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Brazos bullets - very happy so far


124gr9mm

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I read this thread out of curiosity and am stupefied that people actually debur 9mm cases !🤨

  Often, buying the cheapest thing is not the smartest play. Sounds like there are enough issues with these bullets that avoiding them is the best choice.

  But man, deburring 9mm??!!??

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I read this thread out of curiosity and am stupefied that people actually debur 9mm cases ![emoji2955]
  Often, buying the cheapest thing is not the smartest play. Sounds like there are enough issues with these bullets that avoiding them is the best choice.
  But man, deburring 9mm??!!??

I know Sarge! It’s ridiculous. It was the only way I could get the coated bullets to work for me without over crimping them. Long story short is that I wet tumbled the brass for a couple hours and I had a bad peening issue on the case mouth to the point where they had to be deburred to work correctly with the coated bullets. I tried EVERYTHING before coming to this solution because trust me, it was my last resort! My wet tumbling is now kept under and hour and I no longer have that problem. Live and learn right?


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11 minutes ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


I know Sarge! It’s ridiculous. It was the only way I could get the coated bullets to work for me without over crimping them. Long story short is that I wet tumbled the brass for a couple hours and I had a bad peening issue on the case mouth to the point where they had to be deburred to work correctly with the coated bullets. I tried EVERYTHING before coming to this solution because trust me, it was my last resort! My wet tumbling is now kept under and hour and I no longer have that problem. Live and learn right?


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You couldn't just flare a tad more? That seems to be the solution 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time. I wet tumble for about 2 hours and nothing is damaged enough that I had to find a fix?

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I agree

Bought aprox 6k from them. Then the price shipping change,  I'm done with them.

Then with all the bs about sizing and extra steps I don't have to do with the other guys.

I think it's the softer lead Brazos uses that causes problems  that I don't have with Bayou or blues.

FWIW

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You couldn't just flare a tad more? That seems to be the solution 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time. I wet tumble for about 2 hours and nothing is damaged enough that I had to find a fix?

Sarge, it wasn’t a problem with the flaring, but with the crimping. There was a small bur at the rim of the case that was making them not pass gauge or plunk tests, this was because the mouth had peened while tumbling for so long. The problem was that I tumbled for this long after resizing, which will usually knock some of that bur off the case in the die. But since it was after resizing the bur was stuck on the case during loading and the case needed to be crimped more to make that bur flat with the rest of the case, but more crimp would have dug into the coating of the bullet and left a very pronounced ring around the bullet.

My solution was to cut my loss, and debur the cases instead of crimping, and learn the lesson the hard way and make sure not to do that again haha.


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1 minute ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


Sarge, it wasn’t a problem with the flaring, but with the crimping. There was a small bur at the rim of the case that was making them not pass gauge or plunk tests, this was because the mouth had peened while tumbling for so long. The problem was that I tumbled for this long after resizing, which will usually knock some of that bur off the case in the die. But since it was after resizing the bur was stuck on the case during loading and the case needed to be crimped more to make that bur flat with the rest of the case, but more crimp would have dug into the coating of the bullet and left a very pronounced ring around the bullet.

My solution was to cut my loss, and debur the cases instead of crimping, and learn the lesson the hard way and make sure not to do that again haha.


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Hmm... I guess I get it. I have just a sizing die in a tool head to deprime before wet tumbling. Then swap to loading tool head which sizes again with a Udie.  

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Hmm... I guess I get it. I have just a sizing die in a tool head to deprime before wet tumbling. Then swap to loading tool head which sizes again with a Udie.  

That sounds like a good way to do. It happened because I had a bunch of processed brass, then I got a wet tumbler and liked the results I was getting with dirty brass so I decided to run my processed brass through it and I don’t have another resizing die in my toolhead like you do. I had already deburred them before I talked to my local reloading shop where he said simply resizing it would have taken the majority of the bur off


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1 hour ago, jcc7x7 said:

Then with all the bs about sizing and extra steps I don't have to do with the other guys.

I think it's the softer lead Brazos uses that causes problems  that I don't have with Bayou or blues.

 

Ding, ding, ding!

 

The whole softer lead/larger size/leading conversation isn't new and has shown up on every Brazos thread I've seen. Yes they were cheaper, but never enough to want to add complexity to my loading process. Now with their pricing model change it's a no brainer. Why anyone would knowingly go down this rabbit hole is beyond me.

