Can modern barrels be damaged by "steel or bi-metal" jacket bullets ?

[nasem]

Reason I ask is I came to realise that 8mm mauser surplus ammo is very cheap.  Close to a penny a round, can't ever beat that.  So I am not really into older WWII rifles, but I really like the looks of the remington 700 classic model that was introduced for year 2004. 

I was told that those surplus ammo for the 8mm mauser are mostly steel jacketed, or bi-metal, they usually fail the "magnet" test in any in-door range, but more importantly, I was also told that these rounds are more designed to be fired through a chrom-lined barrel.  How much truth is in this ?  Will these bullets damage a modern barrel like the one from the remington 700 ?

thanks for any replays

[John Traveler]

Military small arms ammunition has been made for several generations using steel-jacketed bullets, using either cuproniickel (CN) or guilding metal (GM)  plating.  They don't seem to hurt the accuracy of military rifles any. 

True, chromium plated military rifle and machine gun barrels have been used since WWII, but the real reason they are used is to extend the service life of the barrel from corrosion and erosion.  Barrel life is nominally rated in many thousands of rounds.  Rifle and machine gun barrels wear out from the chamber/throat end from powder and primer gas erosion, not from bullet friction.  The steel used in bullet jackets is very mild...something like that used in making "tin" cans.  Whether CN or steel jacketed, the usefull life of a bolt-action rifle barrel can be counted in the many thousands of rounds fired.

Moderate use of surplus steel-jacketed ammo will not hurt the average hunting rifle.  They should not be used of course in extreme accuracy competition barrels. 

[nasem]

Alright, I underestand,
Its just hard to pass up 900 rounds for $75, thats less than a penny per round.  I could defenetly use some more practice at the range and those should do it for me.

I am going to get a new remington 700 in 8mm mauser, I'll post back some results with the accuracy of those surplus ammo.

thanks John

[Casull]

Nasem, that's good cheap practice ammo.  But, check your decimal point, that comes out to a little over 8 cents per round (still cheap though).

[nasem]

jesus christ 75 / 900 = 0.08 where the hell did I get 1 penny from ? lol

[gunnut69]

It shouldn't cause any problems but be warned, The ammo will almost certainly be corrosively primed and unless cleaned properly with a water based bore cleaner the salts generated will pitt a barrel quickly.. I like Sweet's 7.62. It's a water/amonia cleaner and really works. Read and follow the directions on the bottle..