Coated bullets... Is there really any difference ?

[Shep]

Is there any major difference between the coated bullet manufacturers?

I've tried  Acme, and Blue and can't really see a lot of difference other than color. I am missing something ? I mostly shoot the 135 and 147 at action pistol and 3gun. Should I quit looking and buy whats cheapest and shoot more ?

[Sarge]

9 minutes ago, Shep said:

Is there any major difference between the coated bullet manufacturers?

I've tried  Acme, and Blue and can't really see a lot of difference other than color. I am missing something ? I mostly shoot the 135 and 147 at action pistol and 3gun. Should I quit looking and buy whats cheapest and shoot more ?

Funny you mentioned Blue bullets because they are coated with a totally different product. 

 But aside from blue bullets and Precision out of Texas all of the hitek coated bullets will be similar 

[Beef15]

Most are using Hitek. Blue doesn't and they work fine for me at a diameter that leads bad with any other coating.

Profile and diameter may make a difference in performance in your gun, it may function better or be more accurate with a certain one.

 

Buy the cheapest one that does what you want.

[Furrly]

Blues are my choice and I've tested numerous brands.. 

[RJH]

17 minutes ago, Furrly said:

Blues are my choice and I've tested numerous brands.. 

Whatdid the blues do better than the other brands? And were all the bullets you tried sized the same?

[MemphisMechanic]

Blues are .355, and nearly everything else is .356 unless you order a specific diameter.

 

I personally prefer handling the  blue bullet’s coating to hitek, after they recently changed it to precent you from getting smurf fingers. They lead comps in PCCs the least out of all the coated brands we’ve run locally.

 

Edited February 4, 2019 by MemphisMechanic

[Furrly]

Like Memphis mentioned, blues are 355 most other brands are 356.. I found 356 to have fewer landing options when it comes to OAL. I like loading as long as possible to insure feeding reliability. Most other brands the coated qualify was suspect.. Blues coating is top notch. 

[BJB]

FYI: The standard order of Blue Bullets is sized at 0.355" but you can get bullets sized at 0.356" from them.  They have a link labeled "Special Order Profiles" where several varieties of 0.356" sized bullets can be found.  If you want a different quantity or weight than what is listed there just send them an e-mail and Brenda or Nathan will add what you want to that page.  They have always been very helpful.  I have ordered thousands upon thousands of 0.356" sized 9mm from them because my Stock 2 prefers that size. 

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: As with any bullet you buy check to see what gives you the best accuracy out of your gun. I would also measure the bullets to see how round they are and see how uniform the coating is. Lastly check to see if they are key holing on the target at distance. There are lots of good bullets out there so pick one that does what you need it to do. Thanks, Eric

[PharmDShooter]

I've shot a few different makers of coated bullets and the coating varies in thickness on some of them.  I have settled on the blues because they have a thick coating and shoot well out of my STI, PCC, and Zev Glock barrel; however, another one of my Glocks dislikes them.  This is likely just a load development issue that i don't want to work out. I have used or seen  black bullets, Acme, IbejiHeads, and SNS and they all seemed to have a good coating.  The blues were just cheaper so thats what I ended up with.

[rishii]

Another blue bullet shooter, I’ve shot cases of them thru everything from production to open, they do smoke some, but less than other brands and I’ve pushed the 115s to 1500 FPS in my supercomp with no leading in the barrel and minimal crud buildup in the comp.

the nationals shooter survey shows with the exception of open, blue bullets were 1st or 2nd in bullet manufacturers used at the match

[Shep]

For me the Blues seat and crimp more consistently, the other I'll occasionally feel like the crimp is taking a lot of force. I feel like a few may be getting the coating damaged. The crimp measures the same though. I hope that makes sense.

[chenault]

I use Blues and ACME.  ACME is the most accurate of the two but not by much.  On holiday sale, blue was cheaper, though I dig the crate acme ships with 

[olstyn]

I found that the Acme bullet profile didn't work for my gun (had to load REALLY short, which I wasn't comfortable with), so I tried blues instead, they worked for me and are cheap, so I haven't seen a reason to switch again.  I guess Acme has changed their bullet profile since, so maybe I'll try them again eventually, but I've currently got a solid supply of blues on hand, so it'll be a while before I even think about it.

[mont1120]

Blue Bullet shooter here. I have found the HY-TEK coating to be sticky at times, and have had some makers of them send me a batch that were stuck together and badly coated. To me the Blue coating is more consistent. I won a box of the newer Gallant bullets last year, and the coating seems similar to the Blues, the difference is the coating is gold colored.

 

Blue Bullets has never messed up an order, is a huge supporter of the USPSA program, and I never needed to send anything back. I cannot say that for some other HY-TEK companies.

[jcc7x7]

Bayou's work best for me.

Consistent

Multiple sizing if you want.

I shoot the.358 dia out of my nines, better accuracy in my guns

124 and 147 mostly

[war_material]

Blue Bullet shooter here for a couple of years now and have nothing but good things to say about their product and service.  Just got into open and found their bullet to be pretty good so far for 38 super comp.

[techj]

After trying a bunch of different brands out a few years ago I settled on the Blue's for everything that I don't need to roll crimp (357, 45 Colt) as they don't have a crimp groove. 