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I've bought and shot at least 6k of Brazos bullets. The leading I got with the 125gr LG 9mm was incredible. I got less leading with 357 147gr, but holy cow they were smoky. The 180gr .40 bullets have been equivalent to any other bullet I've shot. But with pricing changes, I'll certainly just go back to Precision Bullets. Their coating is just awesome. I can see the quality.

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Agree,  Precision has been the best coated by far.   Even the .358 Brazos 125g leaded bad with everything done right, and they smoked pretty bad even with Sport Pistol.  That said I'm running RMR plated now.  VERY heavy copper plate,  no drama in handling, and work well in my S2 and other gun with a comp.

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Agree,  Precision has been the best coated by far.   Even the .358 Brazos 125g leaded bad with everything done right, and they smoked pretty bad even with Sport Pistol.  That said I'm running RMR plated now.  VERY heavy copper plate,  no drama in handling, and work well in my S2 and other gun with a comp.
Why not run the RMR FMJs? Are their plated that much cheaper?

Buddy ordered 1000 of the RMR 124gr truncated nose to test. They shot very well in my pistols. I think you can get them as low as 7.5 cents per all-in when bought in bulk. That's non-sale price. Will be my next order once I get through the 6k+ Brazos I correctly have.

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5 minutes ago, anonymouscuban said:

Why not run the RMR FMJs? Are their plated that much cheaper?

Buddy ordered 1000 of the RMR 124gr truncated nose to test. They shot very well in my pistols. I think you can get them as low as 7.5 cents per all-in when bought in bulk. That's non-sale price. Will be my next order once I get through the 6k+ Brazos I correctly have.

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Over the years I've had accuracy issues with plated with a bunch of different crimp settings and RMR Jacketed prices are great .

Then add their and Everglades specials just about weekly and you save a bunch more.

Any how I'm slowly standardizing on FMJ.

Tonight shot the 929 revo and the 125 FMJ shot well out of that .  It's winter here so I don't shoot anything with amazing groups when my hands are cold in 28 degree weather.

Warmest day in 4 or5 so went out to try a 80 (ie 10 monclips) 

Looking more and more like I'm leaning on standardizing on 124 FMJ.

Fortunately the RMR and EG load and shoot the same, so who ever has bullets in stock when I need them or a sale going LOL

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15 hours ago, anonymouscuban said:

Why not run the RMR FMJs? Are their plated that much cheaper?

Buddy ordered 1000 of the RMR 124gr truncated nose to test. They shot very well in my pistols. I think you can get them as low as 7.5 cents per all-in when bought in bulk. That's non-sale price. Will be my next order once I get through the 6k+ Brazos I correctly have.

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Because I load for a gun with a compensator as well as my S2, and like to keep a common bullet.  Open lead base FMJs will foul a compensator.  I have loaded and shot thousands of RMR RNs and matchwinners, great bullets.  The RMR plated are not like other plated, the plating is extremely thick, like a thin jacket.  You can handle and load them like jacketed without worry.   Also nice ogive that is no problem in short chambers.

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Because I load for a gun with a compensator as well as my S2, and like to keep a common bullet.  Open lead base FMJs will foul a compensator.  I have loaded and shot thousands of RMR RNs and matchwinners, great bullets.  The RMR plated are not like other plated, the plating is extremely thick, like a thin jacket.  You can handle and load them like jacketed without worry.   Also nice ogive that is no problem in short chambers.
Thanks for the reply. Makes sense. I don't shoot an open gun but I do know that the compensators get mucked up by exposed lead. Was just curious why shoot plated over fmj. The RMR fmj are cheaper than many of the other manufacturers plated bullets.

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I'm going to go against the grain.  I tried some Brazos for loading in my Walther PPQ 4".  I did not have luck with them at all.  In fact, I was experiencing tumbling even at 10 yards.

 

With that said, I contacted them, and they were super helpful in trying to get me squared away.  In the end it didn't really work for me, but the fact that they were willing to work with me and try to help me find a load was a huge plus to me.

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They were great people to deal with, its too bad.  I found the .358 size 125g  LG RN very accurate over the course of a match.  Amazing considering the mess in the barrel when I got home and cleaned the gun.  Shooting less and slower at paper, it didn't look that bad, and I thought the .358 may have solved the problem.  The savings was just not worth the hassle and additional lead exposure. 

