Questions about Copper Fouling in Deer Rifle

[Joshua 2415]

Some questions about copper fouling:

1) Are most bullet jackets made of copper, and cause copper fouling, or just the mono-metal bullets like Barnes TSX?

2) I'm trying to decide between the Barnes TSX, Federal Fusion, and Hornady SST as my future go-to deer bullet. I know the TSX and Fusion both have copper, and I'm not sure about the SST. I'm not real excited about picking a bullet that will require special attention regarding the copper fouling issue. Should I be concerned about any of these three bullets, or is this copper thing not something to worry about?

Thanks!

[Lucas McCain]

As far as I know all a jacketed bullets are copper.

[Lucas McCain]

Copper fouling is difficult to remove. Most people determine it by a blue cleaning patch. If you use s copper brass brush it will give you s falseindication. Any brass jag or cleaning rod will also cause a blue patch.
A nickle plated jag, nylon brushes and stainless steel cleaning rods are your best bet.

[Dufus]

I don't use SSTs for anything put punching paper. They are too thin for my needs.

Most all jacketed bullets (cup and core) are gilding medal; an alloy of copper and zinc.

Most all mono metal bullets are copper. There are some floating around that are brass bullets.

I have found that Wipe Out Foaming Bore cleaner is the best I have tried for copper removal. It usually removes all copper with one application, sometimes two.

I use it with the Accelerator to speed the process some.

You will get a lot of other comments on this because everyone has their favorites.

Hint: Hoppe's #9 will not remove copper no matter who says what. At least not the environmentally friendly version, which is the only one you can buy nowadays.

Don't be afraid of copper removal 'cause it ain't that hard to do.

Pick your bullet of choice, load it, and go make some noise.

Note: I have verified the cleaning techniques with a bore scope, so I am not blowing smoke up your butt by lying about it. Not to be offensive by any means.

[jmr40]

Almost all bullets have copper jackets. The individual rifle will determine how much copper fouling you get, not the bullet you use. Some manufacturers leave the barrel rougher and those fill up with copper faster than those that are smoother.

All of those bullets will kill stuff, but they are very different. The SST's are the softest bullet. They expand very rapidly and often don't penetrate deep enough on larger game, or at bad angles. Stay with heavier for caliber bullets and this helps offset this. Lighter for caliber SST's at very high impact speeds may not work well. You need to place those bullets in the lungs. They aren't designed to shoot animal in the butt and expect it to reach the lungs.

You don't want TSX's in a rifle 30 caliber or smaller. The TTSX is the better hunting bullet, TSX the better target bullet. Either of those is the hardest bullet and on the opposite end of the spectrum from SST's. They will give you the deepest penetration of any bullet and are a great choice on larger game. Especially when fired from rifles normally thought to be borderline too small for the job.

This is a bullet that would allow you so shoot an animal in the butt and expect the bullet to reach the lungs. But because they are so hard they need to impact at faster speeds to expand. At longer ranges the SST is a better choice since it will expand at slower speeds. If the solid copper bullets impact too slow they don't expand at all. It is generally good advice to drop down at least 1 or 2 bullet weights with copper and shoot them as fast as possible. I shoot 130 gr TTSX's in my 308 at 3050 fps whereas with lead I'd shoot 165's at about 2750 fps to do the same job.

The Fusion, and most other bullets, are somewhere in between.

[ShootistPRS]

Bullet jackets on most jacketed bullets is gilding metal. It is an alloy of copper and zinc just like brass but with only 5 to 7% zinc. You still get what is called copper fouling but it is not the same as the copper fouling you get with the old original Barnes solid copper bullets. It still takes a copper solvent to remove.

[Don Fischer]

The majority of bullet jacket's are made of a copper compound called gilding metal. Not pure copper. Barn's used pure copper for years in their bullet's and their monolithic type bullet's are said to be pure copper. Hornady and Nosler use gilding metal, same stuff used in cup and core bullet jacket's.

[bacardisteve]

You can get copper fouling from basically any bullet other than non jacketed lead. What caliber are you shooting? The tsx have their place but are certainly not worth the expense in most calibers. The fusions are excellent bullets and work great on deer throughout the entire line up. The sst can be a bit explosive at close range or high velocity but can work very well depending on application.

[Joshua 2415]

My rifle is a 243 Remington Model Seven.

I'm considering the TSX with the idea that it will retain all or most of it's weight, thus making up at least somewhat for the smaller weight of the 243 in terms of penetration.

Same logic for the Federal Fusion. Their product description says the copper jacket is electro-chemically applied to the core, and they claim high weight retention.

I'm inclined to go with either TSX or Fusion, as long as I'm not getting into copper fouling and extra maintenance issues that could be avoided by using a more traditional design.

[Mobuck]

The 2 best bullets we found for the 243 are 100 grain Grand Slam and Nosler solid base soft point.

[bacardisteve]

Out of a 243 personally I would go for the fusion on deer. My 9 yr old son has used them in his 223 on deer out to 100yds. The sst in that caliber is too light for my taste the tsx is a viable option but are picky if you handload.