Pistol Bullet options

[DenverGP]

I started reloading a few months back, and I've been using Xtreme plated bullets for my 9mm and 45acp. Quality has been decent, but they've steadily been sneaking their prices up, so I figured look at some of the other options out there. They just did the standard "raise prices by 10%, and announce a 5% off sale", which annoys me enough to look for another supplier.

Anyone have any experience with the "thick plated" bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading? Or any other bullets you've found to be good and cheap?

[Great-Kazoo]

good & cheap in reloading, isn't going to happen for some time. I would recommend Montana Gold to you, but you said cheap. There is berry's.
Have you considered hard cast, you can but 1K for the price of 500 plated? $120 for a LW bbl in the glock and you should be gtg.

[sportbikeco]

The guy at tanner "Big Iron Bullets", helpful, pretty good prices and good quality. http://www.bigironbullets.com/Bullet_List.php

PM'd you another source.

[Great-Kazoo]

The guy at tanner "Big Iron Bullets", helpful, pretty good prices and good quality. http://www.bigironbullets.com/Bullet_List.php

PM'd you another source.


He's located up north of here. Nice guy with good (so far) product.

[Hoser]

Stay away from Montana Gold. Good bullets and very accurate. But the company screwed a bunch of people right after Sandy Hook. I will never again spend a penny with them.

[sellersm]

Precision Delta is another, as is Zero bullets (get from powder valley for cheapest price). RMR makes good ones and resells Power Bond bullets.


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[muddywings]

Can't speak to personal experience as I don't reload yet but did shoot with the guys who run this: http://www.egglestonmunitions.com/

I know others who shoot their stuff and are pleased. Once I'm up and running reloading I'll probably buy a batch and shoot it as I like supporting small and local business owners.

[DenverGP]

Precision Delta is another, as is Zero bullets (get from powder valley for cheapest price). RMR makes good ones and resells Power Bond bullets.

I had been looking at the plated bullets from RMR and the Power Bond ones.

I know that for some plated bullets (Berry's), the plating is very thin, and they need to be loaded like cast lead. The ones I've used from Xtreme are supposedly thicker plating, and get loaded like jacketed, at least for non-magnum loads. Power Bond seems to be the same way, and RMR does offer some specifically "thick plated" ones.

Looks like the Precision Delta FMJ 9mm 115gr, the price for 1000 is only a few bucks more than I am paying xtreme for their plated.

FMJ for around 9 cents a bullet shipped, and some plated for just barely less than that.... seems like an easy choice. Looks like that'll be my next batch of bullets.

For the Precision Delta (and maybe all FMJ bullets), I never realized the base of the bullet was exposed lead.... Do I need to do anything different when loading those?

[sellersm]

Nope.


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[sportbikeco]

Why not just load lead bullets? They are cheap, I've paid $60/1k for 9mm 115gr and $80/1k for .45 200gr

[DenverGP]

Why not just load lead bullets? They are cheap, I've paid $60/1k for 9mm 115gr and $80/1k for .45 200gr

I thought that lead bullets cause lead buildup in the barrel (I guess would just mean more cleaning, and possible dropoff in accuracy during the shooting session).

Also thought that lead bullets create more smoke. Since most of my shooting is done in an indoor range, so that seems like a bad thing. Don't some indoor ranges not allow exposed lead bullets?

Maybe these are all just myth / internet lore type things. Thats why I love this site, to learn from people that have a lot more experience than me.

For the price difference, I don't mind paying a little more for the jacketed and/or plated if they offer some benefit, I'm just always trying to get the most bang for my buck.

[DHC]

I thought that lead bullets cause lead buildup in the barrel (I guess would just mean more cleaning, and possible dropoff in accuracy during the shooting session).

Also thought that lead bullets create more smoke. Since most of my shooting is done in an indoor range, so that seems like a bad thing. Don't some indoor ranges not allow exposed lead bullets?

Maybe these are all just myth / internet lore type things.

For the price difference, I don't mind paying a little more for the jacketed and/or plated if they offer some benefit, I'm just always trying to get the most bang for my buck.

In 9mm and 45 ACP the pressures involved are not going to create any significant barrel leading problems so long as you use the proper sized bullet for your firearm. Commercial cast (and plated) bullets for 9mm are sized at .356 and for 45 ACP are sized at .452, and those should work fine for most guns - though it would be even better if you slug your barrel to get a more exact fit and then size accordingly.

Lead vs plated vs jacketed bullets has no bearing on smoking. The lube does have some effect, but the powder you use is probably the biggest factor.

You are correct that some states are beginning to ban lead bullets, but to my knowledge there are no restrictions here in Colorado.

It is arguable as to the benefit one gets from jacketed vs plated vs lead and is variable depending on your specific application.

IHTH

[Great-Kazoo]

I thought that lead bullets cause lead buildup in the barrel (I guess would just mean more cleaning, and possible dropoff in accuracy during the shooting session).
Also thought that lead bullets create more smoke. Since most of my shooting is done in an indoor range, so that seems like a bad thing. Don't some indoor ranges not allow exposed lead bullets?

Maybe these are all just myth / internet lore type things. Thats why I love this site, to learn from people that have a lot more experience than me.

For the price difference, I don't mind paying a little more for the jacketed and/or plated if they offer some benefit, I'm just always trying to get the most bang for my buck.

Once again, Hard cast lead.
If you have a glock, change out the bbl to a lone wolf unit. The factory barrel isn't suited for lead due to the polygonal barrel. If you had a 38, i'd sell you some 125gr JHP's, have a lot of them.

[Dalendenver]

When I started reading your post I was going to recommend RMR but you already know about them. In addition to their thick plated bullets they sell a lot of pulled bullets that are very nice. I bought 1K of Federal 90 Gr Gold Dot bullets and they are all very nice.

