Plated Bullets at 1350-1400fps?

[waynewal]

Someone wrote me and said I mght have problems with plated bullets at 140 fps in my 38 super.... ordered 1K of Montana GOld 124 g jhp...

Comments?

Thanks!

Wayne

[lcs]

Montana Gold is NOT plated. Your good to go with MG and OPEN power factors.

[HSMITH]

Plated bullets suck. I have seen guys try them time and again hoping to save a buck and they end up frustrated, bullets are not somewhere to scrimp in my opinion. Plated bullets in a race gun are like putting E85 in a Ferrari to me....

[Skywalker]

I have several teammates shooting Open Div. either in 9mm or .38" SA that use 123 grs. plated bullets, ant they are plenty satisfied with both accuracy and reliability.

All of them shoot the above bullets in STI/SVI guns.

The trick is to get bullets with a thick plating: the local manufacturer states at least 80/100 microns thickness for his bullets, and they work.

[DougCarden]

HSMITH is dead on.....but.....the only plated bullets that I have tried and liked are the Frontier bullets, which are cast lead and then plated. I have see some good accuracy on them so far....but generally you will be disappointed with them...IMHO....

DougC

[Skywalker]

bullets, which are cast lead and then plated.

These are the ones I'm talking about.

Our local manufacturer has been plating them since a few years with a tin alloy that gives them a shiny silver appearance.

They list then as "Platinum" plated bullets on their website.

I have used them in .40", and I can report they are incredibly slick and clean: you will need a couple tenths of a grain more powder than normal plated or jacketed bullets of the same weight to get same velocities, but they're a joy to shoot.

[superdude]

Skywalker, where do you get these Platinum plated bullets?

[Skywalker]

They are manufactured by a local (italian) manufacturer: Target Bullets.

Sorry, their site is in italian only.

[RePete]

HSMITH is dead on.....but.....the only plated bullets that I have tried and liked are the Frontier bullets, which are cast lead and then plated. I have see some good accuracy on them so far....but generally you will be disappointed with them...IMHO....

DougC

+2 on Frontiers. That's all I use for 38Sp, 9mm .40S&W, and .45 ACP. No race guns.

[Jman]

Plated bullets work well for me using plain lead bullet load data. Both Berry's and Rainer recommend staying away from jacketed bullet velocities. I'm happy with them on my 9mm minor and fat slow .40 major loads.

Jim

[RePete]

Plated bullets work well for me using plain lead bullet load data. Both Berry's and Rainer recommend staying away from jacketed bullet velocities. I'm happy with them on my 9mm minor and fat slow .40 major loads.

Jim

This is the reply I got from Frontier requesting loads for 38Sp using their bullets.

Good day Peter,

Unfortunately, we do not have access to any powders apart from the South African Somchem powders.

Treat the bullets the same as any FMJ bullet of the same weight and load according to the data of the powder manufacturers.

Please let us know how you are doing and once you have worked out your loads?

Kind regards,

Susan Economakis

Frontier Metal Processing

[RiggerJJ]

I called Berry's and they said max velocity was 1200fps...

jj

[larry cazes]

I called Berry's and they said max velocity was 1200fps...

jj

My experience says that you would be very fortunate to not have issues at 1200 fps with Berry's plated.

[alellis]

I have been using Frontier plated bullets for years, in .38, .40 major, .45 major and 9mm minor loads.

I played around with max .357 loads for a while too

Absolutely no problems.

Work up your load as you would with Jacketed or lead. Start conservative and progress to the PF you want

al

[waynewal]

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. There were too many this morning to answer individually when I got online.

Well, have about 50 Berry's to shoot for practice(1300+ fps), then am done with that.. Order 1K from Montana Gold of the 124gr jhp. They are going to be out of CMJ in .38 and 9mm for a while.

I still have 300 170gr Sierra FMJ, 200+ of Hornady 160gr JTC, and 200+ 124g JHP Speers to get me thru practice and the mid Sept. match if the MG's dont get here fast enough.

Also have plenty (2000) of 158 gr LRN that show little pressure with Unique, WRP, and make major. hard cast bullets for 38 super from 20 yrs ago. May as well use them.

Thanks very much for all the great advice!

Sincerely,

Wayne

[lcs]

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. There were too many this morning to answer individually when I got online.

Well, have about 50 Berry's to shoot for practice(1300+ fps), then am done with that.. Order 1K from Montana Gold of the 124gr jhp. They are going to be out of CMJ in .38 and 9mm for a while.

I still have 300 170gr Sierra FMJ, 200+ of Hornady 160gr JTC, and 200+ 124g JHP Speers to get me thru practice and the mid Sept. match if the MG's dont get here fast enough.

Also have plenty (2000) of 158 gr LRN that show little pressure with Unique, WRP, and make major. hard cast bullets for 38 super from 20 yrs ago. May as well use them.

Thanks very much for all the great advice!

Sincerely,

Wayne

Don't shoot those Berry bullets in your open. I KNOW from experience, the BERRY will come apart in your chamber and you will have a BIG chunk of cooper to clean out and your gun will become a "jam-o-matic".

I did not even push them past 1150 in my first open many years ago.

[ap38]

I used Rainier bullets in my SVI 38 super at 1365 fps with N350. A couple of batches (1000 each time) did fine. A later order did not hit a paper plate at 20 yards with the same load. I may have changed the bell or crimp which may have caused the problem.