 

Been buying case lots from them for at least 5 years now (9 & 45) and have only had a couple (literally 2-3) of bullets over the years with a problem - they were mistakes in production/packaging.  

 

FWIW my favorite 9 bullets are their 125 TC's as I can load them long and they run well in my 1911, CZ75, Glock and Ruger Carbine.

[IGOTGLOCKED]

On 2/4/2019 at 6:53 PM, olstyn said:

I found that the Acme bullet profile didn't work for my gun (had to load REALLY short, which I wasn't comfortable with), so I tried blues instead, they worked for me and are cheap, so I haven't seen a reason to switch again.  I guess Acme has changed their bullet profile since, so maybe I'll try them again eventually, but I've currently got a solid supply of blues on hand, so it'll be a while before I even think about it.

I think the Acme 9s are the same profile; the 230 gr rn 45 acp were recently changed to a different profiler and I had to load them much shorter than I'd prefer for my G30... Might be looking for another coated projectile which allows me to load longer for my G30.

Cheers!

[BJB]

49 minutes ago, IGOTGLOCKED said:

I think the Acme 9s are the same profile;

 

Acme 115 gr and 124 gr have a newer profile.  The ogive is narrower and can be loaded longer in short leade chambers. 

Acme 135 gr & 145 gr still have the fat ogive and can't be loaded as long in short leade chambers.

[IGOTGLOCKED]

1 minute ago, BJB said:

 

Acme 115 gr and 124 gr have a newer profile.  The ogive is narrower and can be loaded longer in short leade chambers. 

Acme 135 gr & 145 gr still have the fat ogive and can't be loaded as long in short leade chambers.

Thx BJB, have been loading the 135 rn at 1.150 for a long time and still pleased.  But as I mentioned not so happy with the new 230 gr rn 46 acp. Loading them now with new profile .025 shorter...

[BentAero]

Recently I've tried Acme 135 RN, Acme 147 RNFP,  Gallant 147 RNFP, and Bayou 145 RN.

 

The Acme's have the best coating of the three; the Gallants the worst. The Gallant coating is so thin and poorly adhered, you can scratch it with your fingernail, and that was from two different 1000 round boxes a few weeks apart.

Both the Acme 135 RN and 147 RNFP ogives allowed the longest load; I could consistently plunk them past  1.160, but magazine fitment became iffy in that area. I settled on 1.150

The Gallant ogive is much taller/wider and I struggled with gett ng them to plunk much past 1.015 -anything longer than that was a total lock-down no-spin. I settled on 1.010

The Bayou's will plunk at a max of about 1.155, but to get consistent plunkability they're best at 1.145.. I've yet to do accuracy testing with the Bayou's (only Chrono) and I'm suspicious. I used them in my last two USPSA matches and had a much higher than normal amount of Mikes on the longer shots. I may be slow, but I normally have zero to one Mike per match. I need to find out if it's me or the rounds.

The Acme's have a nice tight consistent spread. Of the four bullets, I like the Acme 147 RNFP the best. All were powdered for an intended 130 PF.

Edited February 7, 2019 by BentAero
Typo

[IGOTGLOCKED]

18 hours ago, BentAero said:

Recently I've tried Acme 135 RN, Acme 147 RNFP,  Gallant 147 RNFP, and Bayou 145 RN.

 

The Acme's have the best coating of the three; the Gallants the worst. The Gallant coating is so thin and poorly adhered, you can scratch it with your fingernail, and that was from two different 1000 round boxes a few weeks apart.

Both the Acme 135 RN and 147 RNFP ogives allowed the longest load; I could consistently plunk them past  1.160, but magazine fitment became iffy in that area. I settled on 1.150

The Gallant ogive is much taller/wider and I struggled with gett ng them to plunk much past 1.015 -anything longer than that was a total lock-down no-spin. I settled on 1.010

The Bayou's will plunk at a max of about 1.155, but to get consistent plunkability they're best at 1.145.. I've yet to do accuracy testing with the Bayou's (only Chrono) and I'm suspicious. I used them in my last two USPSA matches and had a much higher than normal amount of Mikes on the longer shots. I may be slow, but I normally have zero to one Mike per match. I need to find out if it's me or the rounds.

The Acme's have a nice tight consistent spread. Of the four bullets, I like the Acme 147 RNFP the best. All were powdered for an intended 130 PF.

Great info BentAero, thx. I might just need to change to a diff profile Acme for 45 ACP even if it is a different grain. I've heard their SWC does not run well in a G30 though... I like their bullets and customer service, they are great people and I like to support them.

Cheers!

IGG

[IDescribe]

On 2/3/2019 at 9:21 PM, Shep said:

Is there any major difference between the coated bullet manufacturers?

 

 

The most significant differences are sizing, which will affect accuracy, and how well the coating is cured, which will affect smoke and smell and then the options themselves on bullet weights and profiles.

[AHI]

The quality of the cast bullet how the coating is applied and profile all make a difference.

some are better than others . Pick the one you like that meats your specifications/ needs. 

I prefer SNS      second choice  would be Bayou.  haven't tried every one but some of the samples i've received

wouldn't make good fishing wights.

some manufacturers profiles just would not work for my needs.

Edited February 8, 2019 by AHI