Since brass is much harder than copper plated lead, do brass bullets wear the rifling away more rapidly?
If so, how much more?
Actually less, C360 brass has a lead content, and therefore higher lubricity than copper and gilding materials used for bullets. It has the highest machinability ratings followed by 99.5% pure copper. Most of the Raptors are C360 Brass, and I much prefer the brass because of the brittle aspects and consistency in shearing blades. However, CEB has also perfected the shear with copper as well, and I do have some Copper Raptors.
But even those considerations to the side, all the Raptors are "Banded" bullets, with very small bearing surfaces compared to conventional bullets, less bearing surface is always less wear, less pressure and less barrel strain. I have done a lot of actual barrel strain work with many big bore cartridges and the bands reduce this by incredible amounts, even making the bullets safe for OLD double rifles.
This is just an example of bearing surface......This was an early 3 band solid......
Another example of bearing surface with the 100 gr FB Raptor in .308 caliber
Bands make a tremendous difference in strain on the barrel, and along with that, wear and tear............ These are some of the bullets tested for barrel strain in .458 caliber. Two major factors in barrel strain are #1 Bearing Surface and #2 Bullet Diameter. Reduce either and you will get less barrel strain. Reducing diameter can only go so far before other factors are impacted, such as accuracy and stability. However, bearing surface can be reduced significantly without detrimental effects to accuracy. And in many cases increase accuracy and consistency by allowing a place for material to displace to, especially in the case of copper.
Hopefully that helps...... I have shot literally 1000s upon top of 1000s of these with no detrimental effect, none I know of anyway........
As a footnote..... A few years ago my Winchester M70 Test gun in 500 MDM went all to hell. It was throwing bullets sideways at 25 yards. It had been the gun that did all the load data, pressure data, bullet test, and had literally 1000s of rounds fired through it, and 1000s of the brass solids and Raptors. I was absolutely sure that I had finally shot the barrel completely out of it. I had already made plans to put a shorter barrel on it when I sent it to Brian at SSK and told him what the problem was. He turned it around in a week? WTF? Get the rifle out of the box, barrel has not been changed? What? Called him and he is laughing his ass off. He asked me if I had ever cleaned it? "Well of course not, you don't have to clean BIG BORES"........ That's right, I had never cleaned it, not once, not ever. He said it was coated with brass and copper and the damn rifling could not even engage... HEH HEH........... He had some sort of special eat the brass and copper out cleaner. Still shooting and still the test gun.................. No, I still don't clean them.
