old fart

my brother came by this morning and told me not to buy any full metal jacket ammo, he said it will wear the gun barrel out in less than a thousand rounds. is this true?, i use federal 115 grain fmj to target shoot and hollow points for defense. thanks

intercooler

Do full metal jacket bullets wear down the barrel on a pistol? - Yahoo! Answers

RockDoctor

After 50,000-60,000 rounds you "might" consider replacing the barrel after firing FMJ bullets.

Tracers will definitively do damage over time.

kiwihunter

AAAhhh...total misinformation ....no disrespect to your brother but he couldnt be more wrong on that count....FMJ WILL BE FINE.

gwnorth

If that were true, armed forces and police agencies would go broke replacing barrels.

Lots of folks on this very forum I'm sure have handguns with 10's of thousands of FMJ rounds down them, still shooting just fine (I have a couple with at least 10K through them and I do not shoot lead rounds in anything I currently own).

terry_p

Lead with a copper coating won't wear out a steel BBL. The has military used FMJ bullets for decades.

BuckJM53

OF .... As others have said and with respect to your brother, you have absolutely no worries shooting FMJ ammo. While any barrel will wear out eventually if you put enough rounds through it (and even faster if you don't maintain it properly), I have personally shot tens of thousands of rounds of FMJ ammo over the years with no significant issues. I'd be curious to know where your brother got this idea?

KJS

After spending at least $10,000 on that much ammo, the price of a new barrel will look pretty cheap.

{Edited for inappropriate comment}

Marine Division Two

There are no Dumb questions,only the ones that dont look for knowledge,Shoot em up !

refugeepj

bullpucky

ExArmy11b

With regard to revolvers, I have only heard that you should avoid FMJ in old S&W's and Colts, we're talking prior to the 1930's production. The steel in those revolvers is softer and in the case of S&W, cylinders weren't heat treated until about 1920. I have a "pre heat treat" S&W M&P .38 Special made in 1919 or so and I only shoot occasional standard pressure 158 gr. LRN through it. I have been told FMJ will wear the barrel in these guns.

Since 99% of us don't use revolvers from the 1920's as regular shooters, we won't have a problem.

Think of all the FMJ .357's that a lot of guys here have run through GP's, Sixes and Blackhawks. Some guys have round counts into the 100's of thousands and they haven't changed any barrels.

I have yet to see a revolver barrel that has been shot out..........rusted out, yes, but not worn out rifling from shooting. More bores are damaged from overzealous bronze bore brushing than any amount of shooting.

Like was said, you'll spend 10's of thousands of dollars wearing out a revolver barrel, makes the $500 spent for a GP100 look like a drop in the bucket.

spartan88

Can't blame you for you're concern. I personally don't see how it could be an issue since the FMJ coating is still softer than the barrel is. I actually prefer FMJ because I hate cleaning the lead out of a barrel.

laidlerj

I've burned out the throat of a barrel with FMJ's (M60 machine gun, three 100-round belts, one after another), but that was due to heat from the propellant, not the bullet.

The copper jacket of a FMJ bullet is significantly softer than barrel steel - even steel in older firearms. Of course, if you shoot enough - thousands and thousands of rounds - you WILL eventually wear out the barrel, even if you're shooting only lead bullets.

I've heard recommendations that older revolvers be fired with only lead bullets, but I was told this was because of the lower pressures needed to propel lead bullets compared to jacketed. This is due to the higher friction of jacketed bullets (lead is a pretty good lubricant). It takes less powder to get a lead bullet out of the barrel than it takes to get a jacketed bullet moving the same velocity, and less powder means less heat and less erosion, but the differences are small compared to the difference between mild loads and full-power loads.

Jim

midnight train

If it wears out, get it bored for a larger round......................just kidding. I think the copper jacket helps protect you, the shooter, in that you aren't handling raw lead when loading too.

bwinters

My ruger 45 blackhawk convertible has shot 12-14k full metal jacket loads and over 65 k 45 colt ammo about 1/4 jacketed and the barrel is still very accurate.