ormandj

Copy that, will dig. No worries on steel, I don't shoot it rifle or pistol. I avoid crimped too, I'm not a range brass collector. I read you on the 'plunk' test, I've loaded 10s of thousands of pistol rounds, just stopped about 12 years ago or so since I was only shooting rifle. I'll make sure to test fit before loading up a few k. Thanks!

Well, managed to snag a good number of 147gr JHPs from Zero. Thank you again for all of the advice, I'll pick up smaller quantities of the coated when I can find them in stock and give them a try - I'd not have tried them if I hadn't gotten feedback here, so I really appreciate it. I forgot to ask one more question - what brass should I be looking for? Any brands to look at/avoid? I've generally just purchased loaded ammunition and collected, but that's a bit harder right now. Knowing what brands to look at will help with opportunistic shopping.

You are all wonderfully helpful, thank you for the responses and information, it gives me a great starting place to do some research. With the coated bullets, such as the Blue bullets, does the coating rub off on your hands or anything like that? I'm assuming it's baked on, I just want to make sure I'm not essentially dealing with blue lipstick sticks, that would drive me nuts. On the Hi-tek coated bullets, is the 'smell' issue real, or is that just bad batches done by poor suppliers who didn't properly cure them? Thank you all.

I've got a good bit of BE-86 and CCI 500s sitting loose, and I'm about to start reloading for pistol again. It's been 10+ years since I last loaded for pistol - and prior I was doing 45 ACP w/ Zero Bullets. Component selection is obviously a little more difficult to come by right now, so the whole test everything/pick what works best option is out for me. I'm looking for suggestions on 9mm projectiles to use. This isn't for competition (at this point) - but to practice without blowing through my defensive ammunition at great cost. I'm shooting 147gr Federal HST, so I'm looking to approximate the recoil/characteristics of this. I'm planning to shoot 1-2k rounds per month for a while to build proficiency again, so will be buying at least a reasonable quantity. What jacketed bullets are considered the go-to for reloading in 147gr nowadays? I'd consider coated/plated if they would function well/not be horrible to shoot/clean, but I wouldn't mind paying a little more to not worry about issues if it makes sense. I'm not trying to save every last dollar, just not shoot $2 bills downrange every time I pull the trigger. It's fine if they're not currently in stock (I expect this, in fact), I just need to know what to start watching like a hawk to purchase when it is available. It's hard picking up where I left off over a decade ago, it seems like there's a lot more options out there. Thanks!