Coated vs Plated Bullets

[DueceMcGurk]

Just finished load development comparing ACME coated cast and Xtreme plated bullets. 9m and 45 ACP through 1911s with 5" barrels.

Xtreme swages an extruded lead wire, plates and then swages again, I believe.
ACME coats a cast lead bullet with Hi-Tek, I believe.
After many tests, with my level of skill, two hand isosceles at 10 yards, both shoot about the same -- 2" groups consistently.

But they load differently. Xtremes are like a "bag of soft lead". Can't recrimp a lead balloon. ACMEs can be easily recycled after pulling a bad load using the classic RCBS Power Puller hammer.

Your experience/comments?

[aspenvalley]

I have had the same experience in 9mm and 45 acp as well. I perfect the ACME bullets. They load and shoot very well. In 9mm I have run them in my CZ 75 BD, CW9 and G19. Good accuracy and reliability. Xtremes have been great as well.

In 45 I have run the ACME 200 SWC and 230 RN. Both run and shoot great in my springer.

[rsrocket1]

I really liked the Xtreme bullets and thought they were great. I shot 500 each in 45 and 40 but they were expensive too. I then tried Bear Creek coated bullets which had a polymer mixed with moly coating. Less expensive, shot just as well, but required more clean up. I then got into casting and have shot nothing else ever since. A few years ago I joined in with the Cast Boolits group with powder coating.

I also agree that shooting powder coated cast bullets gives you the advantage of plated bullets (being able to shoot even slightly undersized bullets without leading) at the cost savings of cast bullets (at less than a penny to coat over 100 bullets, it's cheaper than most lubes). At 2.5 cents for a 180g cast bullet, it's hard to beat cast and coated bullets.

[pennstater]

Dang 'rocket, those look good!
DueceMcGurk, What exactly do you mean "bag of soft lead". Can't recrimp a lead ballon? I'm asking as I've had no trouble crimping my .45 Auto using X-treme plated 230 RN.

[DueceMcGurk]

When I pull the Xtreme plated bullet from a misload, and try to use it again, the diameter of the bullet is too small. The ACME cast/coated don't have that problem. My understanding (and observation) is that swaged lead makes a softer bullet core than cast.

[pennstater]

Roger that DM. Thanks for the reply. I believe you are correct on the softness of a swagged bullet.

[stilly]

Just finished load development comparing ACME coated cast and Xtreme plated bullets. 9m and 45 ACP through 1911s with 5" barrels.

Xtreme swages an extruded lead wire, plates and then swages again, I believe.
ACME coats a cast lead bullet with Hi-Tek, I believe.
After many tests, with my level of skill, two hand isosceles at 10 yards, both shoot about the same -- 2" groups consistently.

But they load differently. Xtremes are like a "bag of soft lead". Can't recrimp a lead balloon. ACMEs can be easily recycled after pulling a bad load using the classic RCBS Power Puller hammer.

Your experience/comments?

The type of lead.

CAST boolits need that Antimony to harden them up.

You do NOT want to swage hard CAST lead boolits into jackets or molds and plate them.

You want nice SOFT lead for swaging and plating. You can plate hard cast, but swaging is always best with softer lead. They prolly use softer lead...


NOW. You can do whatever the **** you want to do if you cast because it is YOUR lead, YOUR materials, but there are standards and guidelines that have been set that the books use to calculate weight and filling and all that. SO when you start casting those Lee .452 230s and you find they are at 238gr, it is because Lee uses that weight to mean that you have a certain mix, 50/50, 92% 68.4% 3.14... (yeah, I just started making numbers up)

But there are several combinations in the Lyman cast handbook, and other places (all over on the internets) that will tell you what ratio to mix with what and your boolits will be nice and uniform and weigh nearly the same and close to what they SHOULD drop at.


Meh. I just mix what I like to mix and cast and coat. And the rule of thumb is that you should NOT crimp plated pills very much. You should crimp JUST enough to remove that bell you made when you flared. If you pull your pills and think they look like hourglasses, well, you might wanna back off the crimp a bit. ESPECIALLY if they look like that on a straight walled round.

[Redemption]

Ive rejected all conventional methods and my cast boolits are coated in a type of epoxy paint.

Its scary assault ammo... just like those terrible assault rifles everyones been hearing about #BlackAmmoMatters

[rdtompki]

OP, which Acme 9mm bullets? We run 115gr Acme at very low (sub-minor) PF in our 9mm 1911s. I recently sent two guns out for trigger work along with completed rounds in order to do a function check. The gunsmith was very disappointed to get 4" groups (both guns) at 20 yards. I believe three things are at work: very low PF increases the extreme spread, bigger variations in neck tension and probably not the most accurate profile.

I'm going to be chrono'ing and grouping all of our SA 9mm 1911s with various loads and 115gr Acme, 122gr Acme and perhaps some Bayous. I've been using both N320 and N340 and I can see the potential of a large ES in the way temperature affects the ejection.

[JDay]

When I pull the Xtreme plated bullet from a misload, and try to use it again, the diameter of the bullet is too small. The ACME cast/coated don't have that problem. My understanding (and observation) is that swaged lead makes a softer bullet core than cast.

How much crimp are you using? I ask because I E never had a problem reusing pulled 200 grain xtreme swc bullets. I use just enough crimp to remove the bell. Holds the bullets in plenty tight.

EDIT: I see somebody already covered this.

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

[DueceMcGurk]

9m ACME 124 gr RN coated and Xtreme 124 gr RN plated. Both crimped to 0.378.

[alexisjohnson]

Why not use precision delta? They can run cheaper than cast bullets.

[stilly]

Why not use precision delta? They can run cheaper than cast bullets.

Because not everyone can afford 80k j-words to get that kind of discount?

PD have GOOD stuff for being FMJ J-words, but their prices are not that great when you compare to CAST. MAYBE they come very close to beating plated, but if they were cheaper than CAST, I would probably drop a few bills on some.