Cupronickel ammo

R

Roamin_Wade

Moderator
What can anyone tell me about the ammunition made out of cuperonickle that isn't being made anymore? Is it good or was it no good? Thanks...
 
Cupro, not cupero.

In my ignorance about the bullets, I'd guesstimate that they were intended for deep penetration rather than expansion, as in military bullets.
 
Its primary function was to have a metal that did not peel off.

How well it did is a different story. Color had nothing to do with it.
 
Cupronickel jackets were an early attempt to improve bullets, jacketing the lead to be able to use the higher velocities the "new" smokeless powders produced. They work.

Gilding metal, the alloy we call "copper jackets" today, works better. And because of that, replaced cupro-nickel (generally) generations ago.
 
Cupronickel was fine until the transition from .30-40 Krag to .30-03. The increase in velocity was enough to cause hard metal fouling. There were even cupronickel plated steel jackets.

I wrote an author to that effect and he replied that his firearms expert showed him current production cupronickel jacketed bullets. Well, yes, they were hunting bullets, a couple of rounds fired through a cold clean barrel at a game animal don't have the fouling potential of a military weapon.
 
The above information is pretty reliable. Cupronickel was the early jacketing material. It was a lot better than an unjacketed lead bullet. However it did cause some pretty nasty fouling in early rifles. The chemists came up with gilding material to use for jackets and it is much better. I should live so long as to see the next 'change'.

Like many things, even cupronickel won't be a serious problem if one cleans the barrel regularly.
 
Some time back I bought several thousand rounds of 30/40 Govt issue. It was
Frankfort Arsenal 1905 stamped on canvas bandoleers. Ammo was very clean
but was degraded from within the cartridge. Charge was like grease and brass
was corroded from inside. A lot of the case necks had cracks. With thumb pressure you could break bullet through case. I bought I cheap to salvage the
bullets. The exposed part of bullet looked like new but rear was covered with
soft corrosion. I put them in a bucket of the solution HVac guys use to clean coils
on AC units. Rinsed and dried. These bullets are cupronickel jackets and I save
them for plinking & target in 30/40s and my 1895 Win 30/06 loves them. I have
had no problem with fouling of riflings with them. But I'm not shooting them at
extreme velocities.
 
I have around 225 I salvaged from some 7mm Mauser rounds I bought. These are 175gr round nose bullets that I am guessing are the same as Bell used on most of his elephants.

The primers were bad and more like a fuse. So I pulled them all and saved the square flake powder and the bullets and tossed the brass. They were loaded with 38grs of this powder. They may have had slow ignition but everyone of them fired. And they were darn accurate too. And since they were not loaded to max pressures they were very pleasant to shoot.

I have 20 rounds loaded in some of my 7x57 cases just in case the elephants escape the zoo and I am called on to stop the charge.:D
 
If you are going to stop a charging elephant with a 7x57mm Mauser, and you aren't Karamojo Bell, I do hope you that you have the next of kin box on the form filled out. :D

might not be a bad idea to have your DNA on file, too. That way they can identify who the red paste was....:eek::rolleyes:
 
At the range yesterday morning I launched 20 rounds of 1936 headstamp Turkish 8mm out of my Turk Mauser. Cupro Nickle jacketed. I have fired lots of it and have had no cleaning problems with it. 1936 Stamp is also pretty accurate stuff but boy is it HOT. 82 Year old ammo...must have been stored well.
 
Norma offered nickle plated bullets for hand loading. I bought a bunch for 7.92. they were all 196 gr. Norma also offered a copper jacketed 165 gr BTSP for the 7.92 and I have those also.
 
If you are going to stop a charging elephant with a 7x57mm Mauser, and you aren't Karamojo Bell, I do hope you that you have the next of kin box on the form filled out.

might not be a bad idea to have your DNA on file, too. That way they can identify who the red paste was....
Click to expand...

HaHa thats funny. And as much blood work as I have had done somebody somewhere should have a sample of my DNA. My wife would make sure I was identified, she wants the insurance money.:eek:
 
I called the bullets 'streakers' because?

The last article I read that was not written by Internet reloaders was written it 1954 or I should say published in 1954. The article had to do with cleaning the barrel because that stuff did not come out of the barrel by normal means.

And then there is that Tin Can thing and the old guys greasing their ammo and getting it all over everything. If you are interested in the article-go dig.

F. Guffey
 
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Someone forgot to tell the Swiss cupro/ni was fubar. They were still making 7.5 mil ammo with it in the late 1990's. Cupro/Ni worked for about a hundred years for them. Best All
 
Someone forgot to tell the Swiss cupro/ni was fubar. They were still making 7.5 mil ammo with it in the late 1990's.
Click to expand...

I have purchases thousands of cupro/nickel rounds that were dated 1941 and back. Most of it was 8MM57 Mauser ammo. Most of it cost me $2.40 for 80 rounds. I had no interest in the case and or bullet, I pulled the bullets and saved the powder. The bullets were streakers and had a waist. At first I thought the waist on the bullet was caused by the crimp.

F. Guffey
 
"might not be a bad idea to have your DNA on file, too. That way they can identify who the red paste was...."

I THINK it was Peter Capstick who, in one of his articles for American Rifleman/American Hunter, described the elephant's preferred method of dealing with people trying to kill them as the "Stomp and Stir" method...

Stomp with massive feet, stir the remains with the tusks, and stomp again.

That's always made me chuckle.
 
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