Jacketed bullets in black powder guns

[Danth]

I've heard over and over that jacketed bullets should not be used in guns that originally were loaded with black powder, ie. 25-20SS, 28-30-120, etc. What do you think about this? Copper is softer than any steel barrels regardless of age, so why would a jacketed bullet wear out an older barrel any faster than a cast bullet? I realize copper is harder than lead, but question it wearing out a barrel prematurely. Also, can you use a spitzer swaging die to make a satisfactory flat point bullet by simply reducing the size/weight of the core so it doesn't completely fill out the point?

[clodhopper]

Don't know if it's true or not. But 'urban legend" was more about getting bullets stuck in the barrel.

Black powder is corrosive, copper is reactive.

I think many .25-20s have been shot with jacketed bullets after having been powered by black powder.

[flyingmonkey35]

Two fold mistry.

Traditional muzzle loaders are designed for dead soft lead.

This allows the lead to deform and make a frim contact with the patch between the projectile and barrel.

With out that the projectile can have a hard time properly engaging the rifling.

So if you use a modern copper clad bullet you must use a sabot or plastic wad.

So the plastic will so the rifling engagement.

Now the big problem is powder.

Old barrels should not be shooting these extra large slugs. The amount of pressure is over rated for that barrel.

I would recommend a modern inline rifle for hunting muzzle loader.

And stick with lead with traditional rifels.



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[M-Tecs]

The British used a compressed pellet of 71.5 gr black powder and a 215 gr jacketed bullet in the Black-Powder .303 Lee-Metford. It used lee Medford style rifling which gave them good accuracy with black powder.

https://gundigest.com/more/classic-guns/britains-black-powder-303-the-lee-metford