res45
Member
Ordered my 124 gr. HBRN bullets this morning there already on the way,great service and fast shipping. Look forward to giving them a try with various powders in my 9mm semi and Ruger convertible.
New Bullet: Berry's 124gr Hollow Base RN for 9mm
- Thread starter rfwobbly
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LiveLife
Member
Mail lady just dropped off the box of 9mm 124 gr HBRN-TP. They came in a nice clear plastic ammo box.
Planning on doing a comparison range test (Maybe load them up tonight and shoot Saturday):
115 gr FMJ RN Winchester - My reference load
124 gr HBRN-TP Berry's
124 gr RN Berry's
Planning on doing a comparison range test (Maybe load them up tonight and shoot Saturday):
115 gr FMJ RN Winchester - My reference load
124 gr HBRN-TP Berry's
124 gr RN Berry's
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atonguis
Member
Would like to hear the results.Mail lady just dropped off the box of 9mm 124 gr HBRN-TP. They came in a nice clear plastic ammo box.
Planning on doing a comparison range test (Maybe load them up tonight and shoot Saturday):
115 gr FMJ RN Winchester - My reference load
124 gr HBRN-TP Berry's
124 gr RN Berry's
LiveLife
Member
I am loading them tonight with W231/HP38 as I have good reference loads already for tomorrow morning's range test.
I could load them with other powders and run comparison range test later in the afternoon. I have these powders on hand:
Promo (Using Red Dot data)
Clays
Bullseye
Titegroup
Green Dot
WST
N320
W231/HP38
Unique
WSF
Any requests?
I could load them with other powders and run comparison range test later in the afternoon. I have these powders on hand:
Promo (Using Red Dot data)
Clays
Bullseye
Titegroup
Green Dot
WST
N320
W231/HP38
Unique
WSF
Any requests?
1SOW
Member
I tested with 4.0grs n320 at 3 lengths and got 1045-1055'/sec. Looking forward to your results and 'feelings' on this bullet. It sure loads nice and smooth.
LiveLife
Member
I am curious at what pressure ranges the hollow base would "bump out" - my guess is that since 9mm is a fairly high pressure cartridge, the bump out will happen even at the starting charge.
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
If I were to bet, I would say the HBRN-PT bullets would be more accurate than the regular RN beginning with the start charge.
1SOW
Member
That's the impression I got too. The bullet has the long straight sides (lots of rifling contact) of a hollowpoint, but has the nice round nose that'll still load out to 1.2" and not touch my CZ 75B rifling.
That conical hollow base is pretty small and I'm loading light ---I doubt much/any enlargement This bullet is .356 dia, so it's a little tighter OOB. They shot a little faster than Zero 125 JHP and MG 124JHP.
[email protected]" its seated .241"
Added: This was my first Berry bullets, and I was pleased with the bullets' length consistency.
That conical hollow base is pretty small and I'm loading light ---I doubt much/any enlargement This bullet is .356 dia, so it's a little tighter OOB. They shot a little faster than Zero 125 JHP and MG 124JHP.
[email protected]" its seated .241"
Added: This was my first Berry bullets, and I was pleased with the bullets' length consistency.
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capreppy
Member
I'm kinda glad you're starting with the HP-38/W231 as that is what I have in stock and am very interested in this round and its level of accuracy.
OP
OP
rfwobbly
Member
Obviously, mine didn't shoot as well because mine weren't nearly as polished !
Miata Mike
Member
I am loading them tonight with W231/HP38 as I have good reference loads already for tomorrow morning's range test.
Bullseye is my go to powder right now, so that would be nice. I shoot Berry's 124 RN with 4.2 grains of Bullseye and CCI small pistol primers at 1.15".
I think Unique would work nice too.
I have some HP38, WST, and Titegroup also, but haven't tried any yet.
I bought some 10mm hollow base round nose 185 grain bullets a while back, but have not loaded or tested them yet. These 9mm look like they would be nice too.
