Berry 9mm bullets

[Nevada Ed]

Finally got to go to the indoor range today to finally finish off my
testing of the Berry plated 124 gr Hybrid bullets in my full size 9mm pistol.

Tried a two hand offhand but the old hands had the shakes, so I ended up with a rest
in order to keep the bullets, maybe close, for a decent, final test
against three loads with a Berry FMJ RN, in two weights,
all loads were in the light target load zone.

These loads all ejected with my "Heavy" spring but you may need to be tested
for 100% function in your weapons, to see if this "Target load"
is good to go, in your pistols.

I was not happy with this Berry HP bullet, due to way too many fail to feed & ejects in all my test with a 3.5 & the 5" pistol,
with OAL from 1.09 to a standard 1.12", that is used with the Speer Gold Dot bullet.

It is all water under the bridge, now and the rest of the Hybrids will be loaded for the kids, to burn up.

Here is a picture of the six targets that I shot along with the data.
Good loading and stay safe.

 

[Speedo2]

Thanks for the report. I recently bought 1K Berry's HP's, have loaded a couple hundred, but not tested them yet. I'll probably get around to them next week and will also probably confirm that they'll be relegated to my millennial kids. Being an old curmudgeon, it's the least I can do. -S2

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It's good to see one of my favorite powders, W231 did so well.

I usually charge 4.8gr W231 under a 124gr bullet but seeing those targets I might have to rethink that. Thanks for the info.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

What's not to like with any of those HHP loads...? Well within "minute of bad guy"!

Cheers!

P.S. I have experience no real problems with feeding HHPs (to me most ejection problems are often due to loading at an insufficient velocity) in various 9mm platforms including a PCC.

 

[robertrwalsh]

I actually ran several hundred recently, mostly thru a stock CZ-75. The gun liked them just fine.

 

[Skeet 028]

I also bought quite a few Berry's plated. With the same load using jacketed, lead, and Berry's bullets the Berry's came in a distant last. The plated bullets shot pretty much terrible compared to regular jacketed and lead RN. I consider them blow holes in the air loads. This isn't saying they weren't useable just not near as accurate as the others.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

X-Treme plated bullets were significantly better than Berrys or Rainier plated bullets. Not only on target accuracy but the X-Treme Bullets seem to be a nicer quality too.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have never had excellent results with Barry's bullets either. I prefer Cast or Jacketed muself.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

Tools & Target did a recent review of the Underwood(!) 45acp +P 230gr JHP (their ITEM 334) which in the past used a Gold Dot bullet and NOW Underwood (supposedly?) uses the BERRY'S HHP! I was shocked, to say the least!

Test results (both gel & velocity) were actually pretty good, considering this is really a budget defense bullet from BERRY'S... If this is accurate (sic) information I would opine that perhaps some further testing with the aformentioned 124gr 9mm HHPs might prove worthwhile? At $0.16 each (typically with FREE $HIPPING! on a $75 order) they are surely inexpensive enough to load up and fire extensively for practice purposes: we always hear we should practice with the SD ammo we intend to carry, don't we?

After all, accuracy at typical self-defense distances (say 3 to 10 yards?) really only needs to be "minute of bad guy" from a practical standpoint...?

Cheers!

P.S. BERRY'S specifically makes their Target Hollow Point bullets (which are, interestingly described as being heavy plated like their other 9mm HB-RNHP & HB-FPHP variants) for increased velocity and accuracy.

 

[Nevada Ed]

One of my first test was at Berry's suggested OAL of 1.09"
in my C9, 3.5" pistol with a maximum powder load of
Bullseye, w231 & Green Dot, offhand at 10 feet.

I was not impressed by any of the groups and the load was noisy and had a lot of recoil.
They will do for "Practice ammo" but with other post on this bullet, I would switch
to a better brand, for SD use, that has been proven to work.

 

[rockquarry]

What diameter were these bullets? If they were .356" that's usually the problem. There may be some 9mm pistols that have a bore tight enough for .356" bullets but I've never run across one. .356" bullets might obturate in a .357" or .358" bore enough to fill it depending on the intensity (powder charge) of the load; this will certainly improve accuracy.

If you have a real interest in accuracy, you can generally do much better than a plated bullet.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

If those were the ones I traded you I will get you something better. Didn't mean to stick you with a "pig in a poke".

 

[rwsmith]

As I mentioned on another thread.....

I generally don't shoot plated, but I did try test using heavy 9mm Xtreme Bullets. Though I wasn't specifically testing for accuracy, a light load of Acc #7 was VERY accurate. I was very happy with the way the bullets LOOKED. High quality.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

I was very happy with the way the bullets LOOKED.

Looking good is half the battle.