plated 9mm bullets

[_CY_]

so what's the right source for jacketed bullets at plated prices?

I think you've found that your gun just doesn't like plated bullets, from the right sources jacketed can be virtually the same cost.

Last time I looked MG 115's were 75 or so per K, not sure you're going to beat that by much with plated bullets.

 

[technetium-99m]

Montana gold 115's are less than $75 per K to your door, Berry's 115's are $80 to your door. In 180gr 40's the Berry's and MG's are equal in price. In 230gr 45 you finally see the plated bullets cheaper than jacketed, but only by $15 per K. The MG bullets are also much better performers. Rainier bullets from what I can find are even more expensive.

So unless there's an even cheaper source of plated bullets out there I maintain that the heirarchy of bullet cheapness goes like this:

Lead
Moly/other coated (like bayou bullets etc.)
Jacketed

And just skip the plated bullets since all the above bullets perform very well and the cheaper two save you a good amount of green

I've actually found I can push hardcast lead bullets to higher velocities than plated. I've had J&K's 180gr 40's up over 1000 fps with no problems whatsoever

 

[technetium-99m]

Good lord, I've not checked BBI in a while, their 115's are $57 delivered.

 

[gl89aw]

Are BBI bullets Moly coated?? Their webb site doesn't give much info. I probably have a lifetime supply of the plated right now but it wouldn't hurt to try some other types.

 

[technetium-99m]

They are moly coated, and they work very well.

 

[poopgiggle]

I recently acquired a bunch of 9mm 115gr plated round nose bullets, I loaded up a batch with 4.5 grains of bulls eye and an overall length of 1.125, I couldn't get a decent group at all out of either my Firestar or Star M30, both of which normally do pretty well. Any suggestions, This if my first experience with plated bullets.

I just started reloading and my first bullet purchase was Berry's plated; I was going to test out my first batch of 9mm tomorrow and you're sapping my confidence

Berry's FAQ says to use low-to-mid range jacketed data with their bullets. You're pushing your bullets with 4.5gr of Bullseye and my reloading manual puts the max load at 4.8 grains. If I had to guess, you're loading too hot.

I loaded mine with the minimum load in the manual, not only because I was using plated bullets but also because I wanted a light plinking load (and these are my first reloads and I'm kind of worried about blowing myself up). If I make it to the range tomorrow I'll come back and give a range report.

 

[GlockCop]

As a side note...The first time I tried plated bullets I had keyholing that was very bad. None would fly straight. As odd as it sounds I got some expert reloading advice and it was too fast of a powder. I used a slower powder and the problem went away. I didnt use a max load with either powder.

 

[gl89aw]

I use and have on hand some Unique, Bullseye, Red Dot, Win.231 and H110, I found a load for Red Dot of 4.1 gr on Handloads.com that they said was a real powder puff, I think I will try it next, any other recomendations,

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[imhntn]

I use titegroup on the Berry's plated and they have always shot very well out of my xds and cz-75s and my son's glock.

 

[poopgiggle]

Just got back from shooting my reloads, which were Berry's plated 124 gr flat point bullets over 3.9 grains of Bullseye. The round is light and easy to control in rapid fire, and when I took my time (I'm not a great pistol shot, but I really suck at rapid fire) it was pretty easy to put 5-6 in a 1" group at 7 yards. Unfortunately I didn't go beyond 10 yards (where they also did well) so I don't know if they would keyhole or anything at range, but I suspect that the plating was holding together.

So, based on my minimal empirical experimentation, it appears that Bullseye is fine if you load it light. gl89aw, you were using too much.

Oh yeah, legal disclaimer: this information is provided to share my results, not to suggest loading data to others. Consult a loading manual instead of using recipes from random people on the Internet. I accept no responsibility if you blow your gun up.