Lead vs. Plated vs. Jacketed bullets

agman1999

What difference in performance, cleanliness, and barrel wear should I see from from lead, plated, and jacketed bullets in .45 acp. Right now, my plinking rounds are a 185 grain, plated RN from Berry's Manf. (cheapest thing I could find) over 4.6 grains of Universal Clays. Does the plating add anything to the performance, or would I be better off just using lead? Should I consider using a FMJ instead?

ContacFront

I've been shooting WestCoast Plated bullets for the past 5 years out of my 1911 and have had no issues. Plated and lead bullets become a problem when you push them too fast. 45ACP, you shouldnt have any issues. As for accuracy wise they work fine for me. I do a lot more defensive style shooting and not target with my 45 though. If you are looking for target load accuracy you may want to give some lead bullets a try. A lot of old target shooters around here shoot lead.

dg101win

I have used hard cast and swaged usually over a lite load of Unique with no problems. Lead usually costs a bit less.

Retired Air Force Msgt--NRA Life Member since 1971

knucklehead14

Alot of indoor ranges mandate plated,encapsulated or fully jacketed bullets.
The bullet brand you are using are very consistant and accurate as far as my experience has been. I use them and rainier also. Generally I load 185s for indoor and 200-230gr for outdoor target shooting. I have never had any trouble with lead build up or copper build up. I load fairly slow shooters 45acp. Hope this helps.

Bad spellers of the world

"UNTIE!"

RadCat

Variety is the spice of life!!!!![:)][:)][:)][:)][;)]


And, so it goes for shooting too.

There is no better bullet comparing lead, plated and jacketed. They will shine better for a specific purpose, but not for everything exclusively.

Lead bullets are cheaper and accurate when sized, lubed and shot at slower speeds, especially the softer ones like "swaged" bullets, and are great for target shooting at short ranges. "Hard cast" bullets have been used successfully for hunting and longer range target shooting and can be driven somewhat faster. Put a "gas check" on either and you increase the usefull ranges.

Plated bullets are the new "dandy magicians", since they are cheap to manufacture. But they are usually made of soft "swaged lead wire" and if it wasn't for the copper plating they would severely lead your bores. The softness of these bullets make them bad candidates for super high speeds as they will distort from centrifugal forces and land/groove engagement which can shear the plating. Heavy crimping also is impossible due to plating scoring or bullet deformation. Their biggest attribute is one or two steps above plain lead bullets, and you are allowed to shoot them on indoor ranges as there is no lead being "vaporized" during ignition and firing.

Jacketed bullets are of course the most expensive. They are made of a length of soft lead wire swaged together into shape with their copper jackets. Round nose FMJ bullets are not true "full metal jacketed" as their backs are not covered by the jacket, and will "flame vaporize" some lead during firing. Jacketed hollow points (JHP) on the other hand have their bases and sides completely covered with a heavy copper jacket and offer the highest degree of stability including high speeds and heavy crimping.

In a nut-shell, choose your purpose and speeds, and specific performance and match it to the bullets. Then go load to your hearts delight, and enjoy. [:D][:D][:D][8D][8D][;)]

______________________________________________

"If it ain't broke, fix it anyway... make it better!" (RadCat)

Pinhead

Nice post Radcat and well stated. The use of one or the other would depend on the specific purpose at hand. I even paper patch some of my blackpowder rifle loads(.43 spanish for instance) which was the early form of a jacketed bullet and works very well indeed if you know what you are doing. Higher velocity without leading. That's why jackets were invented.