You are correct,He's not.

 

It used to be quite common on steel shot wads from larger shot sizes to find holes where the BB's had scrubbed thru the wad in the barrel. Steel shot is made to be softer than the barrel steel and ammo for BB guns is very hard. Also, steel shot BB's and air gun BB's are different diameters. Steel wads are meant to protect the barrel, lead wads are meant to protect the shot. Lead wads do not usually have enough volume to load the correct payloads of steel shot. Most tungsten shot like TSS is very small sized shot and does not scrub thru the wad like larger steel pellets.

 

It’s B sized steel, they work in shot shell reloading. Use the appropriate wads. Chrome lined barrels offer even more hardened protection to the barrel. Any heavy Steel Wad should hold up to the task of keeping steel shot in the wad. I’ve used repurposed Flight Stopper wads, and CSD/TPS wads from BPI. The MG42 is probably too thin to shoot larger steel through, however; BPI lists a recipie on their Load of the Week. I’d stick to LBC wads if I had to choose.

 

If your barrels are chrome lined they are harder than steel.

 

Chrome plating is only a couple thousandths thick at most and probably less than that. It won't make the barrel steel any harder. It is there to protect a barrel from rusting, pitting and chrome plating is hard enough to give the surface of the bore improved abrasion resistance. But it won't stop an integral full choke from being swaged to a more open choke, when using steel shot or air shot BB's.

Steel shot isn't really steel, it is actually iron shot and is very soft. If steel shot touches a barrel it will only mar it. If air shot BB's touch the bore, it can scratch it. Not sure what air shot BB's will do to a chrome bore, after an extended amount of shooting.

BB's really shouldn't be used, but they have been. You certainly don't save money using them.

FWIW, chrome plated barrels aren't chromed plated the way other machined parts are. It is more of a flash plating. If they were actually plated, they'd cost a lot more than they do.

 

Chrome plating is harder than any steel bb or shot. Look it up on the Rockwell scale. And if you use a wad designed for steel n problem.

 

You missed his point, the plating layer is so thin that any mechanical advantages that elemental chromium may offer over the barrel steel are negated.

 

If you are using steel shot with the proper wad this is a non issue. And the chrome barrel helps.

 

It comes down to, can you get away with it. Probably, but not in my shotgun. Why? Because doing it right isn't all that difficult or expensive.