Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Coated Lead Bullets - Pros & Cons

Looking to the collective wisdom of the fire.

I have got a lead on 500 ct boxes of Missouri Bullet Company coated lead bullets.

The cost per bullet averages out to be about 11 cents each including shipping.

So...here is the input I seek:

Any pros and cons in shooting "coated" lead bullets.

And...where can I get load data????

Specifics of the bullets - 125 or 158 gr. Brinell hardness is 12. I will be shooting them in a 357 Magnum at "target velocities" (850 - 950 fps). The bullet diameter is .358". The bullets are grooveless - the coating is advertised as providing excellent lubricity so that lube is not requried.

Thanks in advance for the input.

GB

I've found Missouri bullets to be real good.
I've used a couple of designs for a small 1911 in 45 acp. They functioned well, were accurate, and didn't foul the barrel. I'd still be loading them but Missouri is 12 to 14 weeks out and the ones I used are not in production, they were the grooveless bullets.

use standard cast bullet data.

I had order 1000 Missouri bullets (.357) when they said they were 16 weeks out .I found Brazos bullets that advertised 4-6 weeks.Both came in about those times.I get less fouling with powdered coated ones and they are nicer to work with without the regular sticky bullet lube. Accuracy is great.

One thing you don't have to worry about powder coated bullets getting hot and having the lube migrate down into the powder

Have shot thousands of hitec coated and blue bullets they work great , no reason not to shoot them!

Just got 1k 185gr RN .45acp hard cast coated from Badman bullets.

Shot 200 today, mild BE load in two SA's that are sprung for light loads.

Worked fine in both pistols with accuracy very close to what I get with swaged SWC.

Much cleaner, almost no smoke, did smell a little like an electrical fire though. I can deal with that.

I really don't know any cons to them, except some have a slightly obnoxious odor when fired. Not a big deal at all.

And as has been said, use data for similar cast bullets.

I think that is the softest they offer. Probably work best a 38 special velocities.
I shoot Missouri coated bullets in 9mm, 38 spec, and 45acp. Hasbeen

My understanding is they use load data for cast lead. SnS shipped me coated when I ordered plain cast for .357. They load fine but I don’t really like the ‘burning brake’ smell they generate. They are quite a bit cleaner and less smoky.

You are correct. That's why I chose that particular hardness. I am not looking for penetration. I am just looking for something to knock over steel plates at 15 to 25 yards - and not lead up my barrel and revolver cylinders.

I think I can do it with a 158 gr bullet driven between 850 to 950 fps.

Brazos offers the .358 cast coated bullet and is specified hardness for either 38 Sp or.357 mag.You chose which one you want. I ordered the 38 sp as I shoot 38 sp loads in.357cases

Yeah, the BRAZOS work well for me, although I only use their .44 mag SWC.

That's my plan exactly. Thanks for your input.

Thanks for all your input guys. I ordered a box of 500 last night. Already have a conformation - will be delivered Monday. I'll post back once they arrive. I plan to load and shoot by next weekend.

A lot of good information at the Fire when civil people post.

Again, thank you

GB

Patrick at Badman Bullets talked me in to trying some. I was skeptical. But so far impressed, they don’t lead the barrel and are much cleaner, so far, in my experience. Accuracy is great. The down side is they look odd, red or black, and smell different when shot. 😁 I am a convert.

Shot some more of the Badman and also a short test with Acme coated. Acme's are 200gr SWC, Badman are 185 RN.

So far I'm liking the coated bullets, the Acme coating don't seem as tough as Badman.

Still working on the best case bell, so far I've used a powder through expander made for soft lead bullets, it opens the case up more than most so the soft bullets aren't swaged down by case tension.

I scraped some the coating off setting up for the SWC's from Acme, with same expander setting used with the Badman bullet?


On a side note, tried some E3 shotgun powder, there isn't published data for it in pistols but friends have been using it since its hard to get BE recently. Just a few rounds and no chronograph numbers but I don't really need it. The guns were set up for target loads, the recoil felt softer than BE and the cases were in the same spot. Much cleaner than BE, I know, that's no mean feat as BE is filthy at low pressures.

One pass with a patch and both bores were shiny, zero lead. They are Kart barrels, well broke in.

Gonna go ahead and load up a few hundred for a more extended test.



BTW, Badman shipped quick and USPS actually got them across the country in a week. Took about the same time to get the Acme's on the brown truck.

I shoot their 180 grain in my 10MMs. They shoot great. These bullets are really good for target, woods carry, and hunting. They don't expand in fact barely deform when shot into sand. The only issue I've had with them is seating them without gouging the coating. I have to bell the case more than I normally do, chamfer the inside of the case mouth and adjust the seating die so it does not start to crimp at all before the bullet is fully seated. I also have to make sure when I put the bullet in the case mouth it's as straight as possible. Crimp only enough to make the case wall straight without a taper.
I really liked the Badman bullets as well, but the way my chamber is cut on my CZ 10MM I had to seat too deeply to keep the TC off the lands.

Try the NOE expanders. They work great and you will never scrape again.

Thanks Scott I put one on order

With the powder coat you can shoot them at full 357 mag velocities

DG bullets, Hoosier bullets and summit city all make a great hi-tek coated bullet.

This works well in Dillon measures.
https://www.photoescapeinc.com/products/45htc-ptu.html

Brazos 240gn SWC .44 magnum work well for me. LOW cost, too.

You can avoid scraping off the coating some by seating in one die, then crimp in another. Sometimes you get mre precision loads, better accuracy. You can get another seat/crimp die or buy a factory crimp die (FCD) from Lee. Both work With two dies you get less stress on the bullet and I like the neat crimp from the Lee FCD. Be Well, RZ.

Had to d1sassemble a couple of Brazos loads.

