Teflon tape and lead bullets

[Kyle B.]

I just read Williamsons book Lever legacy. He claimed to have had great results in shooting cast bullets in rough bores. He would take two wraps around the bullet with teflon tape and then heat the tape with a butane lighter until the grease ring was clearly visible. He would then load them up with his preferred load and go shoot. The targets he provided showed a huge improvement in group sizes! Has anyone else tried this. It would seem like it would reduce barrel leading as well.

[GunnyMack]

Never heard of that trick but it makes sense. Kind of like paper patched in over size bore. As you say, it might help with leading as well!

[Ysabel Kid]

That's my thought as well, never having tried it. A modern take, using modern materials, on the famous "paper-patched" bullets of old!

[Chuck 100 yd]

How about patching the bullet with a tough baked on finish ? Kinda like powder coating any part is done.

[.45colt]

One thing for sure, He loved old Winchesters, loved shootin them and kept awesome records . the book weighs around 4 lbs and is 664 pages. A Levergunner must have. .

[AJMD429]

I'm curious as to why heating the tape would be needed...does it 'fuse' it somehow...?

[Leverluver]

I'm curious as to why heating the tape would be needed...does it 'fuse' it somehow...?

Sorta shrinks the tape onto the bullet. I've tried it long ago....it works well but almost as annoying as regular paper patching. Talking smokeless here; not the more fun replication of black powder era cartridges.

[Old Ironsights]

I've done it... never TESTED it, but it is at least as accurate as regular lube or Alox... and a heckova lot less messy...

[Rusty]

I tried it a long time ago. I never did try the part about the with the butane lighter though. I was using 160 gr. LSWC and found it hard to get the tape to stay in place. I think I only did about 10 of them before I gave up. I didn't notice any difference in the accuracy over regular sized and lubed.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Many years ago I had a .45 caliber Hawken style muzzleloader and a sloppy fitting mold foe a conical bullet. A couple layers of masking tape made the bullet fit fine. I cant say the accuracy was great but that rifle probably had a slow twist meant for round ball. The masking tape did stay with the buller and that probably did not help accuracy either.

[Lefty Dude]

His process is Patented. Or was, when he Died I do not know what happened to the Patent. In the book is a copy of the Patent. It could be expired now too.

[elmo123]

I use it for the RCBS 200 FN out of my Model 71 and it turned 6-8" groups at 50's into 3 shot cloverleafs. I didn't heat it up and I wrapped it the opposite of the rifling so it won't unwrap.

[Leverluver]

His process is Patented. Or was, when he Died I do not know what happened to the Patent. In the book is a copy of the Patent. It could be expired now too.

I was skeptical of the "patent" thing when I read it in the book. I started trying the tape when I read it in an NRA publication which was a collection of cast bullet info from the NRA magazine (remember when there were good articles in there and not just trying to sell you stuff). The article and the collection I read it in predated Snooky's book by 15 years or more so the "prior art" would nulify it. If he was silly enough to pay a patent attorney the money to patent it, the patent would be pretty useless as it would only pertain to commercial sales of product done the same way, which no one would ever bother with. If there ever was one (patent), it was an ego patent.

[Ray Newman]

For those who shoot Black Powder cartridges, I recall that about 30 years ago, Teflon Tape on the lead bullet was going to be the secret ingredient for winning matches and setting records. The idea did not even last a shooting season simply because it did not work with Black Powder and lead bullets.

Seems as if every now and then this idea again comes into the light of day. Now I have heard some Smokeless Shooters claim it works, but I never have seen them shoot with Teflon Tape bullets or seen any targets. It might work for some firearms, calibres, and loads, but not for others.

Have a feeling that powder coating bullets which has seen discussion on the marlin owners board in the last 2 years or so might be a better way to go. I would also check for any discussion about Teflon Tape and Powder Coating on the Cast Bullet Association site....

[GunnyMack]

I think the big thing with this is,
It's fast, clean & easy.
Oversize bores or sewer pipe rusty this could help in theory.
Like one of my instructors used to say- it doesn't hurt to try.