leading on a G17

[AGreeff]

Hi guys

How do you inspect the level of lead build up in the barrel? How often should I clean for that purpose and how exactly do I get it out? Do I just use the brush that it came with?

[Lian]

you shouldnt be using lead bullets in a glock in the first place :)

[AGreeff]

I read some of the guys mentioning that nobleteq fmj's might cause leading due to the jacket being too thin?

[Skaaphaas]

I read some of the guys mentioning that nobleteq fmj's might cause leading due to the jacket being too thin?

That'd be me. I don't shoot a Glock, which has polygonal rifling. I doubt the Glock's rifling will cut the jackets.

[AGreeff]

Maybe I'm just over cautious, but then better safe then sorry.

[KK20]

i will clean thoroughly after 2-300 rounds

[ARM505]

I have shot lead through my Glock for the last twenty years. ie, From long before I heard that you're not supposed to shoot lead through a Glock :) Like the wiser people here say, I'll only do one range session with lead before cleaning, ie 100-300 rounds. I've never really gone more than that exclusively with lead. After that, there's a little leading, but barely. A phosphor bronze brush gets rid of it. Which makes me wonder why I'm not supposed to shoot it. Like I said, twenty years, 10K+(?) lead rounds?

So, to the OP:
To inspect - look though the barrel into a lighted area. Ideally when you know that barrel is clean to get a good comparison. After shooting, you can see rough, or slightly dirty looking patches in the grooves (or at least what passes for grooves in a Glock barrel). That's what you need to get rid of.

Brush with a correctly sized phosphor bronze brush until those patches are gone. The brush that comes with the gun isn't good enough.

I wouldn't go more than 500 rounds based on what I've seen, and the hotter the load, the worse the problem would be I would imagine. In the past, I only loaded to cycle the gun and put a hole in the paper. Now I load to make factor for IDPA, but I don't really see any major increase in leading to be honest. Again, I'm still not so sure where the 'no lead in Glock barrels came from', but wiser men may come up with a really good answer.

[CorBon]

With my old 17 (sold pre new licences) I used to shoot bags of lead reloads through mine...it did leave a fair amount of goo in the barrel during shoots and I didnt like cleaning it during a shoot, so I use to load a mag of factory FMJ's and pop that through it...that would clean it enough to shoot another 2-300 rounds. It didn't seems to affect the gun in any way and it shot the same throughout its life while I had it.

[KK20]

corbon , that method of "cleaning'' is the most dangerous bit of information one could add particularly to this thread.
you were lucky to get away with what you did. luck was on your side.

a thorough clean after lead mean solvent and patch (wet and wipe repeat) until the patch comes out clean and this is not a 2 minute noodle job.