Saturday, May 27, 2017

Thoughts on Powder Coated Bullets

I'll give my nutshell opinion on pistol bullets. Jacketed bullets are great, but are about the most expensive bullets you can buy, and my range no longer allows them when shooting steel targets after one range officer took a trip to the ER after getting hit with a bullet jacket. Plated bullets, in my experience are tempermental - you will get huge groups if you don't flare the case mouth enough or the crimp cuts into the plating. Lubed cast lead bullets are fine and cheap, but if you rapid fire, you'll end up standing in a cloud of nasty acrid smoke, especially if you use a hot-burning powder like TiteGroup. Powder coating adds a little cost over cast bullets, but you don't get as much smoke, and I get 50 extra feet per second, plus you can use them in polygonal barrels without lead buildup in most cases. Coated bullets are kind of the best compromise, provided that you are not going for ultimate bullseye accuracy.

I will throw in a quick note, that I will not buy Black Bullets again. I measured diameters with a micrometer, and checked the variation in bullet weight, and they were horrible. I don't know if Roger's Better Bullets are cost effective if you need to mail order, but they were three times more consistent in weight in diameter compared to Black Bullets.

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