NO effect whatsoever to the coating.

I'm working up loads for the Badman 185gr RN .45acp coated and Acme 200gr SWC coated bullets.

Finding the coating on Badman seems a little better than Acme. Get a little shaving no matter how much bell I use. Tried the stock Dillon powder funnel/activator as well as the custom one I have for seating soft lead bullets. The custom works much better but still get occasional shaving with the Acme bullets. With the same belling/expanding setting the Badman has, as far as I can tell, zero shaving.

I haven't tried Brazos yet, when they get the profile I want in stock I plan on ordering a thousand to test.

The small test I did with Acme SWC even with the minor shaving went well. Shot very accurate and the barrel was perfect, one pass with a patch and it was bright and clean.

Here is an example of the slight shaving I'm seeing with the Acme.

I have a stash of .38 coated swc's loaded as well as traditionally lubed bullets in a variety of loads that have always shot well. I'll give them all a good workout in a K-38 and Colt Officer's Model in my Ransom Rest to settle it in my mind if I want to go forward with coated bullets.

I shoot a lot of coated lead bullets, both store bought and some of mine own making.

HiTek is good stuff. If I am not mistaken I think it may be Jerry Miculek's brother's company.

I save myself a lot of time and headache buying bulk online and occasionally finding over the counter deals at my local Sportsman's Warehouse .... and my favorite cast and coated bullet manufacturer is Gallant Bullets. Veteran owned and operated, good guys.

They call their coating TPJ (total polymer jacket) but it is HiTek.

I've used just about all of their pistol pills and even use their 230 gr 30 cal RNFP for both 30-30 and 300 BLK. Good stuff.

I have a lot of regular ones, cast and swaged, to burn up, but am going to get some of the coated ones because they’re clean. Thinking +P wadcutters for carry in my new M60, probably put up in .357 cases. Some years back, Pearce reported better accuracy in mag revolvers with mag cases.

I dunno ... that looks more like peeling to me, above the case mouth

See, here is my wonder ... how is it physically possible to get more shaving with one coating verses another given all things are equal? And by "all things" I mean case mouth opening (diameter of bell), angle of insertion when seating, diameter of said SWC cast boolit and thickness of coating applied and adhered-to said cast boolit.

Mathematically it would be impossible to achieve a different outcome if all things are equal. Physically it would be impossible if all things are equal.

Now, peeling is a horse of a different color. Peeling (which is what it appears to me might be the issue) might indicate a failure of the coating to bond to the lead alloy and that would subsequently dictate a completely different course of action, in an effort to remedy, than would a simple case of shaving.

To me it looks as if the shoulder of the bullet is being scraped by some part of your die.

I removed the swage hold down die and placed a RCBS expand die in its place, backed out the swage rod some. It will still hang up in a small primer case which all I used it for anyway.

With the RCBS expander in place, I removed the custom expander and installed the Dillon one that just uses the case to operate the powder measure.

The SWC seating plug is made to just push on the shoulder not the nose of the bullet. It works great with soft swaged SWC's. Checked to be sure the just the shoulder makes contact.

Loaded up 100 without any scraping or peeling.

Not sure why one coated bullet worked with the same setup used for soft lead and the other didn't. The diameter of the two were essentially the same. One a RN and the other SWC.

navlav8r, the seat die is plenty big, Dillon 4 die set. I don't use a bullet feeder so separate seat and crimp is preferred.

Still haven't settled on final load. I may just start over with normal 1050 setup with std Dillon .45acp expander/powder actuator later this week. Its supposed to rain for the next 3 days, that's my excuse to just fiddle around in the shop.

Thanks for the ideas!

Just a follow up.


Well, the swage rod without the Dillon backup die won't hang enough on a small primer case or not enough to keep me from trying to seat a LP primer in a SP hole. That didn't work well. At least the whole primer stack didn't go off.

Anyway after I got the 1050 going again without the extra case bell and using the normal Dillon expand/bell powder through funnel setup I loaded a couple hundred more of the Acme 200gr SWC with about the same amount of the coating being scraped/peeled off.

In the meantime I received 2k of Brazo's coated 185gr flat base SWC.

Using the same setup I just pushed out 50 without any shaving/peeling of their coating at all.

The Acme coating isn't quite as good (or at least the batch I have) as the Badman or Brazo's. They still shot fine without any leading (target loads, very mild).

I can not find any cons to shooting coated bullets. I wish all of my wax lubed bullets were coated.

I cast my own for 41 mag and 327. And now powder coat in a little toaster oven. I am using a yellow green paint, but a guy can make them any color you wish.

The loads are clean to carry, just like jacketed. The rounds do not pickup dirt and grit to transfer into your firearm. They load and shoot just like cast with zero leading.

Yes, I prefer the powder coated enough, that I have melted down wax lubed bullets and recast in the same weight so I could powder coat them.

it may be snake oil,
but I remember someone saying that coated bullets, (electroplated, FMJ, or powdercoated)
were better for indoor range use....

but then someone else (here i believe) said lead vapor issues on indoor ranges was from the primers, not the projectiles...

My favorite full power .357 mag load is 16.0grs H110 with 358156 mould 155gr gas-checked. Homemade beeswax lube. Velocity is up there, but accuracy is wonderful. I've never fired a more accurate load and ive been loading the 357 mag over 30 years

I like coated bullets, if I purchase them. I will not spend the time swirling, baking etc.

When all is said and done, a properly fitted cast bullet to your particular gun is not much of an issue. I'm sure many enjoy the many steps to coating bullets. Me, I'd sooner spend the time sending them to their grave.

I shoot a lot of HiTek coated bullets in 9mm and 40sw. Never any leading at the chamber, but often minor leading at the muzzle with full power loads. Both MBC and Brazos.