Steel jacket bullets ?

[Igor]

I'm curious how many here have run into steel-jacket bullets.......of any caliber.

Many, many years ago my Dad bought 3 M1 .30 cal. carbines and a huge box of military surplus ammo through the NRA.  We used to hunt jack rabbits out in the desert with those carbines.  Shot up hundreds of rounds.  The ammo is in 50-round cardboard boxes marked Kings Mills Ordnance Plant.

Anyway, my Dad passed the carbines and ammo on to me.  Recently I took one carbine and a hundred rounds, or so, to an indoor range.  The guy at the desk said "I need to check your ammo to see if it's steel".  I said "Huh".  Sure enough, he passed a magnet over the box of ammo, and the rounds literally jumped up to his magnet.  I had no idea that the bullets are actually copper-coated steel-jacketed.

I still have hundreds of rounds of the ammo, and I suppose I need to be very careful where I'm shooting when I target shoot with this ammo outdoors.

[wadu1]

Steel case or bullets?

[Igor]

Steel case or bullets?

Bullets.  The once-fired brass cases are reloadable.

When you put a magnet on the rounds, the magnet goes right to the bullet.

[GWP]

I had some Chinese 7.62 years ago that ‘appeared’ the same. And some other that had a steel pin in the middle of it. And steel cases on all of it.

[kselkhunter]

Yes some old military rounds had a steel core with copper/gilding metal jacket or just steel with a copper wash (to protect the rifling bore).  Was considered cheaper and better penetration than lead, especially during the lead shortages in WW2. Not common these days to find it though, although I think some foreign militaries may still use the steel bullets.

[Encore 280]

Wondering if those would be the same as "armor piercing" rounds. 

[LDennis24]

I remember my father having an old Steyr Mannlicher rifle and a huge box of ammo that was all that steel jacketed copper coated Chinese made extra super taco hotdog all American great joy happiness good for you brand ammo. It was an old surplus gun painted with black house paint but it was a killing machine! Always shot coyotes cuz it zipped right through them with no expansion.