National Bullet Co. ?

[valnar]

Has anyone purchased ready made ammo from National Bullet Co. before?

I do not reload myself, and will not in the forseeable future, but I can certainly save my brass and let them do it. They have a service which gives you a discount on remanufactured ammo if you sent them your own used brass.

Any pros/cons?

-Robert

 

[Hutch]

I did a few years back. I sent 'em a thousand .38spl brass, and got a like number of cartridges. Coupla things: The standard SWC bullet they use is 141 grains in weight, not the 158 you may be accustomed to. Also, the ammo was loosely boxed in 50-round boxes. That is to say, it came without trays of any sort. Other than that, it was fine, as expected. I never seriously buckled down on the bench to see how it would group.

 

[Mal H]

I've used several thousand of their bullets. They are fine for general plinking use, but I wouldn't use them when accuracy is called for unless they have changed their bullet making process in the last few years. The bullet weights varied more than some others (Laser-Cast, Bull-X, Meister, etc.) The bullets are crudely molded rather than swaged, at least the ones I bought were (.430 and .357). Their copper plated bullets have a very thin plating, around .001" as opposed to brands like Rainier which have a thick plating. Around 1 in every 50 or so had the lube ring missing.

All in all, I am satisfied with the value of their bullets.

 

[g56]

I have been shooting the National Bullet 200 gr, 45 cal, SWC copperized bullets for several years, IMHO they are a good bullet, my eyesight has degraded in the last few years, so it's hard to say about accuracy anymore on an open sight 45 acp. The bullets aren't plated, they don't claim they are plated, they are copperized, similar to the copperized 22 cal rim fire bullets. I've shot 5 or 6 thousand of them and I've never seen one without a lube ring, they are consistent in diameter, there is some variance in weight but it's in the ballpark for cast bullets, to get more consistent weight you need to go to swaged or jacketed bullets, and the darn swaged bullets are soft lead and tend to have leading problems, I've never seen any leading from the copperized bullets at all, and there isn't any smoke problem which is common in many cast bullets.

I've shot around 35-40,000 swaged 38 wadcutters in Police Pistol matches, they are accurate, but the leading is horrendous!

 

[valnar]

I plan on plinking mostly .38's and .357's in my revolvers, so would copperized be okay? (more concerned about cleaning than shooting!)

-Robert


edit:

I'm still somewhat new to shooting, so I haven't figured out the benefits of lead vs copper yet. It appears lead has no pros and all cons. Am I wrong? Is there a good reason for using lead bullets other than a potential cost difference?

 

[g56]

I plan on plinking mostly .38's and .357's in my revolvers, so would copperized be okay? (more concerned about cleaning than shooting!)

Absolutely!

 

[Murphster]

I bought a thousand bullets from them in 9mm Makarov. They're one of the few with a Makarov offering. Great service. Bullets do fine. I suspect they may be slightly softer than some other companies' bullets, but that's based on eyeballing, not actually measuring.

 

[Mal H]

We have a paradox

Apparently everything I said is incorrect - and yet, it is all correct. A true paradox.

Plating vs "copperized" is an argument in semantics. What is the definition of plating? Is there a specific thickness which defines the boundary? Is dinnerware 'coated' with silver only silverized or is it plated? (Actually, the terms plating or plated are derived from the process of silver coating an object.)

Never seen one without a lube ring? Please see attachment (the middle one of each type is missing the ring completely, the others are incomplete rings). In all honesty, my 1/50 ratio is probably too high. And I did find that the "copperized" bullets have less missing lube rings than the lead ones. Unfortunately, I can't photograph any of the lead ones because I've shot them all, including the unlubed ones since one every now and then doesn't hurt a firearm. I only shoot the copperized/plated versions now.

As I said before, National Bullets are a good value.

 

[cpileri]

another positive vote

I use their 255gr SWC 45 colt loaded ammo, as they are the only ones offering the 255 SWC @950fps, which is exactly the load i am after 9and i dont yet reload)
I never have chronographed them to see if they are indeed 950fps or not, however.
Maybe someone else has?
But they are good for what i want them for.
C-

 

[Clark]

I have been very happy with National Bullet.

They have a sampler for $5 that is 25 bullets [you mix and match] and includes shipping.
http://www.nationalbullet.com/

They have an on line shipping cost calculator that will get 10 pounds from Ohio to WA for $9.59.
That is wholesale shipping cost.
How much does Midway want in shipping and handling to get 10 pounds across the country?

 

[g56]

Plating vs "copperized" is an argument in semantics

In many industries the description "plated" has a legal definition of thickness, although I don't know of one in relation to projectiles.

ie: If you buy silver plate dinnerware the plating must be a certain thickness by law.

 

[Grump]

That's not missing a lube ring, it's missing lube in a lube groove that's there.

Inevitable with bulk-packed lubed bullets, especially with the hard lubes popular these days.

 

[Mal H]

... and the lube in that groove is called the lube ring. I don't think I implied that the groove itself was missing.

 

[243_shooter]

Never tried their loaded ammo, have used quite a few of there cast bullets in 357. I'm quite happy with them so far. I purchased 1000, so far I've used up the first box of 500. I haven't yet come across one missing the lube yet perhaps they've changed something? I'll have to open the second box and check them out.

Leo