I have been looking for a good deal on surplus 55gr., .224 FMJBT military bullets. I clicked my way to Widener's Reloading and Shooting Supply (http://www.wideners.com) and there found such bullets on sale for $26 the thousand. These have no cannelure and are steel-jacketed with a thin copper plating to "protect" the barrel. My question is: Has anyone ever used these bullets and how much protection to the riflings does the copper plating provide? Thanks.

I wouldn't be afraid to shoot them....the copper is heavy enough to protect the barrel's rifling.....accuracy might be considerably less than expected however.

These bullets would be for willy-nilly plinking in the desert to the north of town-- accuracy is not too great a concern. Thanks for your thoughts.

I shot a lot of them when I had a Mini 14. Like Vapodog said, not real accurate. But then again, neither is a Mini 14.

a poster on another forum recovered copper-clad steel bullets shot from a 30 cal (garand or M1A). he found the bullets to still be entirely copper clad; the copper coating had not worn through so there was no steel-to-steel contact.

I do not hesitate to use steel jacketed bullets at all unless it's dry out.

Thanks, delloro. That's what I needed to know.