Another noob question...alternating lead and copper

[Camel73]

So, gettin ready for camping and was wondering...

If I'm shootin sized subsonic 00 buck out of my 94 30-30, then want to blast some factory jacketed rounds for a bit, then go back to shooting the subs again, will it matter all that much till I get home to clean it?

I'll be out havin fun for a week, so.. big deal?

[J Miller]

Long answer:
Well, you might get a bunch of different answers for that question.

Since I started shooting eons ago I've been told, read, heard; that shooting jacketed after lead will either destroy your barrel, or at least ruin the accuracy. that you should scrub the barrel totally clean of whatever you've been shooting before switching.

Then the other side says they shoot jacketed after lead to clean out the leading.

So, I've found it doesn't make one iota of difference in what order I shoot what. I shoot lead and jacketed interchangeably and I've never had any problems with cleaning or accuracy.

Short answer:
It won't matter a bit.

Joe

[Chuck 100 yd]

Long answer:
Well, you might get a bunch of different answers for that question.

Since I started shooting eons ago I've been told, read, heard; that shooting jacketed after lead will either destroy your barrel, or at least ruin the accuracy. that you should scrub the barrel totally clean of whatever you've been shooting before switching.

Then the other side says they shoot jacketed after lead to clean out the leading.

So, I've found it doesn't make one iota of difference in what order I shoot what. I shoot lead and jacketed interchangeably and I've never had any problems with cleaning or accuracy.

Short answer:
It won't matter a bit.

Joe

Mike Ventureno , in a couple of his articles, has said that he has found little accuracy change when switching from cast to
jacketed and back to cast without cleaning in his tests. He was shooting military bolt rifles in .30-06 and 8mm @ 100 yd. mainly for these tests.
There are folks like me who agree with Joe and Mike and there are those folks who know the opposite is true and if you even think of switching without thorough cleaning will completely destroy a barrel.

[Camel73]

Sweet. And if I were to rebarrel.. no problem?

[Griff]

If you're not experiencing any leading in your barrel, switching to jacketed is no problem. But, if you're switching from jacketed to lead, you'll "probably" have some copper fouling in your barrel. And your cast accuracy will suffer. At least, that's been my experience.

[gundownunder]

I don't know about destroying the barrel, but you may destroy accuracy till you get around to cleaning the barrel.
I have seen a couple of write ups where somebody claims to use a couple of jacketed bullets to clean the lead out.
I don't know if it cleans it out or just smears it in but if it works for you, go for it.
The problem may arise when you switch from jacketed to lead, depending on your rifle.
If the rifling in your particular rifle is sharp enough to catch and hold some of the copper from the jacket and keep it in the rifling you could potentially shave the lead bullets with the copper shards, because copper is harder than lead.
I've only bought one centerfire rifle new, and that was a 357 Marlin. I shot it in with jacketed ammo. When it had done a couple hundred I scrubbed it and metal polished it and then switched to cast and never shot jacketed in it again. It has now been a cast bullet gun for nearly 10 years.

[mikld]

I agree with Mr.Miller. I grew up and until my early 20s, never fired a gun and knew only one man that did, so I knew nothing about the "lead after jacketed controversy". I have been reading about this on forums since about 2005 and I've seen an equal number on each side. In my experience, I have seen/experienced no ill effects, no loss of accuracy, and no additional cleaning problems when I shoot jacketed and lead interchangeably. I have even used swaged HBWC in a couple of my 38s and followed with jacketed and half jacketed bullets and often in reverse; soft lead after jacketed "hot" loads. Nothing noticeable...

[Pisgah]

I make no claim of expertise in the field of firearms, but I have had over 50 years' experience in inflicting just about every user-caused damage possible to a gun. My experience would indicate that whether or not your gun suffers from firing lead after copper or vice-versa will depend quite largely on the barrel in question. With some barrels, I have seen absolutely no ill effect; with others, either lead accuracy would be lousy until all copper was removed, or lead fouling would be heavy when fired after copper, or both. Flip a coin, give it a try.

Even in the worst case, however, no permanent damage was done to the bore. I remember a few days-long cleaning sessions, but other than that...