From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
This is pissing me off too -
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.
Steel is cheap and common, copper and lead is expensive and
rare. Steel is harder than lead but by degree. I used to
handmake a hypervelovity 9mm AP for UK Special Forces, that
had a hardened steel core in an aluminium ogive with a
copper jacket. Steel cores make no difference to barrel
life at all since there is no such thing as a plain steel
small arms bullet. The projectile HAS to deform to create
the gas seal and impart spin, that job is done by the soft
part of the ogive. The jacket is there to prevent barrel
fouling and to preserve the bullet from corrosion in storage
and deformation in a mechanised action, nothing more.If that
jacket is steel it is usually drawn freecutting blackiron or
mild steel that is extremely thin and soft.
Copper and bimetal jackets are softer that steel jackets
but none of them are anywhere near as hard as the rifling
in a barrel. Accordingly the jacket deforms into the soft
ogive and the bullet is sent on its way. Barrel life
is not a realistic issue with the use of steel jacketed
bullets as the rifle is almost always more accurate than the
issued ammo can be consistent. 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.
My current FAL and XR15 barrel production uses a freecutting
production blank that is 38RC minimum. Most other suppliers
use the Wilson blank which average 25RC at best. My M14 /
M21 barrels are made with Douglas Premiums that are about
35RC. Good barrels do make a wear difference to any firearm.
One last thing - there is nothing wrong with Norinco
ammunition or firearms. They are both built to fit a
market and a price. Don't buy Norinco and expect Federal
performance you'll be disappointed. With all things you
pays your money and takes your choice.
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.
Guy Savage
--
The problem with the SKS came to light after a guy in
California had his go full-auto on him, he dropped it and
took a burst full-auto in the chest that killed him.
That was a serious defect in a large batch of SKSes.
I have dug out my old log book tonight and had a good
look through it and I have shot two or three (difficult
to know in some cases if it was steel cored) steel cored
loads and they were not noticeably less accurate at
100 yards than equivalent lead cored loads.
I think Alex was simply told a scare story. At longer
ranges there may be some difference but frankly for
good accuracy at long ranges you're not going to be
using bargain basement military kit.
On the subject of Norinco, apparently the CIA came to
the conclusion that China was exporting huge quantities
of guns to the US to "destabilise" the country. I could
never figure that one out and it doesn't appear to have
worked as armed crime is going down in the US. It may be
simply a Clintonesque excuse for banning Chinese imports
into the US.
However I did have a long email correspondence with an
official of Norinco who denied everything despite all
evidence to the contrary, and he stopped emailing me
after the 2,000 AK-47s were siezed in San Francisco
(a more direct piece of evidence that the Chinese were
trying to destabilise the US).
I subsequently found out that he had been executed. First
and hopefully last time I've had to delete an email address
from my address book for that reason!
I think I've still got some of his email messages knocking
around on my PC somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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