Abstract Oxygen-free copper (OFC) has been increasingly used in engineering applications due to many advantageous properties. In order to investigate the flexural buckling behaviour of OFC tubular columns under axial compression, seven full-scale specimens were tested. The buckling failure modes of the specimens were analyzed, and the flexural buckling strengths were obtained. Subsequently, two finite element models were developed and verified against the test data. A parametric study was performed as well. The results showed that the OFC columns with small slenderness failed by elastic-plastic buckling, while those with high slenderness failed by elastic buckling. Eqs. (9) and (11), which are based on the Perry formula, suitably described the buckling curves of the OFC tubular columns. The value of α in Eq. (9) was 0.293; and the values of α1, α2, and α3 in Eq. (11) were 1.647, 1.041, and 0.175, respectively.