nickel fouling?

[Shadow9mm]

So I just saw a pretty cool video from federal on the manufacturing process of their terminal ascent bullets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9bUqOCIUWw

I have looked at them before and want to try them eventually.

However having cleaned several guns recently it made me think. Would shooting these cause nickel fouling similar to copper fouling? If so how would one go about cleaning out nickel fouling? No bore cleaner I am aware of is rated for nickel. The only think I could think of was something like the JB bore paste or other abrasive bore cleaners.

[50 shooter]

I would think that you could use standard cleaners. The bullets are actually nickle plated brass. So a quality copper solvent like Boretech Eliminator should work well.

I would send an email to Federal and ask what their thoughts are on it. Any kind of an abrasive is still an abrasive and there's better science out there now.

[Shadow9mm]

I shot Federal and Bore tech (my preferred bore cleaner) both messages. Will see what they say. Nickel is pretty resistant to a lot of thinks. I think its what they cover the non-reactive cleaning jags with if I am not mistaken.

Interesting. the base stock for the bullet looked like copper, but showing the formed jackets they do look like brass.

[Shadow9mm]

So federal responded. They said in their testing they have not encountered nickle fouling. But they believe a copper solvent would work on it.

[Jim Watson]

I don't know about pure nickel fouling. Old cupronickel was bad when velocity was increased from .30-40 Krag to .30-06. I wen't 'round and 'round with a novelist over that.

[stagpanther]

I may have missed it in the video--but what exactly does the nickel coating bring to the table as an improvement?

[Shadow9mm]

They really did not say in the video. I know nickel is more corrosion resistant than brass or copper in general. Maybe its slicker, like the nickel boron coated ar bolts and carriers. Im really not sure to be honest.

[gwpercle]

The modern copper solvents should take care of it . Actually nickel jackets are quite old and had been around a long time before copper / guilding metal jackets sort of pushed them out of the picture .
I have some old Military and Winchester 30-30 loaded with "silver" jacketed ammo ...
the 30-30 ammo has a "W" stamped in the bullet for Winchester , right above the crimp ...
I have no idea how old these rounds are .
If you encounter nickel fouling and modern solvents won't remove it try some old school solvent like Hoppe's #9 or mix a little Ed' Red Bore Solvent (just search for the recipe)
The old school solvents should take it out ... if not ...J-B Bore Cleaner will .

I wonder why they are going back to nickel in bullet jackets ... at one time the nickel fouling was a real problem ... I remember reading testing of Military 30-06 ammo in 1903 Springfield rifles and the fouling they had with the nickel jacketed bullets ???

Gary

[44 AMP]

"Cupro-nickel" jackets were common before "guilding metal" jackets became the standard.

I'm not familiar with the process, but I am now curious, if anyone knows, could nickel "fouling" be removed via electro plating??

[Shadow9mm]

Bore-tech responded to me they said nickel was generally very thin and would kind of mix or bind with the jacket material and be able to be removed with a copper solvent.