I have an NOE 429421 "Keith-like" mold and I just ordered the NOE 434-234-hp mold. I also have a good inventory of X-Treme (plated) and Barnes TAC-XP bullets. They will all be fed to my S&W 29-2 (6") 44 Mag and Taurus 431 (3") 44 Special. (The Taurus cylinder has huge .434 throats, BTW.)

Accordingly, I was interested in running some loading scenarios in Quickload to determine the differences in pressure when ONLY the start shot (initiation) pressure parameter is varied, to reflect the differences in bullet material and construction. NOE supplies QL modelling data for their bullets and their start pressure is given as 725 psi. QL on the other hand suggests a start pressure of 1160 psi for lead bullets. 2175 psi is the QL recommendation for jacketed bullets and the QL Barnes TAC-XP bullet data is 2901 psi. So the recommended start pressures, from lowest to highest, are NOE/725 psi >> QL lead/1160 psi >> QL jacketed 2175 psi >> Barnes (copper) 2901 psi.

As discussed here, the X-Treme factory reps at SHOT show advised me to use a load somewhere between lead and jacketed for their plated bullets.

I noticed two interesting and definitive QL outcomes in running a variety of powders using the QL "Table Setup" feature.

#1: When the load "recipe" is held constant and only start pressure is varied to simulate different bullet materials, the P Max pressure increases significantly with start pressure. (Barnes bullets should produce the highest pressure, followed by jacketed, plated, and then lead bullets, in decreasing pressure order.)

So I concluded that the most conservative load data to use when loading plated bullets lacking any published data is to use jacketed bullet load data for a similar bullet! Using lead bullet load data for a plated bullets is actually the more "aggressive/less safe choice." (According my Quickload results.)

Look at it this way. For any given jacketed bullet max pressure load, duplicating the same load with a lead bullet instead of a jacketed bullet results in LESS-THAN-MAX pressure. A plated bullet is, allegedly, somewhere in-between.

Here are some of my 44 Mag results where only the start pressure has been changed. For each load, the start pressure varies from 725 psi to 1160 psi to 2175 psi. Though hard to see (columns don't line up), the third from the last column of numbers are the P max pressure:

Powder type Filling/Loading Ratio Charge Charge Vel. Prop.Burnt P max P muzz B_Time
% Grains Gramm fps % psi psi ms
--------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Winchester 296 100.0 26.1 1.69 1567 74.8 29976 7078 0.672
Winchester 296 100.0 26.1 1.69 1578 75.3 31007 7100 0.664 ! Near Maximum !
Winchester 296 100.0 26.1 1.69 1598 76.2 33195 7145 0.650 ! Near Maximum !

Hodgdon Lil'Gun 100.0 25.2 1.63 1558 84.7 28181 7195 0.682
Hodgdon Lil'Gun 100.0 25.2 1.63 1570 85.2 29094 7213 0.673
Hodgdon Lil'Gun 100.0 25.2 1.63 1594 86.3 31039 7248 0.658 ! Near Maximum !

Hodgdon H110 100.0 26.0 1.69 1548 78.8 30180 6765 0.676
Hodgdon H110 100.0 26.0 1.69 1558 79.3 31199 6783 0.668 ! Near Maximum !
Hodgdon H110 100.0 26.0 1.69 1577 80.2 33346 6819 0.654 ! Near Maximum !

Accurate 5744 100.0 22.7 1.47 1444 67.7 29555 5582 0.687
Accurate 5744 100.0 22.7 1.47 1448 67.9 30111 5595 0.684
Accurate 5744 100.0 22.7 1.47 1455 68.4 31246 5626 0.679 ! Near Maximum !

Accurate 1680 100.0 26.1 1.69 1334 56.7 24832 4918 0.745
Accurate 1680 100.0 26.1 1.69 1343 57.1 25569 4942 0.738
Accurate 1680 100.0 26.1 1.69 1361 58.0 27136 4992 0.723

IMR 4227 100.0 22.2 1.44 1287 62.7 21684 4695 0.789
IMR 4227 100.0 22.2 1.44 1297 63.2 22367 4720 0.780
IMR 4227 100.0 22.2 1.44 1316 64.3 23818 4771 0.763

#2 Observation:

For any given velocity, lower start pressure (lead bullets have the least) results in lower pressure. Looking at it another way, for any give max pressure, lead bullets fly the fastest! I've noticed this when shooting cast vs. jacketed bullets in a number of my revolvers over the years.

