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I’m brand new to open.have many to help local. Including a gm an a master. Got great deal on a 38 super Comp gun. Wanting to practice with blue bullets. Don’t want to screw up a brand new open gun. Please any that have done it an shoot matches with hi teck or blue Bullets an the concerns of doing it. Thanks 

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Ive run BBI through my STI Watchmaster.  Smokey but they ran.  I have not tried them yet but seems like others have tried blue bullets with success.  From what I've heard they keep the barrel clean but may lead up the comp.

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I haven’t shot either two but have put maybe 15-18k of eggleston thru my guns without any concern of issue to the gun.

 

This included a lot of 115gr at 175ish PF.  Smoke was no different for me with these but others may vary.

 

In my experience the difference with coated lead and jacketed is the ease of accuracy when reloading.  With jacketed you can get away with overcrimping the crap out of them withou a huge loss in accuracy. With coated lead it’s much easier to swage the bullet with to much crimp so that’s where most people screw up while using them.

 

to set crimp unscrew your crimp die until it doesn’t touch the round when the press is fully canned over. Then let the handle down just enough to feel a little pressure as you tighten the crimp die roughly an 1/8 turn. Check case gauge and push as hard as you can against a bench and measure OAL to see if there is any setback issues.

 

the biggest challenge with a lighter crimp is making sure your case length is pretty consistent as any change in length will change the amount of crimp on the round.  Manufacturers case length can vary so it’s really best to sort them by manufacturer and set the crimp as you load them in batches.

 

Just my experience but I had planned to only shoot them for practice but soon decided there was not point in loading different ammo for majors

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As said above there is no real problem with coated

I've shoot over 20k of Bayou and about 10+k of blue bullets

If you notice any build up in the comp a few rounds of jacketed will blow the residue out usually.

I like the cost savings which turns into more shooting

I use them for everything, local and bigger matches

 

I've got a small supply of jacketed left from when I switched, I keep those for "comp cleaning". Usually not needed!

 

Edited by jcc7x7
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I shot about 900 bayou bullets through my trubor when I first got it.  (I was coming from limited 40 and the thought that coated would be way cheaper than jacketed). I couldn't believe how much lead built up in my comp and shooting Montana golds afterwards did not clean out the lead.  I decided I did not want to chip that stuff out all of the time after spending several hours doing it once.  I also found that jacketed and even plated bullets were not that much more in cost.

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I shot coated for quite awhile in open due to the cost savings, and was never happy with them. They weren't as accurate, weren't as clean, and smoke like a freight train in comparison to jacketed. And for the record, I do like shooting coated bullets in the other divisions, I just don't think open is the proper venue for them. I tried 3 different coated bullet companies I liked and had luck in other calibers with previously, with the same result.

I eventually switched to Precision Delta 115 JHP and shot several thousand of them, but the bullet profile didn't work well with my gun so I switched to Everglades.

JHP or bust.

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I agree with [mention=51075]Gooldylocks[/mention] I run them in non-comp guns with no issue, but in open I prefer a JHP (MontanaGold 124s for me). There are a good amount of shooters in my area running The Blue Bullets in open but I am not one of them. 
And we still need to cure you of your MG ailment!
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I won't shoot lead or coated bullets in any of my comp'd guns.  Wait for a sale and stock up on Rainier plated, or X-Treme plated.  Cost is the same as good poly coated.  Everything stays cleaner.  A lesser reason is the plated and jacketed bullets feed properly from my bullet feeder, where most poly coated do not.

 

Also, buying jacketed by the case brings the cost of almost all of them under 10 cents each.

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I did some research with the same question but concerned if coated bullets would lead up suppressors.

 

There's too many variables to say yes or no - barrel length, bullet type, powder, crimp , velocity etc

 

The only way to know for sure is shoot some out of your gun and recover the bullets. If there is still coating where the bullet contacts the rifling and on the base your good. Exposed lead on the back half of the bullets means you'll get lead in the comp.

 

For me coated thru suppressors is a no go

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  • 2 weeks later...

I shot blues in my open guns for about a year till i hit master.  The blues work.   But they have some drawbacks.  Good amount of lead deposits in the comp after 2k rds or so, super smokey and with lead at open velocities you will get a flyer of 1 to 2 inches off every 20rds or so.  Ymmv, and i will still use them on occasion for practice.  But the cost difference is negligable enough that PD 124 jhp is just a no brainer.

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I’ve shot blues through my open as well. It does work. I haven’t shot enough of them in open to clog up the comp yet but others are right. The PD is a good deal and won’t require the same amount of maintenance as the blues. I’ve recently made the switch to PDs. Also with the blues no matter what I tried I wasn’t able to keep a good consistent group at 25 yards in my open pistol. They were fine up to about 20 and at 15 they were just as good as the PDs in accuracy. The accuracy of the PDs at 25 yards was my deciding factor in switching over. 

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