Armory Sponsor
Posted: 1/10/2014 5:14:26 PM EDT
|
I LOVE my Loadmaster from Lee. I've loaded some serious amounts of ammo with it. But with this coming BS about being taboo, I decided to take the plunge on some copper plated bullets. After loading 25 rounds (HALF of which are un-shootable) I'm asking for some insight in to what I can to to minimize crushed cases, copper being scraped off the bullet, etc.
|
|
Quoted:
You need to increase the belling of the case enough that the bullet starts to seat with no resistance like a lead bullet, sometimes more. After doing so, you might also need to crimp tighter to reduce the bell more. This. Use the Dillon spec of around .020 bell and you won't have any problems with copper plated. |
|
After you increase the belling on the case and get the bullet seated, I like using a taper crimp die to remove the belling on the case. I use the Hornady taper crimp die. I just bought 7000 of the 124gn copper plated 2nds from RMR. Loaded 1300 of them so far in 2014.
Nothing wrong with copper plated bullets. |
|
I've loaded 10s of thousands of plated bullets, Berry's, Rainier, X-Ttreme, and Speer Gold Dots (yep, plated) as well as 10s of thousands of moly coated bullets, Bear Creek, Precision, and Master Blaster with excellent results by using just a bit of care and understanding. As stated before, you must bell the cases just enough so that you don't gouge the bullets. Further, you need to place the bullets upright into the case to ensure the seating die pushes them in straight. Finely, you just want to crimp the case enough to remove the belling, nothing further. As the lead core is soft and doesn't spring back like brass does, over crimping will actually make the bullets loser in the case, not tighter and can cause the case to cut through the plating. ETA: Another point worth mentioning. I've found that the manufacture's recommendations to limit the velocities to under 1,200fps to be extremely conservative. I load 165grn Berry's and X-treme plated bullets in my custom G20L 10mm that I've chrono'd at 1,589fps with no issues and I shoot these at plates at 200yds so the accuracy is just fine. Further, I shoot 158grn Berry's 357mag loads in my Rossi lever guns at over 1,900fps at ranges up to 300yds with excellent results. Finely, I shoot 110grn Berry's 30carbine loads above 2,000fps also out to 300yds with excellent results. Recovered bullets show no signs of plating stripping or shedding at all. |
|
Quoted:
I've loaded 10s of thousands of plated bullets, Berry's, Rainier, X-Ttreme, and Speer Gold Dots (yep, plated) as well as 10s of thousands of moly coated bullets, Bear Creek, Precision, and Master Blaster with excellent results by using just a bit of care and understanding. As stated before, you must bell the cases just enough so that you don't gouge the bullets. Further, you need to place the bullets upright into the case to ensure the seating die pushes them in straight. Finely, you just want to crimp the case enough to remove the belling, nothing further. As the lead core is soft and doesn't spring back like brass does, over crimping will actually make the bullets loser in the case, not tighter and can cause the case to cut through the plating. ETA: Another point worth mentioning. I've found that the manufacture's recommendations to limit the velocities to under 1,200fps to be extremely conservative. I load 165grn Berry's and X-treme plated bullets in my custom G20L 10mm that I've chrono'd at 1,589fps with no issues and I shoot these at plates at 200yds so the accuracy is just fine. Further, I shoot 158grn Berry's 357mag loads in my Rossi lever guns at over 1,900fps at ranges up to 300yds with excellent results. Finely, I shoot 110grn Berry's 30carbine loads above 2,000fps also out to 300yds with excellent results. Recovered bullets show no signs of plating stripping or shedding at all. The 'plating' on a GoldDot is a heck of a lot thicker than any Berrys or Rainer plating is... I can't lump the all in the same group for this reason. |
Armory Sponsor