Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

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Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by halberg » 11 Mar 2014, 10:25 am

G'day,

Does anyone have any feed back on longer term use of copper projectiles in a .22 vs lead ones?

Obviously let bullets are more pliable and will have some give in them, more than copper anyway?

I figure if the bullet is harder on the barrel the life must be less?

What does everyone think?
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by Member-Deleted » 11 Mar 2014, 10:45 am

There waxed.
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by Lorgar » 11 Mar 2014, 11:11 am

Yep, the projectiles are still lubricated.

It's not lubed lead vs rough copper or anything like that ;)

Still people getting thousands of accurate rounds out of their 22's with copper projectiles and no cleaning.

I say just shoot what shoots best, copper or otherwise.
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by AusC » 11 Mar 2014, 11:15 am

And more, 10s of thousands with no problem.

A .22 isn't exactly a furnace of barrel destroying energy ;)
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by Apollo » 11 Mar 2014, 11:41 am

Are you talking about the copper looking .22LR bullets. If these are the ones that are sometimes called copper plated or really it's a copper wash. It's extremely thin and easily scraped off and I believe used to reduce the amount of fouling caused by plain lead. A bit like the different waxes used to coat bullets, some you would not know are there where others feel very sticky and thick.

I don't believe any of these coatings have any effect on the increase in barrel wear and one would be no harder than the other.

Certainly not the same thing as a Copper Jacketed Bullet.
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by halberg » 11 Mar 2014, 12:43 pm

Apollo,

Errm... Just regular .22 copper ammo like you get off the shelf at wherever. Winchester Bushmaster or whatever.

Just asking in general really, I assumed a copper .22 was much the same as a centre fire bullet but I could obviously be wrong?
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Re: Copper .22 ammo shortens barrel life compared to lead?

Post by Apollo » 11 Mar 2014, 1:04 pm

I'm pretty sure you mean the normal copper coated .22LR ammo. Some boxes list it as copper plated and as I said other refer to it as a copper wash. Really, it's like giving the lead bullets a spray with paint. It is really thin.

Actually I do remember some time back for a bit of fun I cleaned my Brno using a Copper Solvent (Sweets) and from memory did not see a trace of copper come out of the bore. Got some much better Copper Solvents these days so for a bit of fun I should give it clean, hasn't been cleaned for some time but then again I have only been using the pure lead bullets.

I never have treated them any different and basically I seldom came across .22LR ammo that wasn't copper coated, not until I started using sub velocity target ammo which from my collection was all just wax coated lead. Having mostly Brno rifles over the past 50 years I think I found they all like Winchester Power Points (copper coated) and that's all I ever purchased, in bulk. Even though my 1965 Brno Model 2 has fired many many thousands of these copper coated bullets over the years, given a clean then change to plain lead target grade sub velocity and it becomes a very accurate target rifle.
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