Can't find any info on nickel-plated bullets.
Anyone have any experience with them? Pros/cons?

7.62x51 NATO .308 German DAG manufacture. 1993 production. AB 22 Nickle-plated bullet, lead core. Top quality. 1,000 rd case, five sealed battle pacs.

Federal is starting to do it on their highest end hunting rounds. So, I guess it's something done on German surplus ammo and extremely expensive ammo, lol, those Germans.

A long time ago, many jacketed bullets were made w/ cupronickel. Very popular in Euro ammo manuf. THese may be the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupro_nickel
In the USA, we use pretty much gilding metal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilding_metal
True nickel plating would be diff. to control thickness for uniform coverage of the bullet & would probably affect flight characteristics.

The GP11 7.5mm ammo for the Swiss K31 is cupronickel jacket. Very nice ammo.

The USA quit using cupro-nickel bullet jackets due to problems with hard metal fouling when the velocity was increased from .30-40 Krag to .30-03 and then .30-06.

I wonder how the Swiss get away with it.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the replies. I found out some more info on this ammo, particularly the AB22 bullet used:

"Some time ago 7.62 NATO rounds manufactured in West Germany also had fragmenting properties. NATO standards do not specify jacket material or jacket thickness. The West German 7.62 round used copper-plated steel in the jacket, but their US counterparts used gilding metal alloy around .032 inches (.8mm) thick at the cannelure. The West German jacket is only about .020 inches (.5mm) thick near the cannelure. As a result of the differences, particularly the weaker jacket, the West German round yaws after 8cm or so in tissue before breaking in half at the cannelure. The nose, comprising just over half of the bullet's weight, generally remains intact, and the remaining mass of the lower half fragments. The result in tissue is predictably devastating."



"Bullet design is AB22 whose terminal ballistic performance in tissue is unique from most other 7.62 NATO FMJBT Ball bullet designs. Rather than pitching up 90 degrees, then pitching backwards another 90 degrees and exiting backwards, AB22 pitches up 90 degrees then breaks into two parts at the cannelure, similar in performance to M193 5.56 NATO Ball. "

quote:

The nose, comprising just over half of the bullet's weight, generally remains intact, and the remaining mass of the lower half fragments. The result in tissue is predictably devastating."

Oooooh, that's gonna leave a mark !
yooper35