Nickel plated bullets?

[rjnied]

Are you saying normal gun barrel solvent will not work a chemical especially made to remove nickel should be used or if you have stainless barrel just repeating brush and patch with no solvent or standard ok?

I am saying that the chemicals necessary to strip nickel from a barrel do a lot of bad things to the barrel. However, normal gun barrel solvents will loosen powder, copper, or nickel fouling equally well. Using those solvents in conjunction with proper brushes and patches will clean the barrel well to a point. For a hunting rifle that does not get a lot of rounds put through it, this should be fine.

But if you shoot a lot rounds through a barrel such that either copper or nickel has fused to the barrel metal, then you have to chemically remove that metal from the barrel. Hence the reason for the development of copper fouling removers like CR10, Sweets, Patchout, etc. Those copper fouling removers won't work with nickel. In fact, they are specifically formulated not to attack iron/steel, nickel, molybdenum, or chrome in our barrels.

 

[coop2564]

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Gord0]

We have a few items where I work nickel plated. Specifically copper items (electronics company that specializes in aerospace and defense) the nickel plating that is used on most if our mechanicals is specifically used for corrosion resistance. It also limits scratching on critical heatsink surfaces because it is much harder than the copper itself. There are many different kinds of nickel platings that serve different purposes. Different things are mixed with the nickel, like polymers for lubricity, or silicone carbide for hardness. I'm sure federal isn't using just a straight nickel plating in their bullets, but either way it is a lot harder than copper. Someone that is shooting 10-20 bullets a year, maybe less (think most hunters) are never going to notice the increased wear. Someone shooting hundreds of rounds a year I would guess is going to see some significant wear.