Pistol Bullets: How do you rate them in terms of accuracy?

[fxvr5]

Unlike many of the other here, it seems that I have had awful luck with Berry's and Rainier plated bullets. It has been my experience that I could easily best my best efforts with those, with a decent FMJ, JHP, or lead wadcutter.

With respect to the results that people say they get with plated bullets, the details matter and it's worth asking how they tested it, what their group size was, number of shots and was it repeatable.

I agree about the effective accuracy, and certainly each gun may prefer different loads. I'm thinking/hoping a load with a tiny SD, that may not suffer much change from the position of the powder in the case, and could be shown to have the capability of, say 1/2 MOA, might only help.

I wouldn't chase the tiny SD too hard. Evidence suggests that it is not positively correlated with group size. https://americanhandgunner.com/exclusive-consistent-velocity-accuracy/

 

[Walkalong]

I wouldn't chase the tiny SD too hard.

Especially at close range. 60 Gr XTP in .32 ACP

7 yard target shooting through the chrono at 5 yards. Doesn't matter here, and it won't matter at 25 yards, and not much at 50 yards. If you get out to 100 yards it makes a difference for sure. I have shot pistols at 300 yards and it makes a heck of a difference there.

ES 113 SD 38.

 

[Slamfire]

I always enjoy your posts Slamfire. The honesty, candor, and straightforwardness stands in contrast to so much I read on the internet. It is refreshing.

Thanks. One way to learn your limitations is to shoot competitively. If you can't acknowledge them, you won't last long.

You know, I've met many pistol shooters that were better than I, but I've never known any that were satisfied with how they shot.

Never ask a competitive shooter how he did, you will get a five minute tale of woe, for every one minute of shooting. Competitors are never "happy". If they clean the target, they did not have enough X's. Incidentally, that may be why they come back. Flashes of brilliance, followed by crashes of despair.

I liked hearing about your attempts at bullseye with .22LR. I'm confident there are .22 target pistols that may shoot MOA, and have little doubt some .22LR ammo can shoot sub MOA groups..

I have had my Anschutz rifle tested by Lapua and Eley. Rifle targets are tiny compared to the pistol targets, if the rifle ammunition shoots sub MOA at 100 yards, that is pretty good stuff.

Pistol ammunition is probably just as accurate, in rifles. I am going to say, I would trade off accuracy for function reliability in a pistol. A little inaccuracy for better function reliability is a good trade, all things considered. Alibi's ruin scores.

Incidentally, this pistol target, made at the CMP Talladega, in a Bullseye match there, is an example of what a really good shooter can do on his feet. This shooter has two Bullseye National Pistol Championships under his belt. He is very good, and guys like this, they don't need to brag, they just put them in the middle, and show the rest of us, what we can be, if we try hard enough.



I scored him at a 25 yard reduced Bullseye Match. I took this picture. of a 90 shot composite group of his, with his 22 lr.This is the bottom target, we peeled off the slow fire, timed fired, and rapid fire targets and this is the base. Anyone think they can duplicate this, in Bullseye Competition?

 

[Eddietruett]

I've spent the last 6 months are so doing some extensive testing with Cast Bullets and may have posted some of the info on another thread and if so I apologize if anything is repeated.
This all started out by looking for a cast bullet suitable for Hog Hunting and decided while I was testing the heavy weight bullets to go ahead and try some of the light and mid weight bullets as well. The guns used were S&W Model 686. One with 8 3/8" barrel and other with a 7" Barrel. First thing I realized is the correct bullet diameter is a MUST for getting the best accuracy out of a cast bullet coated or uncoated. Jacketed bullets are more forgiving. After a few range sessions, I quickly discovered that my 8 3/8" shot the "standard .358 diameter" cast bullets way more accurate than the 7" Barrel, while the 7" barrel was much more accurate with the standard .357 diameter jacketed. After that all of my cast bullet testing was with the 8 3/8" gun. Bullets tested were:
130gr TCFP from Summers Enterprises and SNS Casting
158gr TCFP from SNS Casting
158gr SWC from SNS Casting and Missouri Bullet
180gr RNFP from Missouri Bullets
180 Wide FP from Missouri Bullet
Powders used were Universal, HS-6, 2400 and H110
Accuracy Testing was done at 15yds, 40yds and 80yds (max for my backyard range)
My results were about the same as the linked article above.
There was no real difference in accuracy from Coated to Uncoated with the exception that Coated was more accurate for me above 1200fps. Thought it might be leading issues, but I got no real leading from any of the above. Even the uncoated loaded to 1200-1300fps caused no leading which again backs up theory of the correct size bullets for a particular barrel is a must.
One thing I did notice is the 130gr were a lot more accurate in the 800-1000fps range, the 158gr didn't seem to care how fast or slow they were pushed and the 180gr did the best when they were pushed in the 1200-1300fps range.
The 158gr TCFP was more accurate than the 158gr SWC no matter what the speed or Powder.
The 180gr Wide FP was More accurate than the RDFP especially at the 80yd mark.
One thing I was really glad to find was there was no noticeable difference in accuracy between suppliers.
I will be sticking to the coated bullets from here out just because of how clean they load and shoot.
No more Plated bullets for me. I shot 1000's of plated from Ranier, Xtreme and Berrys with Berrys winning out in the accuracy at least in my guns and my load combinations but the plated do shoot slower than the Cast and I saw a lot of variance in the velocity with plated bullets. I'm guessing due to the thickness of the plating.

 

[PhillySoldier]

A few months back I did a ransom rest test comparing a bunch of different types of factory ammo; including a mix of FMJ and HP's. Where most of the HP's did the best it was so slight that it didnt justify the price difference for practice. Last Friday I was running a somewhat similar test of reloads comparing 200 rounds each of Hornady FMJ's, HAP's and XTP's. I havent finished the test yet and want to go make up another 100 rounds of each in a lower velocity range but so far my opinion is the still the same as the factory ammo test in that the hollow points are so far performing the best but were talking about a 0.8" compared to 0.9" difference in best shot group sizes - 10 rounds at 25 yards.

 

[Walkalong]

The 158gr TCFP was more accurate than the 158gr SWC no matter what the speed or Powder

I find that very interesting.

I saw a lot of variance in the velocity with plated bullets.

I have noticed this as well, bigger ES with plated vs lead. Also lead is less sensitive to powder position as far as velocity differences due to powder position.