# Dissadvantages of plated bullets?



## XRacer (May 4, 2011)

Does anyone know the dissadvantages and advantages of plated vs jacketed bullets for reloading? The plated seem much cheaper and so possibly more appealing. I've looked at Raineir, Power Bond and Ex-Treme, some have .004" plate and some have .010" plate, does it matter. How are they for accuracy? Input is appreciated.


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## Jammersix (Mar 10, 2012)

The issue I had with them was tumbling-- at first, I thought it was a velocity issue, but then I switched to Hornady jacketed and at the same velocities the problem went away.

I think that the jacketed bullet isn't engraved as deeply at the same velocities as the plated, and that that affects whether or not it tumbles.

It seems backwards to me, but that's the only thing I can think of, when the velocity is the same.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Tumbling?
Might be that the bullets are undersize.
Might be that the bullets are too short for the twist rate.

Please mike the plated sample, and then mike the jacketed sample, both for diameter and length, and then let us know.


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## Jammersix (Mar 10, 2012)

Steve, I believe you hit it.

I hadn't miked anything, I just switched.

The Berry's miked out at .4495, the Hornady almost exactly at .451 (I don't believe the .451014 reading I got-- I don't believe more than the claimed accuracy of four digits from a Grizzly mic. From a Starrett, maybe, but not Grizzly.)


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

A plated bullet _of the proper diameter_ and an appropriate length should perform just as well as a similar FMJ bullet.

Now you know why the gun's rifling wasn't engraving the bullet properly, and why they were tumbling.

Can you return the undersize slugs because of the diameter defect? I strongly suggest that you make the attempt.


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## Jammersix (Mar 10, 2012)

I don't know if I can return them or not-- it's not something I'd do. I only bought 500 of them for exactly this reason, to test. (Well, a thousand, 500 of each of two weights.)

I bought them directly from Berry's, and I've burned up a couple hundred from each weight. So it's not like I opened a pristine shipment, measured all the bullets, and sealed them back up to return. They were, according to my records, the very first bullets I bought when I started reloading. So I did more than test them, I learned to reload with them. Would have been a lot more expensive learning on Hornady's, so they were good for that.

For this thread, I only took six measurements-- three each off of one round from Berry's and one from Hornady.

So I got my money's worth-- I found out what I paid to find out, that I don't care for plated bullets.

Maybe the next time I'm recovering from some surgery, and can't be trusted to play with live rounds, I'll get my micrometer out again and go through every Berry's bullet I own, and divide them up into piles, according to diameter. Then I'll load just the ones that mic to .451 or greater, and see if anything changes.

If I recall right, they were great plate bullets, because the plate didn't care *where* on the plate you hit it, or if the bullet was tumbling when it hit. The tumbling only showed up on paper, and when you were trying to shoot *accurately*.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

I'm chuckling as I write this: You could place all of the undersize bullets on a flat steel surface, and tap each one on its nose with a small hammer, thereby slightly expanding its diameter. Then you could get more useful accuracy from them...maybe.


(Don't really do this. It won't work. It's a joke.)


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## Jammersix (Mar 10, 2012)

Now there's a way to pass the time after surgery...


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

"Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down on their heads..."


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## Rockhound (Sep 28, 2011)

Hmmm. I never had this problem with the plated bullets that I have used for reloading (Berry's and Rainier). They were pretty accurate and I never noticed any keyholes in the targets. I don't use plated bullets anymore since I discovered Precision Delta bullets (true jacketed bullets). The Precision Delta bullets are about the same cost as the plated bullets.

Too bad you can't send them back to Berry's for an exchange for properly sized bullets.


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