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Posted: 4/13/2014 4:02:09 PM EDT
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I went to my first IDPA match a few days ago and practically everyone there reloads so I had lots of opportunity to learn from guys with more experience than myself. While hanging out with them I noticed a few guys shooting green bullets. Asked them what those were and they told me they were Bayou Bullets. They all have very positive things to say about them. I went home and saw a few online reviews that were all positive, and that coupled with seeing them first hand left me with a good opinion of Bayou Bulets so far, but I would like to see if anyone here uses them and if you can teach me a little more about them.
As I understand it they are just lead cast bullets with a powder coating (giving them the green appearance) which helps them travel through a barrel without fouling. Is that correct? Do these run reliably out of any gun? |
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While I haven't tried Bayou Bullets, all of the other coated bullets I have tried have worked better then expected.
Little, if any, smoke from "Lube" or the lead bullet itself. Cleaner than regular lead bullets. And very easy on your barrel. Just don't over crimp them and bell the case enough so you don't scratch off the coating while seating. If I could find a reliable autoloader HP in a coated lead bullet ( meeting FBI performance specs ) I would use it exclusively. |
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I shoot uspsa monthly and load 9mm loads with xtreme plated 147g rn projectiles. They work really well.
I have seen people shooting the Bayou bullet and they seem to like them. I think they are a moly coated bullet to avoid fouling like you said. I'm sure someone that loads these will be along shortly to verify this. Our club does a group buy from time to time through xtreme and when you order 25k plus at a time you get a discounted rate. It doesn't matter what bullets just has to reach 25k. So we will get together and do that every 6 months or so. I usually pick up 5k at a time during the group buys. With the special pricing they come out to around 75/k shipped for the 147g bullets. Hope this helps. Happy shooting! |
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The coating is a proprietary 2 part coating that comes from Australia. Bayou Casts coats and sells the bullets.
They also offer the coating for sale to coat your own if you choose. Hit the Bayou website for details. Lots of videos out there on the youtube that show the process. I might try this some day if I get tired of casting and lubing my own. Might. |
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Quoted:
I was going to try these and another company called precision bullets says not to use anything but dillon dies? they also say not to use lee dies, what are you guys using that reload these? Lee? Dillon? other die? Thanks You're on your own on this one. There's no magic in Dillon dies. I suspect they recommend against the Lee Factory Crimp Die, as if their coating is thin, and/or their bullets over-sized, you may under-size the bullet in the crimping operation. Precision apparently doesn't use the Hi-Tek coating, which is what Bayou, SNS, Black Bullets Intl and a handful of others use. Can't speak to all the other 'random coatings' out there, but the Hi-Tek coating has been in use by Aussie shooters for a decade or so, with claimed excellent results. I've loaded some SNS, BBI, and a handful of Bayous for testing. They shoot slightly slower than lead, faster than jacketed, and for the most part, low smoke without worries of excessive fouling, no leading issues to date. |
| Thought about going with the Bayou as I read nothing but good reviews about them even with titegroup. Their website looks like it was designed in the early 90s and you cannot order online. I believe Percision has the same bullets and the same coating just in black for a little cheaper. I abandoned the whole lead Molly bullet bandwagon for the simple fact that I can get the plated Xtreme bullets with the usual 10% discount for just about the same exact money per thousand. |
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Quoted:
Thought about going with the Bayou as I read nothing but good reviews about them even with titegroup. Their website looks like it was designed in the early 90s and you cannot order online. I believe Percision has the same bullets and the same coating just in black for a little cheaper. I abandoned the whole lead Molly bullet bandwagon for the simple fact that I can get the plated Xtreme bullets with the usual 10% discount for just about the same exact money per thousand. Precision does not use the Hi-Tek coating, as already stated up-thread. Bayou, SNS Casting, and Black Bullets International do..I believe Blacn and Blue Bullets do as well. Xtreme remains higher priced, even on sale, at least once you move into purchasing a case at a time, which is the only way to go, IMO. Example: Xtreme 124gr RN with 10% discount: 7.7c each BBI 125gr Hi-Tek coated RN, case pricing: 7c each. Up to you. I've got a good number of Xtremes, SNS and BBI on hand. Out of those, I prefer the SNS in my gun, both for accuracy and for feel/recoil. The XTreme RNs aren't bad, but YMMV. |
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Not a huge thing, however you can push hi tek coated bullets faster than plated bullets.
What are you guys paying for plated bullets....Xtreme or Berrys? I ask because I've been working off the numbers below which makes it cost effective to shoot coated. If theres a better deal on plated I'd like to take advantage of it. 147gr 9mm Bayou - $78/k Xtreme - $92/k Berrys - $107/k Montana Gold CPJ - $160/k |
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