Plated Bullets

[Cletis]

What is the difference between a plated bullet and a FMJ? I just started reloading last month and I 'm ready to load for my Glock and USP's. Can I use plated bullets in these? I know regular lead shouldn't be used, how about hard cast lead?
I shoot regular cast bullets in my Gold cup as they are cheeper and I find them more accurate than the FMJ or TMJ.

 

[stans]

Plated bullets have a thin copper plating applied over a soft, swaged lead bullet. Jacketed bullets have a thicker copper alloy jacket formed over the lead core. Plated bullets, in general, cannot be pushed more than 1200 fps or the plating will strip and leading will occur. Plated bullets, because they have a very thin plating over a soft core, are more prone to deformation if the impact the feed ramp during cycling, whereas jacketed bullets are harder and usually do not deform. I think it is safe to use plated bullets in Glocks as long as velocity is kept below 1200 fps. Hard cast bullet can be used, but you need to clean the lead from the barrel frequently.

 

[vulcan]

I went through 1,000 plated bullet reloads in my glock 26 without a problem. I use Berry 115gr RN over 4.5gr 231 as my standard range/plinker load.

 

[larryw]

Plated bullets are fine in polygonal barrels (USP and Glock). Some brands, such as Berry's have a thin coating. Others, like West Coast Bullets are thicker and fine up to 1600fps. I've run tens of thousands of both Berry's and WCB through my USP 45s with no problems. Much prefer West Coast because of the accuracy and I haven't had the nose deformation problem with WCB that I had with Berry's

I recently tired some of the very hard lead bullets from Oregon Trail. Didn't have serious leading problems in my USP, but the accuracy went south fast and the gun was a real headache to clean (the frame needed to be soaked over the weekend in a gallon of Ed's Red to get all the wax residue off the internals). End of that experiment.

 

[Cletis]

Thanks I guess I'll try some. Who has a good price on these?
I also need load info. With the 40S&W I was using 180gr FMJ with 4.6gr of titegroup. The 45ACP was a 230gr RNL using the same amount of titegroup, 4.6gr. I shot these over the weekend and they worked fine. The week before i loaded the 45's with 5.1 gr and that was a little too much. Thanks again

 

[John Forsyth]

All I use is West Coast bullets. Good product at a very fair price.

http://www.westcoastbullet.com

 

[warrior23]

I have used Rainier bullets over the last 5 years with out any problems in 40sw 45 and 44.

 

[Khornet]

Shot up a bunch

of Rainier 165 .40 bullets this weekend over 231, 5.0 or 5.3 gr.--can't remember, don't have my log here--in my G22. No problem, no leading.

 

[Zero]

Plated Performance

I've ran the West Coast bullets up to 1450 in my Glock 31 and recovered a few slugs, I didn't find any evidence that the plating was stripped off. Plated bullets come in several quality levels. I personally like West Coasts bullets because they are double struck, are true electroplated bullets. They have one of the thickest coats of copper.

 

[badgerrr]

Perhaps I should observe, at this point, that the Remington PLHP Rifle bullets are plated - not jacketed.

I regularly drive them out of my .223, well over 3000fps, - to no ill effect.

 

[DE44mag]

Cabelas has Berry's Prefered plated bullets, I just ordered 1k for $56.91 including S&H.

 

[Gewehr98]

Been running West Coast plated 158gr bullets...

Up over 1600 fps in my .357 Magnum Desert Eagle, no problems yet!