun in which I could not shoot cast bullets. I’m hardly a prepper, but the ability to make as much of my own ammunition as possible in times of shortages (which my parents’ and grandparents’ generations could remember vividly) is a desire ingrained in me.

   And last, those interested in cast bullet esoterica should be attracted to the Cast Bullet Association, 47 Pinon Ave. Cimarron, NM 87714-9609. Their periodical, “The Fouling Shot,” can be priceless.

3. It seems the people saying factory Glocks can’t shoot lead don’t own a Glock or don’t shoot reloaded ammo out of their Glock. I can say with confidence Glocks eat reloads fine. My G34 for USPSA has seen a total of about 15k rounds, the last 12k have been lead. I clean it about once every 2-3k rounds – every two months, and squirt some oil on it before a match/training session. Yes, factory barrel.

   The moly coated lead is significantly better than ‘normal’ lead, I buy my bullets from: http://www.bayoubullets.net/

4. If the no-reloads, no lead bullet thing is a myth, what do you think the motive for its perpetuation is? Is it that Glock just doesn’t want to deal with any issues they are afraid may arise from those practices?

   1. Every problem with every broken Glock I have been aware of has been fixed by Glock without charge.

   2. Because nobody can vouch for consumer reloaded ammo (except the person who reloaded it), It’s simply easier to say “no reloads” and not open the door for litigation.

      Also, I think a discussion about shooting lead and whether the lead will ‘lead’ the barrel is worthless without knowing what hardness the bullets are. The alloy of the lead will dramatically impact how hard it is and, as a consequence, how it acts when fired. There are also finishing methods to consider. Was the round cast and then air cooled, or was it dropped into a bucket of water? Things like that have an impact on the overall effect of shooting lead out of your handgun.

5. Biden is looking to churches for support on gun control. Well, when it comes to the national bodies, most churches are pretty anti-gun already. Congregations? That’s another matter.

   Another reason I haven’t found a church I can live with.
   Jesus told his disciples to arm themselves, do we need a better reason or authority to justify carry arms?

   1. It is difficult for me to comprehend why anyone would care the first thing about what a collection of mortals who choose to call themselves a “church” would have to say about any public policy issue.

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