COWW composition

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
It seems to me that after all these years of folks casting junk lead alloys with too much iron in them we would have heard about worn out barrels. We haven’t that I am aware of. Rusty wheel weights, rusty pipes, rusty cast iron pots are all possible sources of iron contamination.

This isn’t the first time that I have seen people post that they had samples lab analyzed/shot with the scrap yard gun, that had a few percentages of iron content. I’ve also seen the iron content discounted as surface contamination. Is it just surface contamination? It would seem that iron contamination may be more common than many of us believe it to be.

Barrels wear out from multiple things, corrosion, cleaning, gas erosion in small overbore high pressure cartridges, and shooting steel copper washed jackets.

Here is an article about steel vs copper jacket damage.


Steel jackets will wear out a gun, after 6000 high pressure rounds.

Will slightly iron contaminated lead shot at low to moderate pressure, with a lube film wear out a barrel, what about a powder coated plastic jacket surrounding that lead?

I just think that a small percentage of iron isn’t the end of the world. As Mitty said above, PC it and plink away!
 
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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Twenty years ago, there was a big controversy about using paper towels instead of worn out T-shirts for patches. Ken Mollohan ran a paper towel patch against a blued barrel for 15 minutes under a drill press and just polished the blue. The "clay" and abrasives in the paper towel don't mean anything.
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
Good point Josh.
Rick, that Makes a lot of sense.

My main concern with 3 % iron, would not have anything to do with wear. Would PC for piece of mind but probably not enough of an issue. Just me.

Just that iron that high, might make the bullet brittle enough to cause an issue. IMO.
That it also might effect the way and the amount the lead moves, and thus make accuracy harder to obtain.

Course you do not know what is down the road till you go there. Might be interesting to experiment a bit with that alloy, just to see. Wonder what issues would be present.

I tend to think the only issue would be malleability. Of course that can be a huge issue in our game. Especially, if consistency in the way the lead acts is effected by it.
 
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L Ross

Well-Known Member
Twenty years ago, there was a big controversy about using paper towels instead of worn out T-shirts for patches. Ken Mollohan ran a paper towel patch against a blued barrel for 15 minutes under a drill press and just polished the blue. The "clay" and abrasives in the paper towel don't mean anything.
By golly, folks can sure over worry about minutiae. I'll still stand with Dean Grinnell.
 

Matt_G

Curmudgeon in training
I just think that a small percentage of iron isn’t the end of the world. As Mitty said above, PC it and plink away!
I don't powder coat and I have no intention of starting.
It just doesn't interest me.
My main concern with 3 % iron, would not have anything to do with wear. Would PC for piece of mind but probably not enough of an issue. Just me.

Just that iron that high, might make the bullet brittle enough to cause an issue. IMO.
That it also might effect the way and the amount the lead moves, and thus make accuracy harder to obtain.

Course you do not know what is down the road till you go there. Might be interesting to experiment a bit with that alloy, just to see. Wonder what issues would be present.

I tend to think the only issue would be malleability. Of course that can be a huge issue in our game. Especially, if consistency in the way the lead acts is effected by it.
One day I'll do an experiment with it just to see.
Cast some hollow points with it and see how they react when hitting water jugs at 900 - 1000 fps.
Knowing me, I'll forget I have this stuff by the end of the year.
I don't need to use it; therefore, it will just hold down the garage floor...
If I ever get low enough on lead that I need to use it, I'll use it.