Maintenance schedule and service life of a Airwieght J-Frame?

[Lester Polfus]

Yup, those bullets are swaged… IOW, just a notch above pure lead. Do they still have the full-length knurling on the bearing surface, instead of driving bands and grease grooves?

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They do, and they have some kind of film lubricant all over them.

I can now check the box next to "I've loaded the classic .38 Special wadcutter load," and move on to other things. They are bitch to use with speedloaders and strips. I'm going to stick with 158 SWC's from now on, probably plated.

[LSP972]

The SWCs aren't much better in regards to reloading the gun at speed. Round nose is the best here, and if you're carrying some kind of jacketed hollow point with a sloped ogive, would be the way to go. If you're carrying lead SWCs, then yes, SWC practice solids would make sense.

I would look into "coated" bullets. The "plated" examples, mainly Berry's and Rainier, have gotten stupid in their prices.

Basically, you've got two kinds of 'coating'. Most common is some form of molybdenum/graphite, noted by their black color. This works great (provided that the bullets are cast from medium-hard alloy), but is messy… incredibly messy… while assembling cartridges. Wear nitrile gloves when handling them.

The other type is some form of dry lube, as found on Bayou Bullets. Donnie Miculek, Jerry's brother, came up with this. We're pretty tight, yet he would never divulge exactly what it is. He has since sold the company, but the guy who bought it and is now producing the bullets was a long-time employee of his, so he knows what he's doing.

Included in this is powder coating, offered by several firms. I've never used any , but I'm told they are excellent.

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[BN]

The other type is some form of dry lube, as found on Bayou Bullets. Donnie Miculek, Jerry's brother, came up with this. We're pretty tight, yet he would never divulge exactly what it is. He has since sold the company, but the guy who bought it and is now producing the bullets was a long-time employee of his, so he knows what he's doing.

Included in this is powder coating, offered by several firms. I've never used any , but I'm told they are excellent..

I've been using Bayou bullets almost exclusively for a good while. I've probably fired over 20,000 in 9mm, mostly through Glocks, and about 1000 through various 38 specials. I'm using Titegroup in the 9mm and I clean my Glocks every July, whether they need it or not. I have some of the 138 wadcutters in 38 and the 200 or so rounds I've fired have done well.

[Lester Polfus]

Sweet. I'm going to have to give those a try. They even have a 135gr round nose to match my Gold Dots.

Thanks gents.