Barrel Durability

[rhyrlik]

Has anyone worn out a barrel with Montana Gold bullets?

[Joe4d]

Anything that has movement will wear, so eventually barrels wear out, Alot of high volume shooters use Montana gold bullets, High volume shooters wear out barrels. So I imagine quite a few people have worn out a barrel shooting Montana Gold bullets.

[rhyrlik]

Do Montana Gold bullets with their brass jackets wear barrels faster than bullets with copper jackets?

[G-ManBart]

Do Montana Gold bullets with their brass jackets wear barrels faster than bullets with copper jackets?

If they do, I don't think it's a significant difference. When I got my new Open gun built, I started a round count log on it of every single shot fired. I'm doing it pretty systematically and I'm sure I'm within ten rounds of being exactly on. I've been tracking accuracy and velocity over time, and haven't seen any changes so far. I haven't added up the latest page in the log, but the last page put me right at 12K, so I'm probably between that and 13K. This is a .38SC gun, putting almost 11gr of powder down the barrel each shot.

To take it a step further, it's not bullet weight, but charge weight that wears barrels. The more powder down the barrel, the more it's going to wear. If bullet friction was the cause of most wear, it would be greatest near the muzzle, where the bullet was going faster, not near the chamber/throat where the bullet is going the slowest. R,

[Toolguy]

I would think the friction and wear would be where the rifling first reshapes the bullet from round to rifled. It's pretty much barrel shaped by the time it gets to the muzzle.

[Chills1994]

having been in the military, I would say that zealous overcleaning has done more harm to barrels than all the bullets they have ever fired.

[Chills1994]

not to be a total spelling or grammar nazi here but the " l " is transposed in this topic's title. it is giLding metal. according to wiki, gilding metal is 95% copper and 5% zinc and is technically brass.

I can't quite put it into words but I believe that there is an inherent lubricity or slipperiness with the copper/brass/bronze alloys which explains why it is often used in bushings say like where you have a steel shaft going through a steel housing of some sort. Pillow blocks come to mind.

[rhyrlik]

I see. You are right.

In that case, why does MG use brass for jackets. Isn't brass harder to form?

[dkleskiw]

Brass is less expensive per pound.

[Chills1994]

I think it all depends on the heat treat the metal has received.

besides that, I am sure we are talking about huge automated hydraulic presses that stamp out "coins" and then draws each coin into a cup to receive the the lead core. the machines probably couldn't tell a difference between copper or brass sheet. the forming dies might. the machines wouldn't bat an eye.

[G-ManBart]

Cartridge case brass has around 30% zinc, so it's quite a bit different from what's being used for bullets. R,

[Joe4d]

lets say montanna gold does wear barrels out faster, Gman, has put 12k rounds down his barrel and it still works great, Id say he could put another 12 before acuracy or velocity started dropping, maybe not but lets just say 24k and montanna gold has worn out the barrel,but shooting hornady's has kept it pristine good as new.

hornady at current prices 24k $2856

Montanna gold, 24k, $ 1875

for a thousand dollars I can probably afford to buy a new barrel

[twikster]

Siefried supposedly put 1/2 million rds of ball duplication loads (230 gr lrn cast bullets) thru a pair of 1911's on his way to becoming the 1981 IPSC world champ. The last time it was won without a compensator. he fired 100,000 rds per year (300 a day) for 5 years. He said he had to replace the barrels and tighten the slide every 50,000 rds. The wear that bothered him was not in the bore, but between barrel and bushing, slide, and frame. I once had one gun that had seen 30,000 cast loads, 200 grs at 750 fps, mostly, and after fitting a new collet bushing, it shot 2" for 5 shots at 50 yds, repeatedly, using 185 gr jswc match ammo, in a Lee machine rest.

[mark carr]

My first competition pistol a 5" custom government model if I remember correctly it was a Wilson barrel it was super accurate when it was first built but accuracy went out the window at about 70,000 rds of PMC hard ball I kept shooting it for about another 5000rds more. By then it was almost a smooth bore and the frame slide fit was loser than a goose.Essex frame & slide.Don't have any experience with Montana golds yet I just got some to do an accuracy test with they do look cool.

[Toolguy]

You are likely to get at least 50,000 rounds out of any quality barrel with any kind of bullets. Some barrel/bullet combinations will do over twice that. As a general rule, minor PF will run longer than major. Cleaning wears a barrel more than shooting. Clean the bore sparingly, not after every outing.