Best Plated Handgun Bullets

[foxmeadow]

I've gone through at least 12,000 X-Treme 230 gr. RNs and 200 gr. SWCs and have nothing bad to say about them. I think their accuracy is better than almost all shooters, and their consistency is, well, consistent...

 

[SSN Vet]

crimp??

Are you guys shooting Berry and Renier plated bullets with no cannalure applying any kind of crimp?

I'm going to try Berry bullets out in both my .357 and my .30-30, using Lee dies.

As far as I can tell from the Lee literature.....

FCD for rifle applies a rolled crimp, and they advertise that it will crimp even without a crimp groove in the bullet, by applying add'l pressure. But is this o.k. to do with a plated bullet?

FCD for revolver load is also a rolled crimp.....while FCD for auto-loaders has a tapered crimp. Why they are different I haven't a clue?

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Careful with the rolled crimp on plated bullets. You can easily cut through the plating. Even with the cannelure it's necessary not to go too deep.

 

[Lennyjoe]

The rings left behind was from too much crimp. I was using a Lee Factory Crimp die. I would suggest you not roll crimp them at all and pick a different bullet for a rifle. The velocities might be too excessive for the soft plating used. Spend the few extra $$ and get some jacketed bullets with a cannalure for 30-30.

 

[donttellthewife]

When I was working up loads fo 115gr 9mm rounds I found if you load a little on the hot side the plating will come off as it leaves the barrel. I know this because the copper plating hit the chrono read out screen. I thought I had over crimped but that was not the reason so now I keep fps under 1180. This was with X-Treme bullets, other than that they have been great.

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Interesting about the plating. I've loaded the .357 magnum with X-treme bullets to over 1300 fps and did not notice problems with the plate. I did not recover the bullets or exam, though. Good holes in the targets, no indication of problem

 

[Lennyjoe]

The photo I posted earlier are of 10MM 180gr bullets over 800X. They are pushing 1450fps out of my G20 and 1006. I haven't gone much above that with plated so I don't know.

But, for rifle, I would be reluctant to use plated instead of jacketed. Just an extra precaution perhaps.