Barnaul Ammo

[flenna]

If it has bi-metal jacketed bullets, I'd avoid using it in with any barrel that you can't replace cheaply and easily. Bi-metal jackets cause a different type of wear that degrades accuracy much faster than copper jacketed bullets.

I'll refer you to this post and the luckygunner steel case ammo report.

Lysander places emphasis on the powder for barrel life, but look at the failure criteria: bi-metal jackets always caused failure due to accuracy loss/keyholing, barrels shot with copper jackets failed due to velocity loss, suggesting they were still sufficiently accurate.

TLDR:

Rifles can be expected to stay accurate shooting copper jacketed ammo for tens of thousands of rounds, though you may see significant velocity loss after 7-15k rounds.

Rifles can be expected to show significantly degraded accuracy after around 5-18k rounds of steel jacketed ammo, and begin to keyhole shortly thereafter.

My 5.56 Arsenal AK went from 2.5 MOA to 6+ over the course of 6-7k rounds of Wolf and Barnaul .223. No mag dumps, but it was used primarily for 2-gun and 3-gun competition.

Good information in those articles, thanks. I only have 500 rounds of Barnaul so I do not think that I will see much if any barrel damage. I’ll just make it a point to clean the rifle after each shooting session.

[Pappabear]

I

For which caliber?

I use tons of steel case in handgun and AK calibers. Tend to avoid it for ARs.

Yesterday I ran around 350 - 400 rounds of Brown Bear 9mm and had two light primer strikes in a G17.5. for the price I paid for them I ok with that

Most Russian commercial western ammo is loaded on the lighter side. Whomever wolf buys their steel case from is probably the most inconsistent

I agree with this as well. I was in same situation and bought 3 cases of 800 yesterday. Wolf Military just to bump up my stash as well. You can always dump it through Mp5 or MPX if your handgun doesn't like it. Ive had good luck with it.

PB

[IKnowNotEverything]

If it isn’t a precision build or an expensive barrel I say blast away. My 20 gov’t BCM is getting whored out on steel. My SBR gets a fair share too.

The cost of a new barrel is almost paid for in three cases under normal conditions. I don’t know if we’ll ever see “normal” again.