OMG - Aluminum Foil patching !

[Traffer]

You won't believe this...I was just thinking about that yesterday. Was on the john and thought "I wonder if anyone has ever tried aluminum foil for paper patching." I was going to google it but by the time I finished my business I forgot. ...im old.

[Traffer]

Problem solved. No Stick aluminum foil. I am absolutely positive that it will not foul the barrel. Please try it and give us the results.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

What would be the point of making an Aluminum Clad bullet ?

There would have to be an advantage to doing it, other than just 'looks'.

Would it penetrate better ? Copper jacketed bullets have lasted
essentially forever. The polymer tips are to cover the 'hollow point'
to allow for mushrooming.
Unless Aluminum makes for better mushrooming or survives the
high velocity trip to the target better, why go to the trouble of swaging
Aluminum into a bullet blanket or cover ?

It just seems illogical to mess about with Aluminum where a more
dense metal would actually increase the momentum of the projectile.

DoctorBill

There is no real advantage or disadvantage in a bullet aluminium jacketed in the same style as gilding metal or copper, except economy for the manufacturer. It wouldn't be a big economy when you consider how the cost of commercial jacketed bullets stacks up against the price of copper, but every little helps... them. The difference in bullet weight wouldn't be great until you get to things like solid base bullets. You can keep up the weight that much by increasing the bullet length I you have the rifling twist, and the standard twist of many calibres was chosen for longer, heavier bullets than we often use nowadays.

Professor Rubin's first jacketed bullets were of tombac, an alloy similar to brass. Copper is more malleable, cupro-nickel harder if you need a non-expanding military bullet, and a poorer conductor of heat, giving less likelihood of core melting. At that time aluminium was a rare and expensive metal, and only became cheaper around 1910 when electricity got cheaper, particularly with hydroelectric power. In the Highlands of Scotland there is still a considerably sized dam built in 1910 exclusively for an aluminium smelter.

For foil patching, there isn't much advantage, if any, over paper patching. It might be easier to get the diameter precisely right, and it should b less vulnerable to handling wear and damp. With thin foil you could probably do it with a groove diameter bullet, but I think something thicker, possibly annealed soda can metal, would be better. Copper foil patching has been tried, and at least some of the time found failing to detach itself, with disastrous effects on accuracy. I think this is due to soldering under the heat of friction, and aluminium doesn't solder easily.

[dave roelle]

Copper and brass foils are also available

[Elkins45]

Brass foil---hmmmm.

I haven't tried Al foil, but I'm going to guess that it is much easier to apply than paper. I have dabbled with paper a bit, and my loss rate for patches was usually around 50% even after quite a. It of practice. A metal foil with good "memory" might be something worth trying.

Paper sticks to itself when it dries. I understand how wrapping at the base will hold on the foil, but how does it adhere at the nose? Wonder if you could just wrap the entire length and twist both ends, like a candy wrapper?