LiveLife
Member
Rocky Mountain Reloading is a "mom and pop" operation with a new baby, a true American dream story in the making and Jake has been an active participating member of THR for many years, actually last of vendors who still make time to interact with THR members answer questions and engage his customers' needs directly.
As a long supporter of "Where are there reloading components" thread, I have noticed RMR started carrying a different "Thick Plated" bullets on their website. Since my lead level went from 8 to 12 making my doctor concerned and banned me from shooting at indoor ranges for the past 3 months, I wanted to try them out and see how they performed compared to other plated bullets I have been shooting. When I placed my order for 9mm/40S&W/45ACP along with RMR's lead bullets of the same calibers, Jake PMed/emailed me and told me they are his own line of plated bullets made for RMR good to 1500 fps (I will refer to these as RMR TP bullets).
I have an appointment with my doctor next week but got to start my range test of the bullets today (Yes, I did shoot at the indoor range but had my blood sample drawn last week
).
I started with 45ACP 230 gr TP RN bullet. If you look at the comparison picture above (Berry's/X-Treme 230 gr RN on the left and RMR 230 gr TP RN on the right), nose is shaped to allow for longer bullet base which results in more bearing surface to engage the rifling to stabilize the bullet in flight. Since the bullet base is longer, I anticipated shorter OAL/COL than other 230 gr RN bullets. Also, instead of the rounded flat bullet base, RMR TP bullet is "dished" which should act more like flat base lead bullet compared to bevel base lead bullet to expand the bullet base better to seal with the barrel.
Since my railed Sig 1911 has almost no leade with very quick start of rifling, I thought about getting a RIA Tactical with looser tapered chamber barrel but I found a used Citadel 1911 for a price I could not pass up. When I field stripped the pistol, inside looked like brand new and the range staff hinted only a couple of magazines were shot through. Fit and finish was better than RIA with tighter chamber so I bought the pistol.
Determining max/working OAL/COL:
Using Walkalong's excellent thread on determining max OAL/COL using the barrel, I determined 1.230" as the max OAL for Citadel 1911's barrel which also worked as the working OAL. For Sig 1911 barrel with almost no leade, I needed to use shorter 1.200" for max/working OAL. .471" taper crimp was used for both loads and picture above shows them next to factory PMC 230 gr FMJ round at 1.255"
Load Development:
Since I used shorter OAL that seated the bullet base deeper, I decided to use 5.0 gr of W231/HP-38 for the initial load test (I use 5.2 gr with Berry's/X-Treme 230 gr plated RN bullets typically loaded to 1.255"-1.262").
BTW, here's Hodgdon's current load data - http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
Range report:
Although I have not shot in the past three months, I managed to hit the target. Distance to target was 15 yards and Chip McCormick PowerMag and Wilson Combat 47D 8 round magazines were used without any feeding issues.
Sig 1911 - Since this pistol produced 2" shot groups at 25 yards using MBC 200 gr lead SWC (Bullseye #1) and 4.0 gr of Promo, I was curious how it shot the new bullets. POI was same as POA and produced 1.5" shot group. Since I was rusty from not shooting for 3 months, I think this bullet is capable of even greater accuracy with practice. Time will tell.
Citadel 1911 - This was a pleasant surprise and made me glad that I bought it over the RIA Tactical. POI was low and left of POA (I will drift and may file the front sight after more accuracy testing). Maybe I got warmed up shooting the Sig 1911 and did better with it as it produced smaller 1.25" shot group. Since I loaded only 12 rounds of each OAL, look forward to future range trips, especially at 25 yards.
As a long supporter of "Where are there reloading components" thread, I have noticed RMR started carrying a different "Thick Plated" bullets on their website. Since my lead level went from 8 to 12 making my doctor concerned and banned me from shooting at indoor ranges for the past 3 months, I wanted to try them out and see how they performed compared to other plated bullets I have been shooting. When I placed my order for 9mm/40S&W/45ACP along with RMR's lead bullets of the same calibers, Jake PMed/emailed me and told me they are his own line of plated bullets made for RMR good to 1500 fps (I will refer to these as RMR TP bullets).
I have an appointment with my doctor next week but got to start my range test of the bullets today (Yes, I did shoot at the indoor range but had my blood sample drawn last week
).I started with 45ACP 230 gr TP RN bullet. If you look at the comparison picture above (Berry's/X-Treme 230 gr RN on the left and RMR 230 gr TP RN on the right), nose is shaped to allow for longer bullet base which results in more bearing surface to engage the rifling to stabilize the bullet in flight. Since the bullet base is longer, I anticipated shorter OAL/COL than other 230 gr RN bullets. Also, instead of the rounded flat bullet base, RMR TP bullet is "dished" which should act more like flat base lead bullet compared to bevel base lead bullet to expand the bullet base better to seal with the barrel.
Since my railed Sig 1911 has almost no leade with very quick start of rifling, I thought about getting a RIA Tactical with looser tapered chamber barrel but I found a used Citadel 1911 for a price I could not pass up. When I field stripped the pistol, inside looked like brand new and the range staff hinted only a couple of magazines were shot through. Fit and finish was better than RIA with tighter chamber so I bought the pistol.
Determining max/working OAL/COL:
Using Walkalong's excellent thread on determining max OAL/COL using the barrel, I determined 1.230" as the max OAL for Citadel 1911's barrel which also worked as the working OAL. For Sig 1911 barrel with almost no leade, I needed to use shorter 1.200" for max/working OAL. .471" taper crimp was used for both loads and picture above shows them next to factory PMC 230 gr FMJ round at 1.255"
Load Development:
Since I used shorter OAL that seated the bullet base deeper, I decided to use 5.0 gr of W231/HP-38 for the initial load test (I use 5.2 gr with Berry's/X-Treme 230 gr plated RN bullets typically loaded to 1.255"-1.262").
BTW, here's Hodgdon's current load data - http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
Range report:
Although I have not shot in the past three months, I managed to hit the target.
Distance to target was 15 yards and Chip McCormick PowerMag and Wilson Combat 47D 8 round magazines were used without any feeding issues.Sig 1911 - Since this pistol produced 2" shot groups at 25 yards using MBC 200 gr lead SWC (Bullseye #1) and 4.0 gr of Promo, I was curious how it shot the new bullets. POI was same as POA and produced 1.5" shot group. Since I was rusty from not shooting for 3 months, I think this bullet is capable of even greater accuracy with practice. Time will tell.
Citadel 1911 - This was a pleasant surprise and made me glad that I bought it over the RIA Tactical. POI was low and left of POA (I will drift and may file the front sight after more accuracy testing). Maybe I got warmed up shooting the Sig 1911 and did better with it as it produced smaller 1.25" shot group. Since I loaded only 12 rounds of each OAL, look forward to future range trips, especially at 25 yards.
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