AR Sponsor
Posted: 2/16/2014 3:42:09 PM EDT
|
Ok so I spent a days reading the Ammo Oracle. WOW!!! A ton of info on there!!! What concerns me now is the cheap ammo like Tula that is steel with a copper plating. My S&W M&P15OR is not even broke in yet, only have about 60 rounds through it. How bad is this stuff? |
|
I'm almost afraid to ask what scared you in the Ammo Oracle... Let's see if I can hit the big issues well enough to help you out.
"Bimetal" bullets are lead-core, steel jacketed bullets, with a copper plating on the steel, to prevent rust. It is CRUCIAL to understand that the steel used in bullet jackets is MUCH, MUCH softer than barrel steel. "Can" these bullets wear your barrel faster than traditional US bullets*? Maybe. But by how much? US-made 7.62X51 NATO ammunition was made with copper plated steel jackets as recently as a few years ago, and may still be for that matter. If you shoot inexpensive steel-jacketed, steel cased ammo, firstly you'll be getting trigger time, and secondly, you might just cut your barrel's usable life from something like 12,000 rounds all the way down to 10,000 rounds... Yes, it might wear your barrel out faster, but probably not much faster. Now about steel cases... First off, any steel cased ammo you find that looks copper is "copper washed." It's even less copper thickness than plating produces. But the copper is just there to keep the steel from rusting in storage. The only place you find copper washed steel cases is relatively old surplus ComBloc stuff. Tula's steel cases are coated with a polymer to prevent rust. The coating, in and of itself, is something you can ignore. Likewise "lacquered" steel cases. Anybody who tells you lacquer will melt in your gun might be interested in some oceanfront property in Arizona that I am thinking of selling. It doesn't; you can test this yourself by holding a lacquered case in a flame...it doesn't melt, it (eventually) burns away with almost no smoke. Barnaul uses a lacquer coating on their "Brown Bear" line of ammunition. Both Tula and Barnaul have used copper-plated steel jacketed bullets, as have probably all the other Russian ammo makers. I strongly suggest you work at separating the concept of "steel cased" or "steel jacketed" from "cheap-ass crap ammo." Tula has a reputation for making inconsistently loaded, dirty-shooting ammo, while Barnaul has essentially the opposite reputation. In my experience with a butt-load of Barnaul ammo, it has been good range-grade ammunition that has been reliable and "hot enough" for consistent functioning. *Traditional US bullets have jackets made of a grade of brass called "gilding metal." Where "cartridge brass" is 70% copper and 30% zinc, gilding metal is 95% copper and 5% zinc. This makes the gilding metal alloy softer than cartridge cases, and more easily engraved by rifling. Keep in mind that steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, often with many other elements included. It is possible to tailor steel to have specific qualities. Barrel steels are crafted to be hard, tough and resilient. Mild steels are crafted to be soft and malleable - like that used in bullet jackets. Steel used in cartridge cases is made to be tougher than mild steel, but it has to give, and that means it too is much softer than barrel steel. |
|
Quoted:
Thanks for the info. The steel cases I am not concerned about, more the steel inside the bullet itself. As others have mentioned, it is not that much of a concern. OTOH, it is pretty easily avoidable if you don't want to shoot it. ETA: The ammo oracle is even more fun the second or third time you read through it. 
|
AR Sponsor