Brian,

I don't question what your experience has been, but mine is quite different than yours.

I fire many thousands of rounds a year that use lead alloy bullets. Some are plain base and some are gas checked. I have never had problems with lead build-up; what little there is cleans out as easy or easier than copper fouling (I don't normally use the same solvent for copper as I do for lead unless I'm anticipating needing to clean afield, in which case I use an effective multi-purpose bore cleaner). Typically the velocities are relatively high. Several hundred of these regularly fired lead bullet rounds are fired through rifles ranging from 6.5mm to 458 at velocities over 2,000 fps and a little higher (depending on caliber). Bullet designs are all to suit me, with some having as few as one lube grove and some Loveren-designed with more grease grooves than I care to count. Again, I have never experienced leading.

Over the years I have seen badly leaded pistols and helped clean some of them. Hot loads with swaged bullets (soft alloy) were the most frequent culprit and swaged half-jacketed bullets were the other culprit (also hot loads and also soft lead)

I either cast my own or use commercial hard cast bullets, depending on my whim, how the stockpile is, and how much time I have available to reload. I only use fairly hard lead alloys, regardless. I have not found any bullet lube clearly superior to any other in any aspect and normally just use an ordinary Alox bullet lube.

I also shoot plenty of jacketed bullets - plain and moly - in all the calibers and firearms that I use cast bullets in. There are some cautions I could mention, but frankly, shooting moly coated bullets (I do my own coating) thru a moly-conditioned bore is the most effortless cleaning imaginable in my experience - not to mention seriously extending the interval between accuracy-driven cleanings when I'm putting several hundred rounds thru a rifle in one day. YMMV, and there are some potential downsides to moly bullets.

I'm suggesting that jacketed vs cast is not really a polarizing question with black and white answers.

Regards,

Tom