using lead BB in co2 pistol?

[M500dpp]

I have a Colt special combat for which steel bbs are recommended. It gets little use because it is very inaccurate and the steel bbs ricochet around my garage and are frankly dangerous!!!

I tried a couple of lead BBs tonight and it was accurate and did not ricochet - far better IMHO. The suppliers say they are not suitable for guns designed for steel bbs, anyone any thoughts on why I shouldnt use them?

[jefL]

The suppliers say they are not suitable for guns designed for steel bbs, anyone any thoughts on why I shouldnt use them?

That's a new one on me.
I use lead BBs, both H & N copper covered and Gamo plain lead in all my BB pistols without any problems so far, and that's after about 4000 through various pistols.
The pistols I use them in are Umarex Walther PPK, Tanfoglio Witness 1911, Baikal Makarov, and a Dan Wesson 6".
All seem happy with lead and I am much happier as I don't get any dangerous rebounds.

[blooregard]

That's a new one on me.
I use lead BBs, both H & N copper covered and Gamo plain lead in all my BB pistols without any problems so far, and that's after about 4000 through various pistols.
The pistols I use them in are Umarex Walther PPK, Tanfoglio Witness 1911, Baikal Makarov, and a Dan Wesson 6".
All seem happy with lead and I am much happier as I don't get any dangerous rebounds.

Do the Gamo Balls work in your Witness ?? I thought they were too large for cybergun barrels.

They never worked in my X-Five but they are my ammo of choice for the PPK and 8" Dan Wesson. After the Xfive I never bothered trying them in another automatic, I thought they might be deformed when fed into the breach (not really a problem on the PPK or Mak).

[jefL]

Yes, the Gamo balls are only used in the Mak, they do fit through the PPK but it seems to prefer the copper coated H & N ones.
All the others use H & N too, as you say Gamo are a bit big and they are also inconsistent in their shape, not always perfectly round. I think that is why the PPK loses accuracy with them, it is more consistent with the H & Ns.

[schony]

Yes, the Gamo balls are only used in the Mak, they do fit through the PPK but it seems to prefer the copper coated H & N ones.
All the others use H & N too, as you say Gamo are a bit big and they are also inconsistent in their shape, not always perfectly round. I think that is why the PPK loses accuracy with them, it is more consistent with the H & Ns.

Could you tell me where you purchase your H+N copper coated lead bb,s please?
Thanks

[gingernut]

Simple targets.
Got 2000 there last week.
Also do targets-obviously!

[schony]

simple targets? dont know the firm but will google it. Thank you. There do not seem to be that many retailers stocking them, or am I being daft lol.

[schony]

Found simople targets. I like what they have to offer and will be visiting them many times in the near future.
Thank You

[Snooper601]

Solware also do the H&N copper coated lead BBs, that's where I get mine from.


Cheers

John

[harvey_s]

Could you tell me where you purchase your H+N copper coated lead bb,s please?
Thanks

Protek supplies do them as well...

[jefL]

Protek supplies do them as well...

Which is where my first batch came from.
Second batch was from Solware
Next batch will be from Simple targets.
I like to do my bit for our smaller companies

[felix gunner]

Gamo balls are oversized for .177 though aren't they? I just measured 10 and the average was about 4.48 ranging from 4.45 to 4.49. I believe steel BB's are sized at 4.3? There are endless debates you can Google with particular respect to the Makarov and whether lead or steel is best, whether the rifling can really affect a round projectile, whether the steel BB's will damage the rifling etc.

What is the actual measured size of the copper coated H&N's?

However, there is one telling note from a Baikal employee I found on a comment as follows:

The following is an email from Sergey Korolev, who is a product designer at Baikal, in response to my question about which ammo should be used in the MP654K, and whether or not steel BBs are harmful:

"MP-654K is normally tested with steel BBs. During our durability or endurance tests we never saw any harmfulness of the steel BBs for rifling and accuracy. Also we tested the pistol with lead balls or lead spherical pellets, but I heard, on the market there are balls with too large diameter which have problems with feeding in MP-654K."

In my own experience a few years back with the Mak' the lead balls caused lots of blockages and jams, even using the steel ball first and last trick to try and avoid deformation.

[schony]

My personal experience with the Baikal was that , when using Gamo lead balls lots of jams, they meant partial dismantling of the pistol. I am talking barrel removal because of where the lead ball got jammed. Steel worked great with no jams in my own personal experience. I had some Gamo left over and loaded some in my Colt Defender, I didnt have any steel to hand, impatient so and so I am. I shouldnt have done that jammed terrible. I had to dismantle the pistol totally as there is no way to clear the barrel on that gun. The jam was that solid I had to drill the lead out, never again. Putting the Defender back together was another story, boy was it a pain. Still all fixed and working great now. I may try H+N copper coated lead balls one of these days as they seem to be sized correctly but never ever any more Gamo lead balls.

[Bazmati2020]

I had always used Gamo and ave put around 2000 through my Mak. Yes I did get jams, nothing as bad as it sounds like you had, normally I would take slide off and push through a metal rod.

A few weeks ago I tried copper coated steel Crossmans, all run through fine and they are consistent from a size perspective. I did find not quite as accurate (I guess bouncing around a little in barrel) but what was strange was that accuracy ok on 2011 Mak (not as good as gamo) but in my 1999 Mak it was way off, and I mean about 4-5 inches at 5 yards. When I tried it I used same mag in each pistol.

I have just had some H&N delivered this week from SimplyTargets (good to deal with) and will give them a try soon. The H&N are 4.4mm and to my eyes very consistent in size.

Only other thought and I have seen it mentioned before which is why I tried it. Stick to 10 BB's and load a steel one 1st. The 10 rule I've done for a while and it greatly reduced amount of jams - this I believe is because the more shots, the more the BB's bounce in the mag and bottom one deforms- when I got the steel ones a few weeks ago I tried the loading steel one 1st, now since then I haven't had a jam. Admittedly I've only shot 120 or so (2 co2 bulbs) but on 1st impression does seem to work.

[schony]

My jams in my baikal were between the feed ramp and barrel so dismantling was necessary.