My local indoor range does not allow lead bullets except for .22 rimfire. However coated or plated bullets are OK and of course as are jacketed bullets. I am a fairly experienced handloader but have never loaded coated or plated lead bullets before.

I have some Acme 115 gr. coated .32-20 bullets and want to load them to Cowboy Action level velocities. I have a set of Lee dies plus one of their Factory Crimp Dies. Is there anything special that I need to watch out for when using coated bullets, or just load them the same as I would any other cast or jacketed bullets?

I understand that coated bullets may be driven to slightly higher velocities and I may want to load them a bit hotter in the future but not to +P levels. Or should I just stick to the factory standard 16,000 CUP levels for the .32-20 with coated bullets ?

Lastly, anything special that I need to do regarding cleaning after firing or will standard practices with Hoppes No. 9, a bronze brush and some patches be sufficient ?

Everything is pretty much the same as loading cast lead bullets. Except your dies stay clean.

Before I started casting, I mostly loaded hi-tech coated bullets, but now cast and powdercoat my own. I always treated coated bullets exactly the same as jacketed and plated with one exception, expanding. I use M type expanders to open the mouth slightly wider to make sure coating doesn't get scraped off when seating the bullet.

The only problem that I had with coated bullets was with one 9mm pistol.

A "Plunk" test was needed for the round to "Go home", for that one chamber.

Have fun.

I do have a Lyman M die so will have that on my workbench ready to use if needed. As anyone who loads .32-20's knows not only are the case necks a bit fragile but availability of brass has been spotty the last couple of years. I'll proceed with caution and make up a dummy round and make sure it chambers before I load the other 49 rounds with primers and powder.

I also know that case length is critical on the .32-20 as they can stretch quite a bit upon firing and resizing so I'll check them and trim as needed after sizing and before loading, seating and crimping.

Reloading small cases like the .32-20 really makes you appreciate loading for a .44 Special or .45 Colt !

I started casting my own in 1975. My indoor Club's range would not allow jacketed bullets. No problem, since I wasn't about to spend the extra $ for store bought.

Last year we went thru a quarter million dollar range upgrade and now everything is allowed. I had always wondered about coated bullets, so I decided to try some. I bought .38 and .41 varieties from 2 different suppliers. Also, I bought a bunch of plated bullets from another supplier.

My objective was to see what was best before I invested in a toaster oven and powder to start my own process. The other reason was to try to reduce the need to clean my dies because of the lube contamination. (Yeah, yeah, only a minor inconvenience)

ALL of the plated bullets were under-sized and gave poor results in everything but a 9 mm.

ALL of the Hi-Tech coated bullets used in .38 and .357 provided poorer performance (accuracy) than the liquid alox Boolits I made myself (same weight and style).

I realize this isn't answering the thread, but I just wanted to convey my results. The bottom line is that if my range made such restrictions I would steer toward plated bullets, provided that I found some that measured to at least 0.357, not 0.356.

As far as cleaning the barrel, I personally made no change other than Hoppes and patches.

Depends on the bullet manufacturer. I’ve had some coated bullets that were a couple thousands larger in diameter than they should be. Not a big deal in revolvers, but sometimes it kept autos from going into battery completely. I had this problem with coated 9 mm bullets that were red in color. They were advertised as being .356, but miked at .359. I don’t remember the manufacturer.

In my experience if you are loading plated bullets, expect to use the loading data for jacketed bullets. Remember lead by its nature has natural lubricating properties.
If you fail to do that especially with target (light) loads in a revolver, be cautious of squibs lodging in the barrel.

Good luck,

Al

The Acme .32-20 RNFP 115 grain coated bullets I ordered were advertised as being sized to .313". That should be right for my Browning Model 53 rifle. Hopefully they will be sized as claimed.

My Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook shows they sized the bullets to .312" for their rifle loads and to .313" for their handguns loads. So I guess I'll find out how they perform.

I shoot a lot of Hi Tech coated bullets in .38 Special and and quite a few in .44 Magnums as well. All are from Missouri Bullet Co. The .38s measure .358 as the box indicates and the .44s are right at .430. I load them just as if they were plain lead lubed bullets. I am not convinced they are any more or less accurate than plain lead, but they sure are cleaner to load with a lot less smoke downrange in an indoor range!!

__________________
Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

Lock and Load!!!
I love my lipstick (and Root beer Barrel) Boolits. Those RN 38's look quirky but they really feed and shoot good out of my Rossi 357 carbine. The wadcutters are for squeezing out all the accuracy I can get. I can almost get them to touch at 50 yards if I'm really careful and use a good rest.

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Make sure your flare is sufficient so you do not scrape the bullet.

Check for OAL, sometimes the coating adds a bit to the ogive and makes the same bullet contact the forcing cone and not go fully into battery.

Not much else is different about them. Been shooting them for years.