barrel wear from steel jackets?

I read, in an American Rifleman dope bag article, of the Austro-Hungarians greasing the steel jacketed bullets used in their rifles and pistols.

I found on Wiki, for the 8mm Roth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8mm_Roth-Steyr

"Austrian military production contained greased un-plated steel jacketed bullets. "

I have not been able to find a web reference verifying that the steel jacketed bullets for the 8 X 50 mm cartridge were greased. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8x50mmR_Mannlicher

Anyway, if you are concerned about barrel wear and steel jacketed bullets, applying a lubricant to the bullets might reduce wear.
 
I would hazard a guess that throat erosion due to heat checking kills most barrels long before the hardness of the jacket on the ammo against the rifling ever comes into play.
 
especially in guns like the battle rifles that tend to be shot fast and hot. Even in a bolt gun the first thing to wear in the throat from errosion

I would hazard a guess that throat erosion due to heat checking kills most barrels long before the hardness of the jacket on the ammo against the rifling ever comes into play.
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@Slamfire
Anyway, if you are concerned about barrel wear and steel jacketed bullets, applying a lubricant to the bullets might reduce wear.
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What kind of lubricant? A liquid lube wouldn't stand a chance and most would diesel before they have a chance to function as a lubricant.

Of course there's Molly, and copper as I mentioned is a lubricant of sorts.

I would advise against tumbling loaded steel rounds in molly as the tumbling will alter the gunpowder structure and burn characteristics.

-SS-
 
Interesting that an above poster should mention lubricating bullets.

The 12th Edition Cartridges Of The World (2009) by Frank C. Barnes, Gun Digest Books has a very interesting article (pg 471) about early 20th century practice of dipping then new spire point cupronickle rounds into grease prior to firing. I found it interesting the description of the effects of the fouling (described as micro-stalactites dangling near the muzzle!) The US War Dept found that bare steel jackets reduced the bbl life of the 1903 rifle to 4, 000-5, 000 rounds and admitted to not wanting to front the monies for superior/better grades of bbl steel. Though top US shooters were grease dipping bullets between 1909 and 1920- Charles Newton of Western Tool and Copper Works (Oakland, CA) produced a copper jacketed expanding bullet in 1914, and by 1918 Capt (Col) Whelen had enough experience with them to form an expressed opinion. 1921 saw earnest development of copper based alloys by Frankford Arsenal, and in 1922 Western Cartridge Company patented a 90% copper, 8% zinc, and 2% tin and had it ready for Amarican shooters. That same year, a 180gr bulllet of the above alloy won the national Palma Competition. Many of us recall seeing this mixture marketed as Lubaloy.

Also of a safety note- the article describes a jump in pressure from 51K psi (for dry fired 1920 match ammo) to 65K psi when Mobilubricant (common automotive grease at the time) was used. And when the automotive grease was subtituted with vaseline- the pressure spiked to 71K psi. It was noted that the pressure testing device was wrecked before the receiver from which the ctg was fired. I don't know when the use of Universal Receivers began, but there may just be the chance that a well and proper heat treated Springfield survived pressure testing in the said 65,000 to 71,000 psi pressure ranges! Regardless, after reading this article- I can safely say that I personally wont be going with the old practice of externally lubing any of my cartridges.
 
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Also of a safety note- the article describes a jump in pressure from 51K psi (for dry fired 1920 match ammo) to 65K psi when Mobilubricant (common automotive grease at the time) was used. And when the automotive grease was subtituted with vaseline- the pressure spiked to 71K psi. It was noted that the pressure testing device was wrecked before the receiver from which the ctg was fired. I don't know when the use of Universal Receivers began, but there may just be the chance that a well and proper heat treated Springfield survived pressure testing in the said 65,000 to 71,000 psi pressure ranges! Regardless, after reading this article- I can safely say that I personally wont be going with the old practice of externally lubing any of my cartridges.
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Hatcher’s Notebook is the source of this. In 1920 the Army was experiencing something unfortunate with their rifles and ammunition. Very little information is in Hatcher’s Notebook on the 1920 troubles, but from what I read, defective Army ammunition was causing single heat treat receiver M1903 rifles to explode.

It took until 1927 when the Army decided that the one million single heat treat M1903’s in the field were having so many accidents, that the Army decided to scrap the receivers when the rifles came in for rebuild. In today’s world, leaving a defective product out in the field until rebuild time or until it injured someone, would lead to some big lawsuits, but times were different in the 1920’s.

Instead of fessing up and admitting that their defective ammunition and defective guns were the problem, the Army ran a coverup and shifted the blame to the civilians.

How else do you explain the lack of problems the Swiss had with their greased bullets. Swiss service ammunition up to the 80’s had a grease ring on the bullet and case neck. The reason they quit was that the grease caused difficult extraction in cold weather. However, if you search, you will see claims that accuracy was better with greased bullets.
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For decades gunwriters have been quoting Hatcher’s Notebook as gospel, ignoring evidence that greased bullets are not an issue.

Gunwriters never discussed Hatcher’s Notebook when shilling moly bullets did they? If greased bullets are bad, then moly lube bullets are bad, right?
 
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