SKS barrel life span?

[7mmlefty]

Thanks for all youre thoughts and knowledge on the sks.
Im waiting to receive my new 1950 refurb Tula, bought from a fellow CGN'r and had to ask the question.
The last poster, muffins 37, brought up a good point on the bullets having a steel case.
One could easily think the barrel would not live as long as a North American service rifle shooting copper jacket bullets. Ive heard FNC1's could fire 20,000 rounds a year from CF rifle team member(shooting daily) and the rifle being accurate for many years.

 

[fiddler]

What about the fact that M43 bullets are made of steel?

The case is made of steel, it has nothing to do with the barrel or its life. The bullets may have steel as a core, but the jacket is copper just like any other round. After 1500ft/sec copper is a lubricant. Your barrel is safe. As for corrosive ammunition, these rifles were made to shoot this ammo. Further to corrosive ammo, these rifles were cared for by peasant soldiers who could not read or write, yet they shot them and looked after them properly every single day.

 

[7mmlefty]

The case is made of steel, it has nothing to do with the barrel or its life. The bullets may have steel as a core, but the jacket is copper just like any other round. After 1500ft/sec copper is a lubricant. Your barrel is safe. As for corrosive ammunition, these rifles were made to shoot this ammo. Further to corrosive ammo, these rifles were cared for by peasant soldiers who could not read or write, yet they shot them and looked after them properly every single day.

I think the bullet jacket is made of steel on mil surplus 7.62x39 ammo. Wouldn't that wear down a barrel faster than copper?..

 

[fiddler]

I think the bullet jacket is made of steel on mil surplus 7.62x39 ammo. Wouldn't that wear down a barrel faster than copper?..

The bullet jacket is not made of steel. It is made of copper. Steel bullets will ruin a barrel, this is why bullets are not made of steel. They are made of copper. Surplus ammo does not have steel jackets. It does not get any simpler than this. THE BULLETS ARE COPPER JACKETED. NOT STEEL

 

[PerversPépère]

Probably enough to outlast the grunt to whom it was issued...
PP.

 

[plinker 777]

I think the bullet jacket is made of steel on mil surplus 7.62x39 ammo. Wouldn't that wear down a barrel faster than copper?..

Hmmm.....my stuff has always been copper washed ball ammo? Never seen it with a steel jacket! pics?!

 

[7mmlefty]

The bullet jacket is not made of steel. It is made of copper. Steel bullets will ruin a barrel, this is why bullets are not made of steel. They are made of copper. Surplus ammo does not have steel jackets. It does not get any simpler than this. THE BULLETS ARE COPPER JACKETED. NOT STEEL

I just put a file to a 7.62x39 bullet jacket. It did not have the soft sound of copper, but an agressive sound and feel of steel jacket.
The magnet agreed, and picked up all the fillings. Sooo... where does that bring barrel life expectancy?..

 

[Dsiwy]

Russian SKS's are only good for 1000 rds and then the rifling starts the strip.

If your gun is getting close to the 1000 rd mark I can take it off your hands for $50

 

[Dsiwy]

I just put a file to a 7.62x39 bullet jacket. It did not have the soft sound of copper, but an agressive sound and feel of steel jacket.
The magnet agreed, and picked up all the fillings. Sooo... where does that bring barrel life expectancy?..

Its mild steel so no worries

If your gun last for over 10,000rds "and it will np" then you only paid $200 for a lot fun

 

[fiddler]

I just put a file to a 7.62x39 bullet jacket. It did not have the soft sound of copper, but an agressive sound and feel of steel jacket.
The magnet agreed, and picked up all the fillings. Sooo... where does that bring barrel life expectancy?..

Have you considered that after 65 years, these rifles still perform? Its not just a test. The rifles do last the test of time, and the ammunition they made, does not wear out barrels, regardless of what you or anyone else has had to smoke.


Its interesting that you can form a hypothesis from such small detail, yet ignore overwhelming fact that everyone is telling you that they have been shooting the crap out of these rifles for decades with no ill effects. Perhaps Milsurp is not your thing? Best to stay away...

 

[svt1940]

Its mild steel so no worries

If your gun last for over 10,000rds "and it will np" then you only paid $200 for a lot fun

x1 for mild steel. Czech surplus are steel jacketed bullet, i have somes chinese norinco FMJ and soft point and both are steel jacketed( yup even the soft point ammo). Steel jacket is very soft, can be scratched easily.

Norinco SP 123gr steel jacket and lacquered steel case.

[/IMG]
magnet test....

