From: "Alex Hamilton", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>A steel cored bullet is exactly that - a bullet with a
>steel core. All steel cored bullets have a soft metal
>(usually lead) ogive wrapped around the core. Steel cored
>ogive is then jacketed. It may be jacketed with copper
>washed steel, bimetal or copper jackets.
Guy,
As I started this thread out of concern for what the
steel cored bullets could do to rifle barrels, I better
explain that I imagined a "steel-cored" to mean a solid
steel bullet with some form of copper or guilding jacket.
You described them basically as a steel core in lead
"envelope" and then jacketed in copper, guilding metal
or thin steel. Clearly such a bullet will "squash" into
the rifling and will not affect barrel life - I do
not know the effect of steel jackets, copper washed or
not.
However, steel cored bullets that you describe will be
slightly lighter than the conventional lead cored ones
and thus ballistically inferior at long range, but I
would still use them up to 600 yds.
>Since the barrel life of an properly heat treated
>.223" is around 20-30,000 rounds
>before it may begin to lose its edge, a 10% extension in
>wear (which is no where near the increased wear rate that a
>steel jacket will cause over a copper or bimetal jacket)
>isn't really going to make a great deal of
>difference to the average shooter.
This is very interesting indeed. I do not doubt what
you are saying, but I do not know anyone who does not
regard barrels that shot 6000 - 8000 jacketed bullets at
the end of their accurate life. That can can be extended
by seating bullets forward within a few thou of the rifling
to compensate for throat erosion, but that is not possible
in most of the matches, because the rules stipulate "as
issued" ammunition.
Are your barrels made of some special material, or is the
shorter barrel life due to some other factor?
As a matter of interest, do you re-barrel conventional
target rifles in 7.62NATO?
>As regards the Indep ammo George's Swedish Mauser. If you
>had a load showing excessive pressures did you care to check
>your bore to bullet measurements and chamber dimensions? You
>may have purchased Maxim MG ammo by mistake or your rifle or
>the ammo isn't what it's supposed to be - its worth checking.
I am very tempted to say that the NRA should not be
offering for sale ammunition likely to prove unsuitable
for target shooting, but how can an average shooter guard
against such a purchase?
Thanks in advance,
Alex
--
Don't buy stuff you're unfamiliar with!
I have to admit when you first mentioned this I obviously
wasn't concentrating as the first thing that popped into
my mind was some of the crappy steel cored bullets made
during WW2 that were last-ditch emergency attempts.
Guy is right that the ammo doesn't pose much of a
threat to your barrel.
I point out that a bullet made of steel almost invariably
would be designed for AP purposes, and thus would be
prohibited under Section 5(1A)(e) of the 1968 Act as
amended by the 1992 regulations.
So if you encounter some, the RFD is breaking the law
selling it to you (even as a bullet rather than a loaded
round).
I spoke to a friend in the US who has shot large
quantities of the Norinco 7.62x39. All of it is
apparently steel jacketed, regardless of whether
it is lead cored or steel cored. The steel cored
stuff got a bad reputation because it is Chinese
military surplus, and corrosive. Careful cleaning
usually solves the problem. The lead core stuff
is usually of more recent manufacture and is
non-corrosive.
He did think that shooting it out of a
Ruger Mini-30 may be unwise as that is a .308"
barrel and the bullet is .311". And the barrel
is not chrome plated. But the problem is still
more to do with corrosion.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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