caddisflinger

I recently decided to start casting lead bullets for my springfield XD 40 S&W. I am using a micro-groove mold from lee that throws a 175 gr SWC and I am using Alox for lube. I picked up some titegroup which seems to work very well but I get a lot of fouling.

I started loading 4.5 gr and backed off to 3.5 gr for a light plinker load. It smokes a lot. I put 300 rounds through it without cleaning to see how much the black smoke would foul my gun. It was filthy but still shot great with virtually no leading in the barrel. A lot of soot built up under the loaded chamber indicator so that it was stuck up at the end of the shooting session.

I tried cleaning the lube off of the base of the bullet to see if that made a difference and also loaded up to the max to see if shooting a hotter load made a difference. There was no discernible difference in the variations that I tried.

I don't mind cleaning more often, but does anyone have any suggestions that will reduce the amount of smoke and fouling?

thanks