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Posted: 2/2/2011 6:23:37 PM EDT
| Excuse the possible idiocy of my question but I haven't found a real definitive answer yet. What is the advantage of the zinc coating on silver bear vs the laquer coating on brown bear? Thanks. |
| the only conclusion i can draw is from experience. after at least 1k rounds of silver bear i haven't had a problem other than 1 ftf in my RRA with DD barrel. haven't fired much more than several hundred rounds of non zinc steel cased but several friends use it a lot in their ARs with no problems at all as far as any build up in their chambers. im actually about to buy some more plinking ammo and was considering brown bear if i cant find more silver first. |
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The zinc coating smooths cycling. The cases are not as likely to stick in a dirty chamber.
I have about 800rds of it through 1 gun & have not cleaned it. Only lubed. It hasn't had a malfunction. I have run another 4K silverbear across 2 other AR's. Never had a stuck case. It's pretty much the only ammo I use now. |
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Quoted: Excuse the possible idiocy of my question but I haven't found a real definitive answer yet. What is the advantage of the zinc coating on silver bear vs the laquer coating on brown bear? Thanks. The cases are made from steel, and need something to keep them from rusting. You can "lacquer" coat them, or nickle/brass/silver/platinum/gold/whatever plate them. People have associated the "lacquer" coating with "bad", so they came up with nickel (Silver Bear) and brass (Gold Bear) versions for a higher price. Please read the Combloc Ammo FAQ (Ammo FAQ, entry #5). |
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Any issues of zinc plated rounds getting surface rust from being stored in loaded mags or lose rounds being handled?
I know I've see a few folks complain about the polymer casings getting some rust after being handled with hands, fingers & toes  or being stored in loaded mags....
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| I've collected some old zinc coated AK cases to examine. Depending on the quality of the coating, they either stay nice and shiny, inside and out, or they stay kind of dull-silvery, inside and out. When you handle a zinc coated case, it feels smoother and slicker than a chemically coated case. Some people say zinc coated cases tolerate dirty guns better-I don't let my guns get dirty enough to want to test that myself. |
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Quoted:
The polymer will definitely rust; don't know about the zinc - it shouldn't though unless it was improperly applied. I have some Silver Bear that'll I'll leave out for rust testing now that you mention it. Give me a few days. Ive only seen it rust at the mouth and anywhere it gets scratched, such as if you load a round then strip it, the feed lip will cut through the zinc plate. As long as that doesn't happen It seems to hold up. ( SB in the back of my truck for a few months) |
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