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Load data for Barry's plated bullets


wwillson

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I have a some Barry's plated 200g RN bullets for 45ACP. I'm not real comfortable with how Barry's describes how to load their bullets.

From Barry's website:

Quote:
Plated bullets occupy a position between cast bullets and jacketed bullets. They are soft lead, but have a hard outer shell on them. When loading plated bullets we have found best results using low- to mid-range jacketed data in the load manual. You must use data for a bullet that has the same weight and profile as the one you are loading. Do not exceed mid-range loads. Do not use magnum loads.

This seems like pretty squishy load data to me. Does anyone here have tested load data with these bullets, or information from and of the powder manufacturers?

Thanks,

Wayne

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That is really vague info. I thought they used to state a velocity range to stop at. What does "magnum load" mean? Is that a velocity threshold? If so, why not give a velocity?

"Magnum" means little, because factory .32 H&R Magnum can be rather puny, so if you go by that, you won't be screaming along. On the other hand, I shot some Berry's plated bullets just yesterday in a .38 Super. That's not a "magnum" so it should be OK...except they were going over 1300 fps. I guess my .223 Contender isn't a "magnum" either, so can I match it's velocities OK?

What they probably really mean is "Don't shoot these with any load you wouldn't use with cast bullets".

But then again, I've read on a cast bullet forum that some tried some Berry's and they got fouling at pretty low velocities. Lower than what they shoot cast at.

It's probably like any other bullet, jacketed or cast, in that bore condition determines a lot. A rough bore will foul with anything shot through it. An extremely smooth bore can be very forgiving.

The truth is probably that plated bullets don't handle bore imperfections very well, and higher velocities makes that more evident so if everybody is careful and keeps the speed down, all will be well.

I have used them (and like I said- shot some yesterday) and haven't had any trouble but only used them in guns I knew had particularly good bores and/or at moderate speeds.

I have noticed they don't take overcrimping very well. Crimp only enough to get rid of the flare- or enough to feed and chamber. I loaded my first ones without adjusting my dies at all, and they shot terrible. For some reason, I pulled the bullets, and saw a ring of distortion where they were crimped. I loaded some more after backing the crimp die off and setting it at minimum possible, and they shot fine. This was in 9mm with a taper crimp, btw.

In a similar vein, I have some coated bullets and hate them. They have a soft lead core and a sort of vinyl coating. Everything that can be said about plated bullets goes double here. The first gun I tried them in handled them fine. I ordered a bunch more and only then found they didn't shoot well in anything else. That first gun was an HK P7 with a really smooth bore. You have to be extra careful loading them. They advise of that, but I didn't realize how careful. They have a cupped base that leaves a fine edge around the base that's the easily damaged part. I've nicked the coating there when the bullet slipped from my fingers and dropped onto the flared case mouth from a couple of inches. No kidding, and I've done it more than once (they are slick).

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