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[/IMG]

 

[G37]

I'd say firing through a barrel until it glowed red, repeatedly, would ruin a barrel quickly. As long as you are NOT doing that, it'll should last a good while

 

[plinker 777]

Have you considered that after 65 years, these rifles still perform? Its not just a test. The rifles do last the test of time, and the ammunition they made, does not wear out barrels, regardless of what you or anyone else has had to smoke.


Its interesting that you can form a hypothesis from such small detail, yet ignore overwhelming fact that everyone is telling you that they have been shooting the crap out of these rifles for decades with no ill effects. Perhaps Milsurp is not your thing? Best to stay away...

more cheap ammo for the rest of us.......as anyone can clearly see from the pics, it's copper washed ball.

 

[7mmlefty]

The case is made of steel, it has nothing to do with the barrel or its life. The bullets may have steel as a core, but the jacket is copper just like any other round. After 1500ft/sec copper is a lubricant. Your barrel is safe. As for corrosive ammunition, these rifles were made to shoot this ammo. Further to corrosive ammo, these rifles were cared for by peasant soldiers who could not read or write, yet they shot them and looked after them properly every single day.

Perhaps youve been smokin too much to even realize that the casings on 7.62x39 milsurp are made of steel.
Nothing you say from now on, has any validity because of the ammount you smoked.

 

[smellie]

7.62x39 M43 ammo commonly is made with a steel cartridge case and a copperplated or copper-washed bullet which has a MILD steel jacket, a LEAD envelope inside that and a steel CORE. Theory is that the copper wash lubricates the bullet and protects it from rusting, the lead envelope squishes a bit and the steel core gives the required length while maintaining the bullet at the relatively light weight they wanted: a 122-grain 7.62x39 slug is the same length as a lead-cored 150. The combination works very well. Then you throw in a hard-chrome-lined barrel. Hard chrome is HARD and SLICK and Russia had very nearly a monopoly on the stuf for many years; they were using it for millions of barrels at a time when the rest of us were speculating about it.

There HAVE been armies which have used steel or greased-steel jackets on their bullets: Norway, the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, the old German Empire, the old Ottoman Empire and a few others. In these cases, the jacket metal was rolled thin, grease was applied and then the grease was rolled INTO the steel jacket material using a LOT of pressure...... and then the jackets were punched, drawn and made into bullets. Lot of work but relatively cheap in materials.

Old British/Canadian/Aussie .303 bullets might LOOK like steel, but they were jacketed with cupronickel: 85% copper, 15% nickel. During War Two, we DID make steel-jacketed .303, but they were PLATED with copper: takes a magnet to tell.

If there is an inner layer cushioning the distorting jacket (which takes the rifling) from the inner steel core (which does NOT compress) there is not a huge diffeence between mild-steel-jacketed and cupronickel-jacketed and gilding-metal-jacketed slugs, although the advantage (and the expense) is with the GM-jacketed bullets, others proceeding in that order.

Bore erosion from hot powder gases has always been a bigger barrel-killer than wear from jackets. 7.62x39 likely doesn't have HALF the erosive power of the .303, yet 303 barrels commonly handled 12,000 rounds before reaching "toast" status. See the experiments outlined in the TEXT BOOK OF SMALL ARMS - 1909 for more information.

NOW, can we all go to the range?
.

 

[fat tony]

I shot many times that through my 10/22. A precision rifle can be considered shot out after less than 2000 rounds. I'd say for general purposes your average rifle can shoot 10,000 rounds if maintained properly.



I'd say at least 20,000 before the chrome is gone and the gun shoots 15 MOA.



That is preposterous. A SKS costs $200. And, althought it may have been done somewhere, I don't know of anybody rechambering a SKS for another round. That would be pretty bubba.

As previously said, when your first SKS is shot out buy a new SKS and shoot the first one with it. Or make a wall hanger. Or keep it for parts.

IIRC there is a member on this forum who rebarrelled one of his SKS's with a take off barrel from a P-14 rifle.

 

[michaelsabre]

It's a low pressure round.

 

[L42A1]

They last forever

 

[Bcviking]

The bullet jacket is not made of steel. It is made of copper. Steel bullets will ruin a barrel, this is why bullets are not made of steel. They are made of copper. Surplus ammo does not have steel jackets. It does not get any simpler than this. THE BULLETS ARE COPPER JACKETED. NOT STEEL

Wrong the Czech surplus projectiles are a copper washed steel jacket.. heres some rare Czech steel jacketed rounds i have, with no copper wash only a laquer coating, made during a copper shortage. i picked the crate up from lever arms opened it and surprise..

 

[sonoftweety]

that looks like a nickel washed bullet have some south african that is the same