Should I avoid shooting brass cased cheap range ammo, FMJ through my K38, will it degrade my barrel faster than wad cutters? Noticeably faster? Not +p, just cheapo white box ammo. Thanks in advance.

You'll be broke before you wear the barrel out.

I've been shootin' FMJ and metal plated range plinkers through my K38/15 revolvers for years. Never have worried about any pre-mature barrel wear.

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John

I shoot jacketed so I don't have to clean lead fouling.

Never wore out a barrel yet.

Kind of what i figured, thanks for the responses.

There was a very similar question asked a few months back. At that time, I looked at a couple of guns I have that have been shot a lot with 130 grain jacketed bullets, mostly Federal American Eagle, but also Winchester and Remington. To my surprise, I found some erosion on the forcing cone of a 627-2 as well as to a 586. I had to use a magnifying glass to see it, but it is there. I then looked at a couple of other guns that have seen a lot of lead bullets through them, and did not see any forcing cone erosion. I am guessing that the shorter 130 grain bullets contributed to the erosion, allowing gas to escape around the bullet on entry to the barrel, because it was more on the face of the forcing cone, rather than in the barrel itself.
i'm estimating these guns have about 20-30 thousand rounds of the 130 grain bullets through them.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102