Help with Plated Bullets

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Metalman1

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I use a Lee Classic Turret 4 hole press. Is there any wrong with using plated 40 or 9MM bullets? I'll be using them for target shooting only. I have read they are not the best bullets to use.
 
You must have read wrong.

Plated bullets work fine at target velocity.

You only run into problems when trying to push them up to heavy magnum velocity.

rc
 
Used to load and shoot quite a bit of solid nose .357 which I think are copper plated lead. They always did just fine. Not much if any expansion properties so would not be a good choice for shooting space aliens or zombies. Does seem to prevent the old leading up of the barrel problem which is rumored to happen with fast moving lead bullets in that caliber. Should also help an auto loader feed smoothly.
 
NO worries about plated - sometimes you can find FMJ for the same price searching the internet, but all I reload on my Lee Classic turret are Berry and Ranier plated in 4 calibers. No leading problems, meets most indoor range requirements, accurate.
 
I use X-treme Co plated bullets--copper coating thicker than others
I use jacketed data for all my loads----I don't use full max loads but close
I have had no problems with separation or accuracy
 
I used lead load data for Rainier plated bullets with good results. If I drove them harder, I started to lose accuracy.

I used lead load data or start-to-mid range jacketed load data for Berry's regular plated bullets with good results. I used jacketed load data with Berry's Thicker Plated (TP), HSM, PowerBond, Speer Gold Dot/TMJ and X-Treme bullets with good results.

With plated bullets, I use .020" - .021" added to the diameter of the bullet for taper crimp so as to not cut into the copper plating.

Here's copper plating thickness comparison - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8835480#post8835480

Speer TMJ: .015"
X-Treme: .010" - .012"
PowerBond/HSM: .010" - .011"
Berry's Thick Plated (TP): .012"
Berry's regular: .006" - .008" (thickness varies for caliber)
Rainier: .004"
 
Metalman1 said:
I use a Lee Classic Turret 4 hole press. Is there any wrong with using plated 40 or 9MM bullets? I'll be using them for target shooting only. I have read they are not the best bullets to use.
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If by target shooting, you mean trying to obtain very accurate rounds for bullseye and similar competition, then plated bullets probably aren't your best bet. Properly sized cast bullets and good jacketed bullets will beat them by a wide margin for that purpose.

For just plinking-type usage at low to middling velocity, they certainly will make holes in targets, as long as you aren't too particular of where those holes appear. I've tried them and decided they weren't for me.
 
My most accurate pistol loads have been with Missouri Bullet's cast boolits. But Berry's and Rainier plated bullets are damn good too. Berry's tells you to use mid range jacketed data while Rainier says to use lead data. I use midrange jacketed data for all plated bullets without any issues. Plated bullets are nice because there's pretty much no chance of leading your barrel, they don't cause any messes when loading, they're accurate enough, and they're generally cheaper than FMJ bullets. They're good practice bullets. But if you really want cheap accurate practice ammo, cast lead is the way to go, there's just more precautions to take when working up a load with cast boolits.
 
KansasSasquatch said:
Berry's tells you to use mid range jacketed data while Rainier says to use lead data.
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Well, that's what I thought but Hodgdon recently published load data for Berry's regular plated 40S&W and they are comparable to jacketed load data (Rainier Ballistics still tells us to use lead load data) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=688509

Here's an example of the newly published load data:
155 GR. BERB FP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 5.1 gr (979 fps) 24,100 PSI - Max 6.0 gr (1130 fps) 33,900 PSI
155 GR. HDY XTP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 5.0 gr (937 fps) 22,900 PSI - Max 6.0 gr (1103 fps) 33,000 PSI

165 GR. BERB FP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 4.7 gr (933 fps) 25,200 PSI - Max 5.4 gr (1049 fps) 33,400 PSI
165 GR. SIE JHP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 4.8 gr (946 fps) 28,100 PSI - Max 5.3 gr (1001 fps) 32,500 PSI

180 GR. BERB FP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 4.4 gr (872 fps) 26,400 PSI - Max 5.1 gr (984 fps) 33,500 PSI
180 GR. HDY XTP W231/HP-38 .400" OAL 1.125" Start 4.1 gr (797 fps) 23,800 PSI - Max 5.0 gr (947 fps) 32,900 PSI
Click to expand...
 
Metalman1 said:
I use a Lee Classic Turret 4 hole press. Is there any wrong with using plated 40 or 9MM bullets? I'll be using them for target shooting only. I have read they are not the best bullets to use.
Click to expand...
If there is anything wrong with using plated bullets for target shooting, there are thousands of people doing it wrong every day.
 
bds said:
Well, that's what I thought but Hodgdon recently published load data for Berry's regular plated 40S&W and they are comparable to jacketed load data (Rainier Ballistics still tells us to use lead load data) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=688509

Here's an example of the newly published load data:
Click to expand...
But that's comparing an XTP to a TC (truncated cone) plated bullet. I imagine they keep the charge a little low on the XTP due to their fairly long bearing surface compared to a normal jacketed TC bullet. I'd bet a jacketed TC bullet would have a higher charge than a Berry's bullet of similar design and weight. If you notice, Hodgdon doesn't appear to list anything besides jacketed HPs and Berry's bullets. They should list a jacketed TC to compare but they dont.
 
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