Steel-jacketed ammunition: Good or not?

[Dinochrome]

7.62X51 Nato at $200 per thousand. Seemed a good idea at the time,... Austrian make, FMJ, NC, Berdan primed.

The dealer denied that it was steel-jacketed, but after the gun-show, at home, a magnet gave him the lie.

Is it likely to cause damage or increased wear on my STG-58? Should I have bought $1000-worth?

[Darrell]

There's some cupronickel jacketed stuff out there (saw some at AIM, German made, I think), which will react to a magnet. I've encountered this with some European 9 mm ammo. Should be GTG.

[Dinochrome]

There's some cupronickel jacketed stuff out there (saw some at AIM, German made, I think), which will react to a magnet. I've encountered this with some European 9 mm ammo. Should be GTG.

That's nice to know. Just to be sure, I'll scrape some of the gilding off one round and see if it rusts!

[JAG2955]

Considering that it was probably made by the Austrians for their STG-58s, I'd say that you're fine.

[Dinochrome]

Considering that it was probably made by the Austrians for their STG-58s, I'd say that you're fine.

I'd guess that you're right, it's the stuff that was made for this rifle. Wish I could find it at that price these days!

[Flintlock Tom]

It is my understanding that the ferrous metals used in some bullet jackets is much softer than the steel used in the barrel.
I doubt you'll have a problem.

[SeekHer]

The problem you may encounter though is that you'll not have a gun range to shoot it at...Lots of ranges have "No AP, Tracer or FMJ bullets allowed" since they really damage the berms and target gongs/silhouettes.

You could always pull the bullets and re-seat some expanding ones.

For close in plinking they're great but if you want to be hunting or target shooting with your rifle then you have to use the load that you will be shooting/competing with to practice so you can develop proper bullet drop and scope click tables

[Erik]

I've encountered this with some European 9 mm ammo. Should be GTG.

Swedish m/39B is a 9mm ammunition primarily designed for the m/45 submachine gun. When it was first developed it was discovered that the military issue handgun at the time had problems with it, the steel jacket resulted in a higher pressure that damaged the gun. So all soldiers were told never to use it in a handgun, it was submachine gun only.
However, that had more to do with the gun and not the ammo, a good quality handgun will handle it without any problems. The Swedish army now uses Glocks as sidearms with m/39B, and any competitive shooter that can get hold of m/39B uses it. With the exception of those using older guns, like the SIG Neuhausen 210.

There's lots of discussion if it causes additional wear, but there's people that's fired thousands of shots and they say they cant see any difference.

i don't know about tha Austrian stuff, but from what I know about the Swedish m/39B it's not a problem as long as you use it in a good quality (modern) gun.

[mekender]

Over the life of a barrel, I would guess that steel jacketed or "bi-metal" jackets would shorten the life by a couple hundred rounds max. So instead of having a life of say 12,000 rounds, it has a life of 11,500.

Not a big worry IMO.

[Durham68]

Does it look like this?