Bullseye is my go to powder right now, so that would be nice. I shoot Berry's 124 RN with 4.2 grains of Bullseye and CCI small pistol primers at 1.15".
I think Unique would work nice too.
I have some HP38, WST, and Titegroup also, but haven't tried any yet.
I bought some 10mm hollow base round nose 185 grain bullets a while back, but have not loaded or tested them yet. These 9mm look like they would be nice too.
LiveLife
Member
I think you may have gotten the early rough production run.rfwobbly said:
Actually, I did wipe off my finger prints from the bullets by rubbing them on my T-shirt just before I took the picture. The copper plating on Berry's bullets are quite good and as you can see from the photo, they show.
Well, I am off to the range and some shopping for the wife (she wants a new color printer). Will post back with results and may do another load/range test this afternoon with a different powder.
LiveLife
Member
Update: I did mix up the 4.2 gr 10 yard targets and used the same target for the picture (FYI, the other target was comparable).
Came back later than I anticipated - I forgot today was first Saturday of the month and got slammed everywhere I went.
The test rounds were loaded using mixed range brass (Winchester, Federal, Speer, etc.). They were separately resized/deprimed on a single stage press and hand primed using Winchester SP primers. All rounds were loaded with specified charges of W231/HP38 (powder in the hopper was from W231 container) dispensed from Pro Auto Disk - charges were verified to be within .1 gr with Ohaus 10-10 scale before each loading session. OAL used was 1.135".
OK, here's the range report (I placed the pictures of targets together at the bottom for easier comparison). All shots were fired off hand at 10 and 15 yards out of Glock 22 using Lone Wolf 40-9 conversion barrel. Due to limited number of test rounds, I moved from 5 round shot group to 4 round shot groups as range test progressed.
Reference load - Winchester 115 gr FMJ RN
I wanted to test the lower start-mid charge comparison so these were loaded with lower charge of 4.5 gr of W231/HP38. I usually load these to 4.8 gr. Since I have been doing a lot of 45ACP/40S&W load testing lately, these felt very light in comparison. Spent cases still cleared my right shoulder.
10 Yards - 2" average, light recoil
15 Yards - 3" average, light recoil
Berry's - 124 gr RN
4.2 gr and 4.5 gr charges were loaded to cover the start-high range load data.
4.2 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, light recoil
4.2 gr 15 Yards - 3.0" average, light recoil
4.5 gr 10 Yards - 1.0" average, mild recoil
4.5 gr 15 Yards - 3.5" average, mild recoil
Berry's - 124 gr HBRN
To satisfy my curiosity of HBRN performance at lower charges, I did a small batch of 3.8 gr loads.
3.8 gr 10 Yards - 0.5" groups with a flyer, very light recoil and did not cycle the slide
4.2 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, light recoil
4.2 gr 15 Yards - 2.5" average, light recoil (yes, that's two shots together on top with 2 shots on bottom)
4.5 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, mild recoil
4.5 gr 15 Yards - 2.0" average, mild recoil (double shot on top left with 2 shots to the right)
Summary:
As anticipated, Berry's RN plated bullets shot comparable to the Winchester 115 gr FMJ reference loads.
Berry's HBRN plated bullets shot better than both Winchester FMJ and Berry's regular RN plated bullets producing 2.0"-2.5" shot groups at 15 yards. I have been a happy user of Berry's plated bullets and the new Hollow Based bullets add a more accurate option to Berry's product line.
Next, I am planning to do comparison tests using other powders and even thinking about doing comparison tests at the near max load data range of W231/HP38.
Came back later than I anticipated - I forgot today was first Saturday of the month and got slammed everywhere I went.
The test rounds were loaded using mixed range brass (Winchester, Federal, Speer, etc.). They were separately resized/deprimed on a single stage press and hand primed using Winchester SP primers. All rounds were loaded with specified charges of W231/HP38 (powder in the hopper was from W231 container) dispensed from Pro Auto Disk - charges were verified to be within .1 gr with Ohaus 10-10 scale before each loading session. OAL used was 1.135".
