I scraped the copper looking material with my knife to further expose a light colored metal that turned out to be aluminum. The aluminum was flashed with a few microns of copper electrolylically over the solid core of aluminum. A multimeter or galvanometer check would have given an erroneous reading for the resistance value of solid copper. To achieve passable voltage requirements, when a manufacturer uses reground or recycled PVC insulation, they must increase the wall thickness of the insulation to help eliminate the possibility of surface pin holes. Increasing wall thickness decreases the amount of usable wire when sold by the pound.
More insulation equals less copper and shorter lengths.
Some imported connecting wire types sold for 20 gauge is actually metric size 21 gauge, which is smaller in diameter. Resistance values for 21 gauge is greater so the blaster would not be using correct values for total resistance in the circuit. To make up the difference in weight again, the insulation wall thickness must be increased. A two thousand pound shipment of five pound spools has 400 spools at 4 ounces each for a total of 1,600 ounces or 100 pounds. You may be paying for this 100 pounds at wire prices if your supplier is shipping 2,000 pounds gross weight.