Copper bullets, twists rates and barrel preferences

[EXPRESS]

A while back I decided to go lead free and stocked up on some Cutting Edge bullets in the calibers I use most .338 and 6.5mm.

It turns out that neither barrel particularly liked shooting these bullets with only MOA accuracy at best. Compared to what the barrels are capable of, and to wjat the CEB have been seen to do, I don't really consider that to be a good result.
Both barrels shoot .5MOA all day with factory ammo with Accubonds.

But I am tempted to try one last time, against my instinct and reasoning.

Rightly or wrongly I have always felt copper bullets to be a bit finicky and probably shoot best in very fast twist barrels.

My .338 win is a 1:10 which I consider standard and not quite enough for copper, but I like the idea of the CEB 254 grain bullet for shooting steel.

Does anyone share my feelings that a 1:9 or 1:8 twist would do better with them?

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

Too be honest all copper bullets are not meant to be bench rest quality, I've never seen one used in any type of real competition, they are meant for hunting and especially when penetration matters...the only thing different about them is their comparative length, they are always longer for their weight than lead. With the closing of the last lead smelter I wonder what the future of lead bullets will be. I use the 200 grain original! X-bullets in my .338wm they shoot the same as yours, about an inch and anything I'm shooting them at has a kill zone the size of a beach ball so one inch is more than good enough for a hunting bullet..

 

[WildRose]

A while back I decided to go lead free and stocked up on some Cutting Edge bullets in the calibers I use most .338 and 6.5mm.

It turns out that neither barrel particularly liked shooting these bullets with only MOA accuracy at best. Compared to what the barrels are capable of, and to wjat the CEB have been seen to do, I don't really consider that to be a good result.
Both barrels shoot .5MOA all day with factory ammo with Accubonds.

But I am tempted to try one last time, against my instinct and reasoning.

Rightly or wrongly I have always felt copper bullets to be a bit finicky and probably shoot best in very fast twist barrels.

My .338 win is a 1:10 which I consider standard and not quite enough for copper, but I like the idea of the CEB 254 grain bullet for shooting steel.

Does anyone share my feelings that a 1:9 or 1:8 twist would do better with them?

If it's a true solid copper vs a "gilding metal" (copper alloy) You'll probably not be very pleased with them especially if you aren't really going hard on removing th copper fouling ever 10-15 shots.

Copper is very soft so it builds up quickly in barrels. The higher the pressure and velocity (and no doubt twist to some degree) are the more rapidly you will get a build up.

If it's not a pure copper bullet you're just going to have to accept the fact that you cannot get anywhere close to the same BC from monolithic bullets you can from traditional lead core/copper jacket bullets of the same weight and to achieve the same weight the bullets have to be much longer than their cup/core cousins due to the lower density.

Some rifles will shoot the monoliths better than others but it takes a lot of tweaking to figure out what will work best for you.

With the CEB's you might want to double check with them to be sure your twist rate is adequate for the bullets you are shooting.