.22lr Lead Free - California

My son has shot around 5,000 of the CCI Coppers from his Marlin 60. When he got old enough to load on his own, but still a little younger than I’d trust to not end up drinking and eating before thoroughly washing his hands when we were afield, I selectively only had him handle the CCI Coppers. I’ve shot so many hyper velocity rounds (over a hundred thousand) in Marlin 60’s in my life, I tend to even forget they’re discouraged in the manual...

SavingNolanRyan said:

What ammo choice are lead free to meet California laws? I saw CCI Copper, but those are 1800fps hyper velocity. I don't think they recommend hyper velocity rounds for Marlin Model 60. I can't find any other options. Most are copper plated. Anyone have a suggestion for standard velocity or maybe like the mini mag ~1400?

Mike

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The copper will be fine in your Model 60. It is only 1800 fps because it it a 21gr. bullet. The resulting force on your blowback action will not be much different from traditional HV loads.

The Copper 21grn load at 1850 is a peak momentum for blowback which is ~8% reduced from a standard velocity 40grn load at 1050.

It’s a Marlin, it’s going to need a new plastic buffer sooner than later anyway. Replace that as it breaks, regardless of whether you’ve shot hyper velocity loads - real ones - or not.

Newton's 2nd and 3rd Laws of motion are in play here where F= ma. The force acting on the bolt is equal and opposite to the force acting on the bullet. The rearward acceleration of the bolt (and spent case) can be calculated thusly in both circumstances. Conversions to grams and m/s are useful. Spring force will be constant in each case. Maybe when I have time.

Not being from California this is something I'm not at all familiar with. How do these bullets shoot, and would there be any advantages to using them even though not required by law where I live. 1800 fps with a 21 gr bullet sounds like a flat shooting round to me. At least out to a certain point.

I have experimented a bit with solid copper in centerfire rifles and there are some advantages to using them over standard lead bullets. Does this carry over to 22 RF?

jmr40 said:

Not being from California this is something I'm not at all familiar with. How do these bullets shoot, and would there be any advantages to using them even though not required by law where I live. 1800 fps with a 21 gr bullet sounds like a flat shooting round to me. At least out to a certain point.

I have experimented a bit with solid copper in centerfire rifles and there are some advantages to using them over standard lead bullets. Does this carry over to 22 RF?

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I got curious about this as well, and went to youtube on it, so take this with a grain of salt as I haven't tried them myself. It doesn't appear to be very accurate past 75 yards. It seems to get very unstable when it transitions back to subsonic. Also, they are not made from solid copper, they are made from a copper powder polymer blend and they are not designed to expand. The clip I watched with ballistic gel showed that they would tumble but they didn't expand.

Thanks for that insight. It doesn't sound like something will work. I do see they have them in stock at Midway. I may add a box to try next time I place an order for something.

I can address lead free in 17 HMR; my Browning T-bolt shoots the 16 grain CCI green as well as it shoots anything else (Hornady NTX shot a little worse in my gun). The copper bullets are actually more like powdered copper held together with polymer, not solid copper like a centerfire TSX/GMX bullet. The biggest advantage for me is that the CCI greens tend not to blow up like a V-max. On the one hand that’s a drawback (worse terminal performance), but I use it mostly for squirrels that I eat so the polymer copper bullet is great at not making huge messes of center shot squirrels.

jmr40 said:

Not being from California this is something I'm not at all familiar with. How do these bullets shoot, and would there be any advantages to using them even though not required by law where I live. 1800 fps with a 21 gr bullet sounds like a flat shooting round to me. At least out to a certain point.

I have experimented a bit with solid copper in centerfire rifles and there are some advantages to using them over standard lead bullets. Does this carry over to 22 RF?

Click to expand...