OK, here's the range report (I placed the pictures of targets together at the bottom for easier comparison). All shots were fired off hand at 10 and 15 yards out of Glock 22 using Lone Wolf 40-9 conversion barrel. Due to limited number of test rounds, I moved from 5 round shot group to 4 round shot groups as range test progressed.
Reference load - Winchester 115 gr FMJ RN
I wanted to test the lower start-mid charge comparison so these were loaded with lower charge of 4.5 gr of W231/HP38. I usually load these to 4.8 gr. Since I have been doing a lot of 45ACP/40S&W load testing lately, these felt very light in comparison. Spent cases still cleared my right shoulder.
10 Yards - 2" average, light recoil
15 Yards - 3" average, light recoil
Berry's - 124 gr RN
4.2 gr and 4.5 gr charges were loaded to cover the start-high range load data.
4.2 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, light recoil
4.2 gr 15 Yards - 3.0" average, light recoil
4.5 gr 10 Yards - 1.0" average, mild recoil
4.5 gr 15 Yards - 3.5" average, mild recoil
Berry's - 124 gr HBRN
To satisfy my curiosity of HBRN performance at lower charges, I did a small batch of 3.8 gr loads.
3.8 gr 10 Yards - 0.5" groups with a flyer, very light recoil and did not cycle the slide
4.2 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, light recoil
4.2 gr 15 Yards - 2.5" average, light recoil (yes, that's two shots together on top with 2 shots on bottom)
4.5 gr 10 Yards - 1.5" average, mild recoil
4.5 gr 15 Yards - 2.0" average, mild recoil (double shot on top left with 2 shots to the right)
Summary:
As anticipated, Berry's RN plated bullets shot comparable to the Winchester 115 gr FMJ reference loads.
Berry's HBRN plated bullets shot better than both Winchester FMJ and Berry's regular RN plated bullets producing 2.0"-2.5" shot groups at 15 yards. I have been a happy user of Berry's plated bullets and the new Hollow Based bullets add a more accurate option to Berry's product line.
Next, I am planning to do comparison tests using other powders and even thinking about doing comparison tests at the near max load data range of W231/HP38.
Attachments
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LiveLife
Member
OK, N320 is on board.
1SOW
Member
Excellent!
LiveLife
Member
I was already planning on Unique but will consider Bullseye too.
john16443
Member
BDS - If you can toss in Titegroup also, I'd have everything covered.
Thanks
Thanks
LiveLife
Member
Titegroup, my nemesis of W231/HP38!
That would be a good comparison.
That would be a good comparison.
capreppy
Member
Looking forward to the max HP-38/W231 loads. I want to see if it will become more accurate or if 4.5 (or somewhere around there) is going to be your sweet spot.
atonguis
Member
Really? Hornady 124 is that good with n320? Hmm, may have to try that. All I have is n350 and n140 right now tho.
capreppy
Member
Any new updates?
LiveLife
Member
I had my past weekends occupied with "honey do" lists (do tax return, new washer/dryer setup, spring garden/backyard work, help out with daughter's Campfire Girls fund raiser, build a feeder/hen house/tractor for 3 chicks, clean out patio, general spring cleaning, etc.).
I did some more work to the pistol/rifle reloading benches yesterday morning and planned on doing some more reloading this evening (I need to do more spring garden/back yard work). Planning on loading higher powder charge loads of W231/HP38 and start/low charges of Bullseye/Titegroup/N320/Unique for range test next week.
I did some more work to the pistol/rifle reloading benches yesterday morning and planned on doing some more reloading this evening (I need to do more spring garden/back yard work). Planning on loading higher powder charge loads of W231/HP38 and start/low charges of Bullseye/Titegroup/N320/Unique for range test next week.
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