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Posted: 10/5/2015 8:07:20 PM EDT
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So I ordered some sample packs from Blue Bullets and BBI and got them in the mail today. Seeing that these are offered as sample evaluation packs that people would make a vendor selection from, one would think that extra care would be taken with these orders. Here are some observations and initial impressions.
Packaging Both bullets came in the same size flat rate priority mail boxes. The bag of bullets from BBI were just put in the box with no packing material and the bag broke in transit. Most of them were loose rattling around in the box no doubt knocking into each other and causing some damage to the coating - 
The Blue Bullets were much more throughly packaged. The bag of bullets were placed into an heavy duty envelope, then put into the box with packing peanuts. No bullets were floating around in the box loose - 
Bullet coating Pretty much right away I could see that the coating on Blue Bullets was quite uniform and almost no blemishes on them. By comparison BBI bullets looked very inconsistent (like a redneck's truck spray painted with krylon) and most of the bullets had chipped coating to some extent, probably from the loose bullets rattling in the box. 
Sledge Test I gave 3 strikes on each bullet with a 2lb sledge. The Blue Bullets held up pretty good, BBIs did not and flaked quite a bit - 
Chambering rounds So I loaded each in an empty shell to the OAL of 1.10' and racked from a magazine 10 times each. Again we have the Blue Bullets holding up very well with a few small scratches and BBI having lots of deep gouges - 
So far it is looking like Blue Bullets are much higher quality than BBI and that was apparent from the time I opened the boxes. Hopefully I can get in a trip to the range some time tomorrow or Wednesday. |
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UPDATE 10/6/15
So I loaded up 15 of each brand with about 5gr of CFE pistol to take to the range. One thing I noticed right away is that the Blue Bullets were dropped into the shell much easy because the base of the bullet is slightly rounded, where as BBI is almost a sharp edge along the base. I am assuming the reason is that it looks like Blue is swaged and BBI is cast ? 
At lunch time I went to the range. Now this an indoor range and the ventilation is pretty brisk from back to front. The lighting at the firing line was also not the best. The gun is a Glock 17. I did notice that the Blue had a different smell than copper bullets but it wasnt overwhelming and I was fine with it. I should have fired a few shots from while looking at the gun from an angle, but I didnt notice a whole lot of smoke from looking down at the sights (but poor lighting). After I inspected the barrel and had no noticeable leading and was about the average dirtiness of my copper loads. I cleaned out the barrel with a copper brush. Next I loaded up BBIs and gave a few shots. Right away I was overcome with a HORRIBLE stench. I thought then to shoot the gun while looking at an angle and noticed a fairly good amount smoke, but since I didnt look at the same angle with the Blues I cant compare it. Then I inspected the barrel and after 15 rounds there was noticeable lead streaks on rifling. I wish I could have taken a pic, but they dont allow cell phone use in the range. For each brand I fired at 5 yards away and the groups seem relatively close and I'm not the best shot so I cant complain about accuracy from either - 
So my opionon from this test is that Blue Bullets are much better quality than BBI. I think might order a sample pack from Bayou and test against Blue. |
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The Blue Bullets are excellent and their customer service is great! I've been using them for a couple of years and have gone through about 10,000 rounds without any issues or bad bullets. They once took about 4-days longer than usual and I got a note in the package saying they were sorry for the delay and gave me a discount on the next order.
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Blue Bullets are made local to me, good product no doubt in my mind.
Your consistency observation may be flawed, I think it's just more evident on the glossier bullet, Blues are definitely splotchy, just the nature of coating, though not bare anywhere, the chipping on the BBIs would concern me a little. The Blue coating is very durable, I have recovered fired bullets that were still largely coated. Surprised you didn't comment on them giving you smurf fingers, they always turn my finger blue when loading. The bullets are very consistent, I've loaded 125 RN, and 147 RN and FP, all have delivered very good accuracy with no notable inconsistencies in weight or ogive, which is more than I can say for some cast bullets. |
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Quoted:
I've picked Blue Bullets off the ground that I've shot through several layers of wood that still had nearly all the coating intact. Some of the 147 rd nose looked like they would be fine to get loaded again. I shoot steel with mine and find the coating still adhered to what is left of the bullet after hitting the plates. |
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Quoted: Your consistency observation may be flawed, I think it's just more evident on the glossier bullet, Blues are definitely splotchy, just the nature of coating, though not bare anywhere, the chipping on the BBIs would concern me a little. The Blue coating is very durable, I have recovered fired bullets that were still largely coated. Surprised you didn't comment on them giving you smurf fingers, they always turn my finger blue when loading. With respect, I doubt what OP describes as "chipping" is true chipping. There may be some flaking of excess coating, but I've dropped BBIs onto concrete floors and I've pulled them with an inertia puller with no scratching or deformity of the coating. HI-TEK coating is seriously tough stuff, tougher than we give it credit for. It won't just "rub off" in transit, even if loose. |
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Quoted:
BBI shoots roughly half to three-quarters the group size of any given bullet weight versus Blue Bullets for me at any given distance. I tested them all. May have something to do with the .355 vs .356 diameter. Thus, BBI > Blue for me. Have you tried the 200gr .40's from BBI? Thought about ordering some of those to try so I could use one color for minor and one for major. |
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Quoted: Have you tried the 200gr .40's from BBI? Thought about ordering some of those to try so I could use one color for minor and one for major. Quoted: Quoted: BBI shoots roughly half to three-quarters the group size of any given bullet weight versus Blue Bullets for me at any given distance. I tested them all. May have something to do with the .355 vs .356 diameter. Thus, BBI > Blue for me. Have you tried the 200gr .40's from BBI? Thought about ordering some of those to try so I could use one color for minor and one for major. No, I should have clarified that I tried the 9mm weights only. I don't yet reload .40. But I think that's a fantastic idea for major/minor. Everyone says that .40 minor is a very nice recoil impulse. |
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Doing a 5 yard accuracy test offhand doesn't really strike me as a good way to gauge what is really best.
