Copper plated bullets

[AZrider]

I've been shooting X-treme Copper plated bullets in my .40 cal pistol at competition (I'm new to this sport). I've reloaded lots of rifle cartridges in the past (near the dawn of time ) but never shot pistol reloads.

Anyhow I've reloaded 180g HAP, 135g JHP and 155JHP and played around with the loads. It's one of the great things about reloading, finding the right load for a firearm, caliber and bullet. I've also reloaded the Copper plated bullets 155g with 6 grains and now 7 grains of Unique. The round seems to perform well.

Just out of curiousity I called X-treme and talked with this lovely young lady who shoots IPSC and she said that they recommend following the Speer reloading guide for 155g FMJ. The problem I have with that (even though it works fine so far) is that .002" of Copper plating is not the same as .010-.020" of swaged Copper. I emailed Speer and they responded very courteously that they could not recommend a load for someone else's bullets (makes sense). The Speer reloading guide says you can load to 8 grains of Unique but that seemed a bit high for just pistol competition.

I also bought a pound of "Titegroup" as it was recommended as being a little less "dirty" than the Unique. Can any of you recommend a load for the 155g Copper plated X-treme bullet in Unique and Titegroup?

Really appreciate it. I've read through this board many posts and there seems to be a lot of very experienced shooters and reloaders on this site.

Thanks!

AZ

 

[Noxx]

While I can't vouch for a 155 load, I can tell you that I use the Xtreme copper plated 9mms, and take my builds from the Speer manual with both unique and tite-group with great success.

 

[Shoney]

I am presuming that this is 40S&W.

In reading thru the IPSC data on about 300 loads, only one guy is shooting unique and that is with a 200 gr bullet. Most of the 155 lead loads are with W231, WST, WSF, WSL, AA5, AA7, VV N330, VV N340, HS6, HS7 AND Blue Dot.

Most of the lead and jacketed 155 gr loads were very close if not identical. Lots of these loads are close to max.

 

[E20thLRP]

Ok Az check this out.....

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp
go there play with it...it will answer for just about all loads and powder !!

Echo out.......

 

[Linear Thinker]

Are these the same as Montana Extreme?

I bought a lot of Montana 180 grainers for my Glocks at an IPSC match about 7 years ago, they were of excellent quality.

I never could get 135, 155 or 165 grainers to shoot accurately in a 40S&W. I tried Zero, Berry and Montana - all of them produced shotgun patterns for me out of both G23 and G35. Only 180s seem to produce good accuracy.

But, that's a topic for another thread.
LT

 

[Walkalong]

I like the 180 Gr. Berry's in my XD. It is accurate and has less recoil than the zippy 155 & 165 Gr. slugs. My Witness Elite Match also shoots them very well.

I have had good luck with the X-Treme bullets in .38 Spl. & Mag.

 

[AZrider]

Thanks for the info. Been to some of the loading sites with the calcs but it's hard to get the data from bullet mfg's or powder companies to coverge on a load.

The .40 S&W is a good round and I'm impressed with how forgiving and how unform the performance is.

So far I've been using Unique 7g with 155g bullets. I started reloading with Unique because one of the IDPA shooters recommended it. It's a good powder and the only bitch I have is cleaning up the gun afterwards and the amount residue. Titegroup was also recommended and I think I'll load a couple hundred up and try them out.

It's interesting about your experience with the 180g bullet. So you think it's a more accurate round?

AZ

 

[snuffy]

The former west coast bullets, now extreme bullets, are plated a lot thicker than .002. It's generally said that the plated bullets are rated at, Ranier the thinnest, .003, Berry's the middle at .004, and the Extreme at .006.

I treat them,(Extreme), as though they are jacketed bullets. If they engrave a little easier, at a little lower pressure, then I'm safe.

 

[AZrider]

Snuffy,

Thanks for the information. .006" is pretty thick indeed. That takes a lot of time in the plating tank.

I'll treat them like FMJ then, that's what Angie said at X-treme. Thanks for the input.............6 thou is pretty thick.

AZ

 

[sublimaze41]

I love Accurate Arms powder for Rainer bullets because they have charges SPECIFICALLY for the Rainer bullets in their load book. Besides, it meters like butter in my Dillon.

 

[evan price]

How well does a Dillon meter butter? Should I set one up at the movie theatre and find out?

 

[RexDart]

I use 155g Berry's Plated Bullets over 4.3gr of Titegroup. Light recoil, very accurate. I don't have a chrono, so can't vouch for velocity, but it's my favorite practice load so far.

 

[AZrider]

Thanks for the info

RexDart,

Thanks for the load info. I loaded up 50 with the Titegroup 5.5g per Speer. I'll load up 50 at 5g and see how they perform in my Sig.

AZ

 

[jeepmor]

I've used the xtremes in my wife's 9mm and recovered a few bullets from the dirt. They take to the standard rifling well (only rifling my guns have) and I have not seen an issue with the lead getting exposed on the pills I've recovered.

I just loaded 400 for the 45ACP last night. They were actually cheaper than Laser Cast at my local Sportsman's Warehouse this week, so I bought them. Nice and shiny, no lube smoke while shooting, I like em. Be careful on the crimp, if it gets a little tight it will slip the copper skin off and cause issues. On my wife's 9mm, I had to seat and crimp in separate steps to prevent the skin from slipping.

I also bought 500 of 180 grain RNFP from xtreme for the .40/10mm, but haven't started loading them just yet.

I'd load them like any other copper jacketed bullet and not worry. I also load Laser Cast in my 10mm and push it to ~3% below max and have not had any leading issues that way either, FWIW. But that lubed lead stuff is rather smoky.