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1 hour ago, GMP said:

They were great people to deal with, its too bad.  I found the .358 size 125g  LG RN very accurate over the course of a match.  Amazing considering the mess in the barrel when I got home and cleaned the gun.  Shooting less and slower at paper, it didn't look that bad, and I thought the .358 may have solved the problem.  The savings was just not worth the hassle and additional lead exposure. 

For me, the savings weren't THAT much compared to what I settled on.  And those didn't require any extra work on my part to have running near flawlessly.

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They were great people to deal with, its too bad.  I found the .358 size 125g  LG RN very accurate over the course of a match.  Amazing considering the mess in the barrel when I got home and cleaned the gun.  Shooting less and slower at paper, it didn't look that bad, and I thought the .358 may have solved the problem.  The savings was just not worth the hassle and additional lead exposure. 

Were you maybe over crimping or something that would be causing the coating to get screwed up? I don’t have much experience with the bullets with lube grooves, but I did notice that with a couple of the 125gr .357”Brazos when I put a crimp on the bullet and it wasn’t seated at the correct depth it would instantly scrape the coating off when I pulled them. Again, don’t have much experience with lube groove bullets but maybe that’s the origin of the problem?


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4 hours ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


Were you maybe over crimping or something that would be causing the coating to get screwed up? I don’t have much experience with the bullets with lube grooves, but I did notice that with a couple of the 125gr .357”Brazos when I put a crimp on the bullet and it wasn’t seated at the correct depth it would instantly scrape the coating off when I pulled them. Again, don’t have much experience with lube groove bullets but maybe that’s the origin of the problem?


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Not over crimping.  I have the process dialed in.  I take great care to use a proper dia and length expander plug for the bullet and seating depth being used. Load ten dummies, pull, inspect, and mic.  Absolutely no change dimensionally or visually.  The bullet design has minimal sealing area, lead is soft, coating is thin. The fact that they smoke so much with Sport Pistol tells me gas cutting is happening.  

 

 

 

 

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Not over crimping.  I have the process dialed in.  I take great care to use a proper dia and length expander plug for the bullet and seating depth being used. Load ten dummies, pull, inspect, and mic.  Absolutely no change dimensionally or visually.  The bullet design has minimal sealing area, lead is soft, coating is thin. The fact that they smoke so much with Sport Pistol tells me gas cutting is happening.  
 
 
 
 

Wow, you do have your process dialed haha. I have a very similar process as well. Just thought it was worth mentioning if you had recently tried that profile since I had that problem when I first started with them.


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11 hours ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:


Wow, you do have your process dialed haha. I have a very similar process as well. Just thought it was worth mentioning if you had recently tried that profile since I had that problem when I first started with them.


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That profile does not require you to load short due to the shoulder.  Offhand I think I loaded them to 1.130".  That put the case mouth close to the shoulder,. but not over it.  I have had best 9mm accuracy in general with more bullet in the case vs closer to the lands.  Theoretically,. If your crimp is set properly and case mouth smooth,  you should not damage coating as the bullet leaves the case either by firing or puller.  You mentioned in other threads about peening from wet tumbling and deburring.  If you size and expand post tumbling,. It's a non-issue as the case mouth is cleaned up by the tooling.  But,  as I said these bullets are a problem with a good process.   For me, in my production guns,  clean, accurate shooting with coated means .358 Precisions.  This is fine but you run into more issues with certain heads tamps expanding that extra dia.  GFL brass, as an example, has quite the bulge and questionable neck tension while being good otherwise.  The usual suspects like CBC are non-starters.  The heavy plate RMRs are just easy, and the gun stays the cleanest.   They also mic at .3565",  so a good fit in my barrels.  JHP would be great too but more $$ and in NJ can be a problem outside the home.

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If you bought Brazos bullets, then you were like me and going after the cheapest option. I found another really cheap optio that uses much harder lead.   J-Ames bullets, and every picture I can find of their bullets has that matte grey/black color, which leads me to believe they have the same coating as Precision, which I think is the best.  I'll be the guinea pig here; I'm ordering 2000 125gr 9mm bullets for $130 shipped ($.065 each) and will start a new thread on them after I've used them.  

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