If you missed the "parent thread", I discovered Speer's plastic training bullets. Got some and tried them out.
They are essentially plastic cylinders sized to just ride on rifling, rather than be fully engaged in the rifling. You power them with primer only, no powder. Reloading gear is not really required, other than to de-prime cases.
Speer sells the bullets separate from the plastic cases you run them in. The cases are intended for revolvers. Their #13 reloading manual says you can use the .38 bullets in regular brass cases for .380acp and 9mm. That's what I tried. I don't have a .38 revolver, so did not try Speer's plastic cases. Just the plastic bullets in brass cases.
The bullets were sized small. They would slide out the barrel of my .380, and would do the same from my FEG Hi-Power. In my P-11, they seemed to fit as intended. Woud not quite roll out the barrel.
I had to put a touch of taper crimp on my 9mm cases to get them to hold the plastic bullets properly. I couldn't do that for .380--no dies yet. So the friction fit in .380 was a little loose. But I had to try anyway...
I set up an old blanket in the garage to catch the bullets. Then blasted away. Of course, they won't cycle the action of the semi-auto's, so I fed them single from the magazine.
Report was quiet. Cap-gun level. In fast, they sounded a lot like a cap gun. Smelled that way, too... But in my concrete garage I used hearing protection anyway, after the first few.
Speer says velocity should be up to 400fps. No chrono, but they were going fast enough to rip the blanket a little bit. Good thing it was an old picnic blanket.
Accuracy was "sorta acceptable" in the .380. To be expected since the bullets were not engaging rifling. Mostly keyholes. Even with that, I was about 6" at 20 ft. Usable for "draw, align, shoot" drills. Everything on paper.
In the Hi-Power, accuracy was a little better. Still some keyholing. Groups shrank to about 4"at 20 ft. Again, usable for drills.
In the P-11, the bullets apparently worked as intended. No keyholing, and groups 1-2". Also, in the P-11 I could feed a full 10 of them from the magazine. Fire, rack slide, fire, etc.
In the .380 and the Hi-Power, I could only feed the first round from the mag. So I had to single load the mag, then rack, then fire. Slow.
So I had a lot of fun with the P-11. The other two pistols were less fun, but usable. Fun level was high enough that I reloaded the same cases twice more last night, and did more drills than I have in several months. Gott be some payoff there...And I let my 12 yr old. do some shooting, too. His reaction: "sweet."
So I give them a "thumbs up". Results in a .38 or .357 revolver may be better than these semi-autos. But even with the hassles, I did some good drills.
Next is to try the X-ring rubber bullets. I think those will be better...
They are essentially plastic cylinders sized to just ride on rifling, rather than be fully engaged in the rifling. You power them with primer only, no powder. Reloading gear is not really required, other than to de-prime cases.
Speer sells the bullets separate from the plastic cases you run them in. The cases are intended for revolvers. Their #13 reloading manual says you can use the .38 bullets in regular brass cases for .380acp and 9mm. That's what I tried. I don't have a .38 revolver, so did not try Speer's plastic cases. Just the plastic bullets in brass cases.
The bullets were sized small. They would slide out the barrel of my .380, and would do the same from my FEG Hi-Power. In my P-11, they seemed to fit as intended. Woud not quite roll out the barrel.
I had to put a touch of taper crimp on my 9mm cases to get them to hold the plastic bullets properly. I couldn't do that for .380--no dies yet. So the friction fit in .380 was a little loose. But I had to try anyway...
I set up an old blanket in the garage to catch the bullets. Then blasted away. Of course, they won't cycle the action of the semi-auto's, so I fed them single from the magazine.
Report was quiet. Cap-gun level. In fast, they sounded a lot like a cap gun. Smelled that way, too... But in my concrete garage I used hearing protection anyway, after the first few.
Speer says velocity should be up to 400fps. No chrono, but they were going fast enough to rip the blanket a little bit. Good thing it was an old picnic blanket.
Accuracy was "sorta acceptable" in the .380. To be expected since the bullets were not engaging rifling. Mostly keyholes. Even with that, I was about 6" at 20 ft. Usable for "draw, align, shoot" drills. Everything on paper.
In the Hi-Power, accuracy was a little better. Still some keyholing. Groups shrank to about 4"at 20 ft. Again, usable for drills.
In the P-11, the bullets apparently worked as intended. No keyholing, and groups 1-2". Also, in the P-11 I could feed a full 10 of them from the magazine. Fire, rack slide, fire, etc.
In the .380 and the Hi-Power, I could only feed the first round from the mag. So I had to single load the mag, then rack, then fire. Slow.
So I had a lot of fun with the P-11. The other two pistols were less fun, but usable. Fun level was high enough that I reloaded the same cases twice more last night, and did more drills than I have in several months. Gott be some payoff there...And I let my 12 yr old. do some shooting, too. His reaction: "sweet."
So I give them a "thumbs up". Results in a .38 or .357 revolver may be better than these semi-autos. But even with the hassles, I did some good drills.
Next is to try the X-ring rubber bullets. I think those will be better...
