Thread: Barnaul

Any amo IS corrosive if you don't clean the barrel except maybe a chrome lined or nitrided bore. Seen some pretty nasty stainless barrels that were never cleaned.

Ive used a lot of barnaul 223 ammo and have reloaded with their projectiles. The ammo sold by Jim is not corrosive primed but the powder does burn quite dirty compared to hogdon or adi which can be messy in a gas impingment semi. The projectiles are gilding metal washed steel over a lead core. They are easy to pick up with a magnet! Steel jackets dont wear out barrels any faster than copper. In fact sintered iron driving bands on artillery shells give longer barrel life than do copper ones. Barnaul ammo seems to get bad reviews from some, certainly its not match grade but its as good as any bulk stuff like hornady training or american eagle for hunting or general plinking, and the price is hard to beat especially if you dont reload or are doing pest control with a black rifle.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/bras...el-cased-ammo/

^ Doesn't feature Barnaul but... FYI nonetheless.

In the end Barnaul is an adapted milsurp to sporting round which is cheap . The projectiles are on the hard side ,not much expansion but rip a decent hole , and can be rather dirty . For a cheap pest control / bush hunting it will work ,but nowhere as good as a "decent' round .
The case can be reloaded once or twice but the process etc does not make it worthwhile .

Originally Posted by Ryan

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/bras...el-cased-ammo/

^ Doesn't feature Barnaul but... FYI nonetheless.

Excellent article.

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Excellent article.

Especially when he gets to the end and also considers barrel price versus ammo price, His analogy allows for the savings made by using the cheaper ammo. It is worth cosidering the savings on the cheaper ammo is often more than enough to pay for the replacement barrel and have change.....

Originally Posted by timattalon

Especially when he gets to the end and also considers barrel price versus ammo price, His analogy allows for the savings made by using the cheaper ammo. It is worth considering the savings on the cheaper ammo is often more than enough to pay for the replacement barrel and have change.....

Especially here in NZ with such stupid ammo prices. If you were to do their maths at NZ prices it would be an even bigger gap. However I would probably not shoot this ammo out of a nice stainless barrel, considering it is generally softer than carbon steel but from a black rifle or SKS/AK it is definitely worth the cost saving especially if you don't reload.

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Especially here in NZ with such stupid ammo prices. If you were to do their maths at NZ prices it would be an even bigger gap. However I would probably not shoot this ammo out of a nice stainless barrel, considering it is generally softer than carbon steel but from a black rifle or SKS/AK it is definitely worth the cost saving especially if you don't reload.

If I use 308 as an example, and I will make the presumption that all are equal on accuracy. Barnaul is currently $105.15 per 100 rounds, Highland is $156 per 100 ($31 per 20) and Belmont's cheapest is $120 per 100. For the same test as the article if we cost out 5000 rounds at these prices we get

Barnaul $5257.50
Highland $7800.00
Belmont $6000.00

These prices would be lowered significantly by buying in bulk but I am trying to estimate the cost difference overall between them and after even just 5000 rounds between three of the cheapest brands of ammo the cost of a barrel (or even a complete firearm) is less than the overall difference of buying a dearer ammo. And as a final thought, If you can afford to blow $5k on ammo, go buy another rifle.........Because you can clearly afford it.