[Slamfire]

Slamfire, with all that goop on the bullets I'd think you would create hydraulic rings in the barrel.

I am not seeing it. The practice of greasing bullet was standard practice in the days of cupro nickel bullet jackets. In fact, based on what is in print, you were a rube if you did not grease your bullets. This article by Major Brookhart is excellent in explaining the reasons behind this practice:

Arms and the Man, scanned by Google books:

27 April 1918 Rifle Training in War, part 4 Major Smith Brookhart

The use of greased bullets in rifle training is very desirable. There was a time when riflemen argued about the effect of grease upon the accuracy of the rifle but it long ago ended in favor of the grease.

The Winchester Company is now making all of its tests of both rifles and ammunition with greased bullets. When bullets were fired dry it was found the ammunition from the first loading machines would give the best velocity, with slightly reduced velocities apparent in the product of succeeding machines although fired from the same rifle. After they began greasing the bullets the velocity held even and steady. The results from the last machines were just as good as the first. It is true the velocity of greased bullets is higher, but it is even. They all go the same, providing they are greased about the same. It was claimed that grease in the chamber caused the primers to blow uot but that is a mistake. There is a higher pressure caused by the more perfect sealing of the bore when grease is used, but the pressure is not increased enough to blow out a properly seated primer.

The greatest benefit of the greased bullet is its effect upon the life of the rifle. In tests a few year ago all of the rifles which figured in the trials were worn out and lost their accuracy under three thousand round when fired with dry bullets. Those fired with greased bullets held their accuracy from 6700 to 7200 rounds. Accuracy as used here must not be confounded with “serviceable” as applied to the ordnance tests. These rifles showed no loss of accuracy until they had fired the above number of rounds and without the grease they showed loss of accuracy upon firing less than half the number. If the use of grease ill double the life of a rifle, it is very important.

Grease also prevents metal fouling and prevents acid fouling for the powder. It is a fine perserative for the bore of the rifle, but it has some disadvantages. As generally used it is dierty and disagreeable to handle. If mixed with sand and dirt it is very injurious to the rifle. It must e kept clean and it must be applied evenly. A small amount on each bullet is sufficient. It causes a certain amount of smoke and that may prevent its use on the battle field and especially by snipers. Nevertheless, it protects the rifle and ought to be used during the training period. If a bad quality of grease is used it causes carbon fouling.

Mobilubricant, Polarine, cup grease, or Keystone Journal grease may be used by putting the point of each bullet in the grease or by rubbing it over the bullets on a whole clup. Blue ointment used in the same way makes an excellent bullet grease. The best plan is a compound of 40% beeswax and 40% Carnauba wax and 20% Petrolatum. This must be melted and the bullets must be warmed and dipped into it. If the bullets are cold they take too much. They can be warmed with hot water. This compound hardens, is clean and easy to handle. When fired it leaves a trace of smoke along the entire course of the bullet, but that is no disadvantage in training. The great riflemen of the United States have nearly all used greased bullets during the last half dozen years.


Metal fouling is also entirely prevented by the use of greased bullets.
The rifle is preserved and its life prolonged by the use of greased bullets.
The use of grease is fool proof.

The only possible injuries that can result from its use arise when sand or dirt becomes mixed with and scratch the bore or when grease closes up the bore and bursts the barrel.

Both are easily avoided.

The writer has ample proof of these conclusions. He has commanded riflemen when the won world championships with rifles that had been fired more than 3000 times without any cleaning whatever. But every bullet had been greased. One of these rifles that had fired over 3300 rounds without cleaning the bore, showed signs of loss in accuracy at 1000 yards the day before the Palma match in 1912. The bore was wiped out and a collection of hard baked carbon fouling was found near the muzzle. This was removed with a steel brush and next day that rifle put on 216 points out of a possible 225 at 800, 900, and 1000 yards. This was the second score in the team that made the world’s record in the Palma match-and the man who made 217 also greased his bullets. This rifle fired 3300 rounds before cleaning of any kind was necessary, and then was only because of a carbon fouling which was easily removed. There was no acid reaction. Since that date other riflemen have won the Herrick, the Wimbledon, the Marine Corps and the Regimental Championship with the same treatment of their rifles. These are the greatest test of accuracy in the United States. The failure to clean the ordinary fouling from the rifle daily, was no advantage. Neither did it cause any injury. A better way would be to wipe it out and oil, but the burned grease is a protection and not an injury to the bore.

It would save many million of dollars lost in worn out rifles if-

The War Department would prohibit the use of the solutions and instead-
Issue the beeswax, Carnauba wax and petrolatum compound for greasing bullets.

It would increase the efficiency of men in rifle practice.

It would make rifle cleaning easy and preserve the rifle.

The president of the National Rifle Association now has a rifle that has fired over 7000 rounds of greased bullets and is still at its best for accuracy It has never been treated with the solutions.

I pondered why Major Brookhart took the time and effort to defend greasing his bullets, and I think it has to do with a Hoax perputrated by the Army Ordnance Department. The Army had built over 1,000,000 rifles in Arsenals without temperature gages. Heat was judged by the eye, except for rear sight springs, where there was a pyrometer. Otherwise when ever metal was heated, eye balls were the gage. Now let us understand who is running these Arsenals: Army Officers. The Army is responsible for funding and management of their Arsenals, and any bad product that gets shipped is the fault of Army Ordnance Officers.

Rifles were blowing up in the field because human eye balls are unable to judge heat precisely enough to prevent steel from being burnt. In 1927 and Army Board determined that 1/3 of all low number receivers would blow up in over pressure conditions. Some of these receivers would shatter if dropped on a concrete floor.

The Army is no different from any other large organization. It is grandiose, self centered, self absorbed, does not have guilt or shame, never admits when it is wrong, always blames others for its failures, and you can only have a master/slave relationship with it. It is also highly manipulative. The Army never admitted that it made bad rifles. We know these low number receivers were issued all the way through WW2 and today, these things are still blowing up in shooter's faces:



But, at the time they were being made, and decades after, the Army found a way to pass the blame. The Army claimed greased bullets were the problem. You can see the logic, perfect rifles, perfect ammunition, so it has to be the grease. I think Major Brookhart is reacting to pervasive Army Ordnance disinformation on greased bullets, because in his experience, and in the experience of thousands of shooters, grease was beneficial. He did not know, as no one outside of the Army Ordnance Bureau knew, and no one outside of the Army Ordnance Bureau would know till after 1948, just what a mess the Army Arsenals were in, and the level, quantity, and how structurally deficient the rifles they were shoveling out from 1906 to 1918. The production lines were in such a mess that Springfield Armory was shut down for at least a month, in the middle of a shooting war. This is very serious, could have affected National Security, and very embarrassing, but I have not found a peep in the popular press at the time, nor until Hatcher publishes the numbers in 1948.

But, the Hoax created by the Army Ordnance Bureau over 100 years ago is foundational to many of the belief systems in the American Shooting society.

At least some are trying to address this, even though they don't know where the lie started

The myth of over lubrication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9bOT_d60LM