Plated bullets and full magnum loads? 357

My experience with plated bullets has been the crimp. Not enough bullet jump, to much and you cut the plating, and fowl the gun. But after you sort that out plated bullets are good.
PS, use lead data and work up.

I have with Berry's .30 Carbine bullets (1700 fps from a revolver), but those are rifle bullets so it's really not the same. I've also used them in 9mm and .38 Special, but those obviously are not magnums.

In all, I crimp just enough to bite into the copper without cutting though it. I tried using a taper crimp in the .38 Special and the finished rounds looked prettier, but they were less accurate than carefully using a roll crimp. (that also could have just been me having a bad day at the range)

one out of the 6 or 7 I found had a slight cut in the plating on the nose where it impacted with a large stone.

Click to expand...

Regardless of recoil and noise, if the bullet didn't spatter upon impact with a rock it can't be moving that fast.

It's hard to believe HP-38 is giving any better velocity than a proper load of H-110 under your XTP.

You will know that you are pushing plated bullets too fast when they start to come apart in flight.

I had lead spray patterns on my targets showing that the bullets were disintegrating in flight. These were Berry's plated bullets in a 10.5" S&W 500.

I've had terrible luck pushing Ranier and Berrys plated bullets past 1200fps. Berrys makes certain bullets in a heavy plated form to make them more suitable for higher velocity, but I've not tried them and I have only seen them for 357 Sig applications.

I don't shoot plated 357, but I do regularly shoot Xtreme plated bullets at about 1750 fps.
I use their 30 cal 110g plated round nose bullets in .308 cases with 11g Unique. The round work fine at 100 yards with no splattering and work as a great low noise/low recoil round for the kids. I've heard that Xtreme plated bullets are thicker plated than most other bullets.

I sent an e-mail to PowerBond bullets asking this question since they don't comment on this on their website. I got this response:

"1,300 fps is the max I recommend shooting our plated bullets, our bullets are higher quality and tougher than our competition but they are still a plated bullet. The plating separates from the lead at higher velocities causing inaccuracy and dangerous fouling. I recommend you shoot a jacketed bullet if you are pushing them much faster than that."

Dan

I think I'm going to have to call you out on that more recoil, more muzzle blast statement. All in good fun though, no offense intended what so ever.

But with good reason though, a 125 gr. H110 published load has a minimum charge weight of 21 grs. vs 6-7 grs. of 231. So from a physics stand point, because a 125 gr. H110 load is about three times heavier than that of an HP38 / 231 load, there is no way the 231 load is going to replicate, much less even shadow that of an H110 load in felt recoil or muzzle blast. The lighter 7 gr. powder charge just doesn't produce the amount of gases the 21.0 gr. H110 charge does. And of course, there are multiple elements that contribute to felt recoil, and the muzzle blast we feel hitting us in the face and hands when we shoot, but a good deal of it is directly related to the weight of the powder charge, and 231 just doesn't use as much of it as H110 in the same cartridge applications.

But I wouldn't want to consider shooting either powder charge without hearing protection, so you win this one in that respect. But seriously, I get your point, it's just a little bit over embellished I think. What I think you were trying to say, is that you really like your loads, which is always a good thing.

" When seconds count, the police are only minutes away "
GS

Compared to the 125gr plated bullet with a charge of 7.9gr W231, the 125gr XTP bullet over H110 is probably traveling 400 fps to 500 fps faster!

I sent 125gr XTP bullet with a charge of 22.0gr H110 over the Chrono shot from a Marlin Levergun and the AV was 2239 fps. (CCI-550 primer) My results aren't bad since Hodgdon lists 2279 fps from that combination! I have shot light magnums and there's no comparison to the full charge loads of W296/H110.