jacketed or lead

[rockyr]

I was told that it is better to shoot lead through your pistol than jacketed bullets. True or Not?

Read More

 

[solv3nt]

I don't want to deal with cleaning lead, so I only shoot jacketed or plated. Side note, you're not supposed to shoot lead through a hexagonal barrel such as a Glock.

 

[Nwcid]

Better for what?

As stated it is suggested to shoot jacket bullets in guns with hexagonal rifling. Other very old (110+ years) might be better off shooting lead as jacketing might cause increased wear on the rifling. I know in my Trapdoor Springfield and my Webley MK 1 I wont shoot jacketed bullets.

 

[tarster]

I shoot only jackets bullets, mostly because I dont like reloading lead bullets, messier and have not had great luck with them in my progressive loader.. plus.. if I pretty much never have to clean my bore because there is 0 lead build up... all the better. just clean the carbon and keep shooting. Never go lead and then shoot jacketed right behind it though.. shooting lead always leaves some behind in the barrel and then you stick a jacketed round which is slightly larger than the lead round or exactly the same size you end up pushing the jacketed a bit harder because of the lead left behind, It ends up building more pressure behind the bullet.

 

[CAMc]

I have read that shooting cast lead bullets is fine, so long as velocities are relatively low. When you start getting up into the higher velocities, that is when you see significant lead streaking. I couldn't tell you what those velocities are, but most people 'down-load' their lead, modern rifle rounds for that very reason.
Then you get into the lead alloy compositions, and you can change the bullet's hardness, to suit your purposes, but that is all Greek to me.