I'll stay with jacketed (MG or Zero or others) to avoid any "what if" that could arise. Saves time and effort.

My two pennies.

ap

[z40acp]

I do not know if any of the plated bullets can handle open gun velocites. Rainier says that they have an employee using their 121 grain 38 super bullet shooting open and it is supposed to have extra thick plating to handle those velocities. Your barrel needs to be slick with no burrs.

[larry cazes]

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. There were too many this morning to answer individually when I got online.

Well, have about 50 Berry's to shoot for practice(1300+ fps), then am done with that.. Order 1K from Montana Gold of the 124gr jhp. They are going to be out of CMJ in .38 and 9mm for a while.

I still have 300 170gr Sierra FMJ, 200+ of Hornady 160gr JTC, and 200+ 124g JHP Speers to get me thru practice and the mid Sept. match if the MG's dont get here fast enough.

Also have plenty (2000) of 158 gr LRN that show little pressure with Unique, WRP, and make major. hard cast bullets for 38 super from 20 yrs ago. May as well use them.

Thanks very much for all the great advice!

Sincerely,

Wayne

The 124gr montana gold JHPs are an excellent bullet. They feed just as well as the CMJs but are more accurate in all of my open guns. I started with the CMJs but would never go back to them unless forced.

[waynewal]

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. There were too many this morning to answer individually when I got online.

Well, have about 50 Berry's to shoot for practice(1300+ fps), then am done with that.. Order 1K from Montana Gold of the 124gr jhp. They are going to be out of CMJ in .38 and 9mm for a while.

I still have 300 170gr Sierra FMJ, 200+ of Hornady 160gr JTC, and 200+ 124g JHP Speers to get me thru practice and the mid Sept. match if the MG's dont get here fast enough.

Also have plenty (2000) of 158 gr LRN that show little pressure with Unique, WRP, and make major. hard cast bullets for 38 super from 20 yrs ago. May as well use them.

Thanks very much for all the great advice!

Sincerely,

Wayne

Don't shoot those Berry bullets in your open. I KNOW from experience, the BERRY will come apart in your chamber and you will have a BIG chunk of cooper to clean out and your gun will become a "jam-o-matic".

I did not even push them past 1150 in my first open many years ago.

Apparently making them better, but yeah, will quit using them. Hate pulling bullets out of 50 rds after shooting 200 rds without mishap yet.... but may do that...

Thank you,

Wayne

[joecichlid]

When I first started shooting my .38 Super I couldn't afford jacketed bullets and the Berry's were the best I could afford. In all honesty they did pretty well out of my gun at Major velocities. Groups were OKish but when they jacked the price through the roof I found that Montana Golds were cheaper and a LOT more accurate. For the record I was running Berry's 124 grain RN at 1360-1390fps and never shead any plating in roughly 7000 rounds. I did learn that you have to bell the mouth on your brass a little more to prevent the case mouth from cutting into the plating and once you do that you have to crimp them just right. Over crimp them and you start seeing keyholes and funny spiral patterns around your holes on paper. Just be careful is all I can suggest short of saying switch to a jacketed bullet.

Joe W.

[waynewal]

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. There were too many this morning to answer individually when I got online.

Well, have about 50 Berry's to shoot for practice(1300+ fps), then am done with that.. Order 1K from Montana Gold of the 124gr jhp. They are going to be out of CMJ in .38 and 9mm for a while.

I still have 300 170gr Sierra FMJ, 200+ of Hornady 160gr JTC, and 200+ 124g JHP Speers to get me thru practice and the mid Sept. match if the MG's dont get here fast enough.

Also have plenty (2000) of 158 gr LRN that show little pressure with Unique, WRP, and make major. hard cast bullets for 38 super from 20 yrs ago. May as well use them.

Thanks very much for all the great advice!

Sincerely,

Wayne

The 124gr montana gold JHPs are an excellent bullet. They feed just as well as the CMJs but are more accurate in all of my open guns. I started with the CMJs but would never go back to them unless forced.

Oh great! There was a mistake in the order and I was shipped124gr CMJ that were supposed to be out of stock ....

Next day I got another 1000 124gr CMJ because the 124 CMJs were supposed to be outtta stock... Well, at least I have something better than the Berry's to load up for the big matcg Sept 21.

-Wayne

[Flyin40]

I have been shooting Rainiers for 4 yrs without any problems. I'm shooting 135gr bullets at 1275fps. I have had some problems at 1350fps.

Flyin

[ChuckS]

I have been shooting Rainiers for 4 yrs without any problems. I'm shooting 135gr bullets at 1275fps. I have had some problems at 1350fps.

Flyin

I have had the same results upto 177 pf in two differrent guns.

Later,

Chuck

[Cardinal]

I've been using 124gr Frontier in my Open, loaded to 167pf.

To my surprise, the Frontier bullets had excellent accuracy considering the price.

2" 5 shot group at 30m from a rest.

Here, I get the Frontiers for $76 per 1000. Berry's and PRVI Partizan TMJ are about double that.

Hornady 125gr HAP are $320 per 1000!

IMO, my only practical alternative to the Frontier are to import Montana Gold myself, but the problem there is that for that to be cost effective, it would have to be a relatively large order (say ten cases). That means I would have to have more money available right now. And as a student, I don't.