Need powder comparison and information resource

[Pinnacle]

Those plated bullets are a biotch - either they work or they don't and they can be tricky to load. I absolutely hate them and will not load them anymore.

I prefer the moly coated blak bullets international stuff- they load smooth and shoot well. They are dirty on the hands when loading - but are worth it for the $$$ - You do have to bell the mouths a little more - but whoopie freaking doo.....

[EJSG19]

last i looked at gunstop, plated bullets were almost as much money as FMJ bullets. So not worth the hassle. Things might have changed since I last compared them.

even if you buy FMJ bullets you still save quite a bit of money over factory ammo.

besides the press is all but free, its sitting in my basement waiting to be used if you want.

[Belgiboy]

And I left some Titegroup in EJGS19's powder measure for you to try...

[1911fan]

I used to use some dead soft lead bullets which were plated, made a great concept, but the bullets where less than consistent, and often would bulge out over the case mouth when seated. this lead to some awkward moments at a match when the first few worked fine, but the balance had enough failures to return to battery that I nearly DQ'd by running out of loaded mags in a stage


The black bullets are good, very good, and the Hard casts that john boy sells are good too.

[EJSG19]

And I left some Titegroup in EJGS19's powder measure for you to try...

You did? I should have looked closer, or I'd be on that like a bum on a ham sandwich...

Do they make drop in barrels for HK's? With the savings from fmj's to lead, i paid for my $120 LWD barrel in about 1,000 rounds, which isn't all that long. 2-4 shooting sessions.

If I was ever extremely concerned I can drop inthe factory barrel very quickly if I thought it important. The LWD for example, is every bit as good as the factory barrel in reliability and accuracy. Lets me shoot cheap ammo too.

[Seismic Sam]

Well Bessy, as the chief head-biter, all the questions you asked were very sensible, so you don't have to worry.

I have shot plated bullets for years, and in general have had very good success both loading them and shooting them. The one caveat that I can tell you is that if you drive them too fast, the copper plating will let go and the load velocity will vary widely because they may not be totally sealing the barrel any more. I can tell you that in a 500 Smith, you don't want to go over 1400 FPS because that's when the trouble starts. I shoot Raniers in my DE at 1350 alll day long, but that gun has a polygonal barrel, so there are no lands and grooves to worry about.

As far as plated bullets leaving more copper fouling than jacketed bullets, I think there is no basis for that assumption. Copper is copper, and whether it's a thin layer or thicker layer is not going to have anything to do with how much of it rubs off on the grooves or lands at a certain velocity. As a matter of fact, all the Speer Uni-Cor bullets, which classify as jacketed bullets, are actually electrochemically plated, and the jacket thickness depends on the bullet and caliber. The Uni-Cor process was started to give the maximum bond between the jacket and case, which it does, so within the Speer line the line between plated and jacketed is indistinct at best.

As far as seating plated bullets, and having problems, I suspect that is a function of how much your resize die reduces the case mouth. I reload 10mm with nothing but Raniers, and have never had any problem at all. I suspect that is because my resize die is resizing the brass just perfectly for .400" diameter bullets, and there IS some variability in resize dies from die to die, so you could have problems if you get a "tight" die. I just have never run into that. The other issue is whether the inside of your case mouths have been chamfered once before you reload them. Virgin brass has an inner lip on it that has to be removed witha chamfering tool before you reload it, and once fired brass MAY have some residual lip on it that will screw things up or at the very least make seating harder. It IS true that you can ram a jacketed bullet into an undersize case harder than a plated bullet without screwing the bullet up, but if you're to the point where you can only seat jacketed bullets then something else is not right in your setup, and it's most likely the expander die. this should be set JUST right, which may take 3 or 4 tries, but you should be able to use plated bullets and seat them with no problem if it is set right. Actually, the exact same thing is true for cast bullets, and you don't have to expand the case mouth 10 mils to make it look like Tootsie puckering up to kiss someone/somesheep to get the bullet to seat properly.

As far as crimping, with a taper crimp on auto cartridges, there shouldn't be anything different between plated and jacketed. Remember you should MEASURE how much taper crimp you are putting on the case mouth, and 5 mils is plenty for anything except a 500 Smith, which takes 7 or so. With a roll crimp on revolver cases, your die will have to be set different for boolits WITH and withOUT cannelures. The roll crimp for bullets with cannelures is much deeper than for smooth bullets, be they plated or jacketed. If you are breaking through the plating with your crimp, then it is set WWWAAAYYYY too tight. Just like the expander die, getting the crimp set just right will take multiple adjustments to get it prefect, and until you get it perfect your results may not look the best.