Odds are those group disturbances are more on the shooter than the bullet, anyway. I may have missed what gun you used, but a newer modern pistol should be capable of shooting into 3 to 4 inches at 25, better than several inches at five yards. |
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Quoted:
Doing a 5 yard accuracy test offhand doesn't really strike me as a good way to gauge what is really best. Odds are those group disturbances are more on the shooter than the bullet, anyway. I may have missed what gun you used, but a newer modern pistol should be capable of shooting into 3 to 4 inches at 25, better than several inches at five yards. I really wasn't testing much for match grade accuracy and my guess is the both will do equal. Even if BBI had group sizes half the size as Blue, the smell and leading is enough to make me not purchase them again. |
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Here's the glitch I see.
Epoxy coating bullets came into effect since a home caster could do such a lot faster than setting up a copper plating set up with say ZEP Root kill instead. So now you have shops that are taking the short cut to just epoxy coat, instead of just setting up to copper plate instead; them charging dam near the price as jacket bullets in the end instead. As for epoxy coating, and even plated bullets, they do have their places, but not when you are pushing them to Mag or major levels and need a jacked bullet their insteadI Truth is, for 45 when loading to only a 166 MPF, my own cast'd sized bullet just tumbled with a 45/45/10 mix of Johnson wax/Alox/ Mineral spirts does well enough to keep the leading to min, and end up loading for less than $.04 a round as well (got to love when you get free lead to cast). |
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As for epoxy coating, and even plated bullets, they do have their places, but not when you are pushing them to Mag or major levels and need a jacked bullet their insteadI I'm not sure if you're saying that the Hi Tek coating is epoxy or you're getting them mixed up, but what you say about mag or major loads is not accurate. They can can be pushed to 9mm major levels and shot through comped guns without any problems. |
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Quoted: I'm not sure if you're saying that the Hi Tek coating is epoxy or you're getting them mixed up, but what you say about mag or major loads is not accurate. They can can be pushed to 9mm major levels and shot through comped guns without any problems. Quoted: As for epoxy coating, and even plated bullets, they do have their places, but not when you are pushing them to Mag or major levels and need a jacked bullet their insteadI I'm not sure if you're saying that the Hi Tek coating is epoxy or you're getting them mixed up, but what you say about mag or major loads is not accurate. They can can be pushed to 9mm major levels and shot through comped guns without any problems. One of the top open GMs in Area 6 shoots BBI exclusively thru his 9mm major gun. |
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Quoted:
I really wasn't testing much for match grade accuracy and my guess is the both will do equal. Even if BBI had group sizes half the size as Blue, the smell and leading is enough to make me not purchase them again. Quoted:
Quoted:
Doing a 5 yard accuracy test offhand doesn't really strike me as a good way to gauge what is really best. Odds are those group disturbances are more on the shooter than the bullet, anyway. I may have missed what gun you used, but a newer modern pistol should be capable of shooting into 3 to 4 inches at 25, better than several inches at five yards. I really wasn't testing much for match grade accuracy and my guess is the both will do equal. Even if BBI had group sizes half the size as Blue, the smell and leading is enough to make me not purchase them again. There should be no smell with either of the bullets. They both us hi-tek coating and would smell the same even if there was one. I have never seen leading with either blue bullets of BBI. |
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Quoted:
There should be no smell with either of the bullets. They both us hi-tek coating and would smell the same even if there was one. I have never seen leading with either blue bullets of BBI. I would say that the smell of Blue was not very powerful and I didn't even notice at first. I shot 5 of the bullets, started reloading my mag and noticed a slightly different odor that I normally don't smell. It was different but it didn't stink. |
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Quoted:
Have you tried the 200gr .40's from BBI? Thought about ordering some of those to try so I could use one color for minor and one for major. Quoted:
Quoted:
BBI shoots roughly half to three-quarters the group size of any given bullet weight versus Blue Bullets for me at any given distance. I tested them all. May have something to do with the .355 vs .356 diameter. Thus, BBI > Blue for me. Have you tried the 200gr .40's from BBI? Thought about ordering some of those to try so I could use one color for minor and one for major. I have tried the 200 BBI for both major and minor. It was very accurate in my .40 Trojan loaded to 1.180 OAL. I had tried them with Titegoup and Bullseye. |
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Thank you for taking the time to do this test and post your results. At any given time some of these boards are mostly guesses , actually shooting a product might not be everything but it is what I am interested in .
I might sugest a larger sample . For me the look and smell of the bullets doesn't mean much . The goal is having something that shoots well at a reasonable price . Hitting the bullet with a sledge and chambering it 10 times might indicate problems with the coating but I am only going to shoot it once 
If it flies straight and doesn't leave turds in the barrel I couldn't care how much coating is left on the bullet |
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