Quote Originally Posted by Korium View Post
Yes, they are lubricated. The coloured ring (usually red or blue) you see around the bullet is the lubricant. There are various types of lubricant for lead bullets and varying application techniques, but it’s not essential knowledge unless you’re casting them yourself.

What size to use is typically determined by ‘slugging’ the bore. You hammer a soft piece of lead through the bore with a wood or brass dowel, then measure the piece of lead to determine bore size. Ideally the lead bullet should be one or two thousandths larger than bore diameter.

It’s kind of a pain to do. Since choices are usually quite limited on factory bullet diameter, I usually neglect slugging the bore and just pick the largest diameter bullet available within reason - I wouldn’t use something abnormally large for calibre without measuring first.

If the bore does lead, a Lewis Lead Remover will clear it up easily. For best accuracy, you’re meant to decopper the bore when switching from plated or jacketed to lead - I haven’t experimented with omitting this step to see if it’s really necessary.
Many thanks for the info.

Looking at the Kranks selection, available in 180gr is either 357 or 358, the chap I spoke to used 357 without 'slugging' and found them to be ok, with no fouling.
i suppose that if you had a tighter barrel and used a 357 bullet you would experience more fouling even with a 0.001" lesser bullet?