[DenverGP]

Yeah, no first hand experience with them, but I did find the thick plated ones from RMR. Looks like a lot of options on the pulled self-defense bullets too, hadn't noticed that before.

[DonnyCommo]

I've been loading berrys for 9mm and 357 mag. Very good bullets and I've had no issues.

I did get my hands on some 200gr SWC for my my 1911 once upon a time. Fantastic bullet with hardly any lead build up like others have said. Leaves a nice circle in the target when punching paper.


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[DenverGP]

Just ordered up a batch of the RMR Thickly Plated bullets. A couple recommendations here, and I saw quite a few really good reviews of them on other forums.

[Joe Manco]

Bought 1k 200gr LSWC .45 from Big Horn at the gun show Saturday for $97 including tax. Other then the color of the lube they look and measure same as Laser Cut bullets I have always used in the past that cost more. Haven't loaded or shot any yet but I have only heard good things about them. Anyone ever try Denver Bullet? I call but no one ever answers.

[DenverGP]

Well, can't review the bullets yet, but RMR sure does move fast. I placed by order last night around midnight, and at 9:30am I had a shipping confirmation with priority mail tracking number. Beats the hell out of the 2+ weeks it took for Xtreme to ship out my last order.

[Alpha2]

this is from something I did a few years ago.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p112/jhallrv4/gun/bullets.jpg (http://s126.photobucket.com/user/jhallrv4/media/gun/bullets.jpg.html)Berry's had some quality issues. Plinking, no biggie, but for anything else, not good.
I've been using Extreme Bullets for a while now. Excellent quality, and they have free shipping from time to time, and when you're talking lead bullets, that's a big deal. I've found shipping to be fast and reliable.

Not to say I couldn't be persuaded to change at some time, but for the reliability and value, I'm good.

Jeff

[DenverGP]

Up until now the only ones I've used were the Xtremes, about 3000 bullets so far. Mostly happy with the quality, but service has been lacking for the past 2 orders, and the prices increasing quite a bit in the last couple months prompted me to look elsewhere. I've heard good things about the RMR bullets, both here and on other forums.

I did have several of the xtreme 230gr 45acp bullets that had the copper plating scrape off when seating the bullet. Removed the damaged bullets and seated new ones with no problems, so I think the cases were run thru the expander die correctly. The first batch of 500 I loaded didn't have any issues, but it happened on 5 out of 250 loaded so far from the next batch.

49995

[Irving]

Up until now the only ones I've used were the Xtremes, about 3000 bullets so far. Mostly happy with the quality, but service has been lacking for the past 2 orders, and the prices increasing quite a bit in the last couple months prompted me to look elsewhere. I've heard good things about the RMR bullets, both here and on other forums.

I did have several of the xtreme 230gr 45acp bullets that had the copper plating scrape off when seating the bullet. Removed the damaged bullets and seated new ones with no problems, so I think the cases were run thru the expander die correctly. The first batch of 500 I loaded didn't have any issues, but it happened on 5 out of 250 on the next batch.

49995

Happens to me when I don't take care to make sure I have the bullet as straight as possible.

[Hoser]

I did have several of the xtreme 230gr 45acp bullets that had the copper plating scrape off when seating the bullet. Removed the damaged bullets and seated new ones with no problems, so I think the cases were run thru the expander die correctly. The first batch of 500 I loaded didn't have any issues, but it happened on 5 out of 250 loaded so far from the next batch.



Looks like a little more belling is in your future...

[sabot_round]

Looks like a little more belling is in your future...

I agree with Hoser's conclusion.

SR

[DenverGP]

Yeah, I cranked the powder feed die in a little further, so far so good.

Got my shipment from RMR yesterday. $78.00 shipped for 1000 115gr thick plated copper.

Placed the order 10 minutes after midnight on wednesday, got them friday. They shipped in a USPS priority mail box wrapped in lots of packing tape. Inside was a thick plastic bag with all 1000 bullets in it.

Bullets look nice, no visible defects or irregularities in the plating. Might not be as shiny as the Xtreme, but still nice and clean, no dirt on my hands or scale after handling the bullets.

The RMR bullets are not quite as long/pointed as the 115gr rn from Xtreme. Xtreme's measured at .551 -.555 (from my random sample of about 20). The RMR bullets ranged from .545 to .550 (also sample of 20).

The weight of the RMR's seems to have a little more variance than the xtremes (at least for my small sample of 20 of each) Xtremes ranged from about 114.7 up to 115.5. The RMR's ranged from 114.6 up to 115.7 (only 2 at the 115.7 in my sample) with both Xtreme and RMR averaging right at 115.0.

Xtreme's are packed nicer (and I like the bullet boxes that are inside their outside packing box, I re-use them for loaded rounds), but the little hunks of copper and lead didn't really seem to care about the less fancy shipping from RMR.

RMR is damn fast shipping. With price being close, I'd even be willing to pay a little extra for RMR if I needed them quick. At least right now, RMR was cheaper by a few bucks, so even better. I know shipping speed is partially based on the shipper (I think UPS Ground for Xtreme, USPS Priority Mail for RMR)... but RMR shipped out 9 hours after I placed my order. My last Xtreme order (for basic in-stock 115gr plated bullets) didn't leave their building for 2 full weeks.

I'll load up some test rounds and shoot them this weekend, but i expect they'll load the exact same as the xtremes. I might shorten the OAL by .005 to keep the bullets seated the same amount.

[JTF3635]

My suggestion is check out black bullets international out of Alamo, Tennessee. I just ordered 1,000 of their 115 gr. 9mm bullets for $72 no taxes and no shipping charges.