Here are a few 44 Special QL results at 900 fps. The higher start pressure (jacketed bullets) require higher pressure but less powder to fly the same 900 fps as the lowest start pressure bullets (lead/NOE bullets):

Powder type Filling/Loading Ratio Charge Charge Vel. Prop.Burnt P max P muzz B_Time
% Grains Gramm fps % psi psi ms
--------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Alliant 2400 70.0 13.4 0.87 900 58.0 12840 5214 0.772
Alliant 2400 69.1 13.2 0.86 900 58.3 13177 5157 0.769 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant 2400 67.5 12.9 0.84 900 58.9 14042 5078 0.735 ! Near Maximum !

Accurate No.9 61.1 13.2 0.85 900 61.9 13120 5060 0.758
Accurate No.9 60.3 13.0 0.84 900 62.1 13436 5008 0.756 ! Near Maximum !
Accurate No.9 59.0 12.7 0.83 900 62.8 14224 4932 0.723 ! Near Maximum !

Ramshot Enforcer 72.1 14.8 0.96 900 57.6 12360 5378 0.778
Ramshot Enforcer 71.1 14.6 0.95 900 57.9 12638 5310 0.775
Ramshot Enforcer 69.0 14.2 0.92 900 58.6 13317 5189 0.737 ! Near Maximum !

Vihtavuori N110 90.6 15.5 1.00 900 55.0 12695 5367 0.762
Vihtavuori N110 89.3 15.2 0.99 900 55.3 12880 5294 0.762
Vihtavuori N110 86.4 14.8 0.96 900 55.9 13330 5152 0.729 ! Near Maximum !

IMR 4227 92.8 17.1 1.11 900 44.9 14440 4696 0.718 ! Near Maximum !
IMR 4227 91.6 16.9 1.09 900 45.1 14548 4637 0.719 ! Near Maximum !
IMR 4227 89.0 16.4 1.06 900 45.5 14790 4515 0.703 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

Alliant POWER PISTOL 53.4 8.5 0.55 900 79.1 13276 4924 0.757 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant POWER PISTOL 52.9 8.5 0.55 900 79.4 13563 4891 0.756 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant POWER PISTOL 52.1 8.3 0.54 900 80.1 14234 4850 0.739 ! Near Maximum !

Alliant BLUE DOT 69.3 11.4 0.74 900 67.7 13337 5016 0.761 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant BLUE DOT 68.6 11.3 0.73 900 68.0 13650 4985 0.760 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant BLUE DOT 67.6 11.1 0.72 900 68.7 14376 4953 0.731 ! Near Maximum !

Hodgdon Lil'Gun 84.1 17.6 1.14 900 50.3 12724 5589 0.762
Hodgdon Lil'Gun 82.7 17.3 1.12 900 50.6 12829 5505 0.763
Hodgdon Lil'Gun 79.7 16.7 1.08 900 51.2 13096 5335 0.740


Alliant UNIQUE 54.0 7.0 0.45 900 96.5 14104 4487 0.752 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant UNIQUE 53.6 7.0 0.45 900 96.7 14417 4455 0.754 ! Near Maximum !
Alliant UNIQUE 53.1 6.9 0.45 900 97.1 15081 4427 0.729 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

Vihtavuori N105 72.3 11.4 0.74 900 73.5 12043 5406 0.783
Vihtavuori N105 71.1 11.2 0.73 900 73.9 12258 5321 0.781
Vihtavuori N105 68.8 10.8 0.70 900 74.8 12821 5171 0.742

Hodgdon Universal 50.7 6.6 0.43 900 100.0 15048 4056 0.737 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
Hodgdon Universal 50.3 6.5 0.42 900 100.0 15392 4013 0.739 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT US
Hodgdon Universal 49.9 6.5 0.42 900 100.0 16082 3964 0.723 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!