» Reloaded Ammo
By Vince on September 20, 2011
I like reloaded ammunition. I have literally fired millions of rounds of it.
I had one Glock 23 that I personally fired over 220,000 rounds thru. Yes that’s right 220 THOUSAND! And that is thru just one pistol.
The only thing I ever did was change the springs out ONCE. Ran like a top. Not one hick up. And get this…3/4 of that amount was lead ammo!
I know, I know…it voids Glock’s warranty. I can live with that, they make a quality firearm.
Now let me say, there are reloads and there are reloads. Not everyone knows how to do it correctly. For example: There was a certain local individual, that I will not name, that got into commercial reloading and, initially, was taking a friend of mine who’s been doing it commercially for over 30 years’ advice.
He thought it would be economical to “Cut some corners in the process”. Namely instead of polishing the brass BEFORE loading it, he would polish it AFTER it was loaded. Using todays vibrating tumblers this breaks down the powder, which depending on the powder used, changes the charge which can produce high chamber pressure and possibly blow up a barrel…in your hand!
He was told this was a bad idea. Nope, he knew better. His shoddy business practices and the quality of his product soon drove down his repeat business VERY quickly, not to mention several damaged guns.
So yes, check out the background on anyone you haven’t tried reloads from before.
Now let’s talk lead vs. jacked ammo.
A huge majority of folks don’t like lead ammo. They say, “It clogs my barrel; it’s hard to clean; it’s a pain to get out!” This can be true of pure lead reloads. However, most reloads are not pure lead; they are blends of other alloys in the molten mix, like linotype. Let me tell you, a 10% linotype bullet you cannot scratch with you thumbnail.
That’s pretty hard! Granted, the corner cutters use the cheaper lead, that’s why you have to check and do your research.
That being said, I heard people say: “Lead bullets will wear out my barrel.” Maybe if you fired over a billion or so rounds out of the same barrel.
Which is harder? Lead or steel? No brainer.
You stand a better chance of wearing out a barrel with harder, jacketed rounds than you do with lead rounds.
So why do you have to swap out machine gun barrels after a few thousand rounds, you ask?
Well it’s not because of jacketed ammo, or at least not directly. It’s because of heat. Remember all those rounds going down the barrel create friction, which creates heat.
Due to the rate of fire, the barrel does not have time to cool down, especially under sustained fire. Heat leads to the “tempered” steel barrel losing some of its integrity or more accurately; melting. This causes the barrel to start getting weaker, so it actually loses its hardness and begins to warp. Since it is now becoming softer due to the heat, the rifling also wears out faster because it is not as hard as it was.
This is why machine guns are fired in bursts, not only because it’s more accurate but because it sustains barrel life.
Unless you like to “bump” fire a lot and/or have a LOT of money for ammo (or have a Class 3/NFA gun) you will not live long enough to wear a barrel completely out.
Now let me address a controversial topic (more so than reloads!) and that being firing a jacked round AFTER you shoot lead ammo “cleans” out the lead residue.
False.
Think plumbing. How do plumbers put copper pipe together? They solder it. Before folks figured out that lead was harmful to humans (aside from being shot), lead was used as solder. The low melting point of lead made this possible.
Same principle folks. You are running a hot jacked round over lead. You are not taking it out, you are hardening it on!
Don’t believe me? Look at you pistol barrel the next time AFTER you clean it, with a flash light.
Oh, but the cleaning cloths are coming out white! Check with a flash light.
Unless you used a COPPER solvent as instructed on the label, you are going to see both lead AND copper jacket in your barrel.
What this means is nothing beats a proper cleaning. Use the appropriate solvents and take your time.
So don’t be afraid to use reloaded ammunition. It is in some cases better manufactured than factory ammo and making your own ammo is both fun and cheap. It’s really not hard to do and just takes some patience, a good set of reloading data books and time. You can custom make you own rounds to your own specs.
And best of all, you don’t have to depend on anyone else for ammo!