Please help me with some dumb projectiles I've purchased...

[typetwelve]

First off, you all have a been great help. I cannot thank you all enough for the advice you guys have given so far.

Moving forward, I feel I've made a few dumb buys in the projectile dept and need help with what to do with them:


Ok here goes, 38 special. Running through my S&W 627 pro, I bought the following:

Oregon trail
Projectile #1
Oregon Trail Bullet Company | Proud Makers of Laser-Cast(R) & TrueShot(R) Silver Bullet(R)

#1 notes:
With a hardenss of 24, these stinkers leaded up my barrel big time behind 3-3.5 grains of Titegroup. Shot perfectly, but too hard for such low velocities. My question? Can I save these and run them in lighter 357 magnum without a gas check? If not, I'm not sure what to do with these.

Summers
Projectile #2
9mm 145gr, 800 ct. box, hard cast lead bullets, Summers Enterprises LLC

#2 notes:
I know these say 9mm, but they're not, they're .358" dia. I'll admit it, I bought these in complete ignorance and now have zero idea what to do with them. I bought them for fast reloading with a moon clip but with a hardness of 18, I am more than sure these will lead like crazy at low velocity. With no crimp groove, it's not like I can load these in .357 magnum either. I don't want to waste $44, but I have no clue what to do with these.

Projectile #3:
.38 148gr, 500 ct. box, bullets only, hard cast lead bullets DEWCBB

#3 Notes:
These loaded and shot perfectly, zero leading of my barrel behind 3.0 grains of titegroup. I am very pleased with these.


Moving on to 44 special, shot through my 4" S&W 629:

Summers
.44 240gr, 500 ct. box, hard cast lead bullet, Summers Enterprises LLC

Again...I think I made another mistake. I made some test loads with 6.0,6.5, and 7.0 grains of unique. All shot perfectly but my goodness, the leading! 30 test loads and my gun was a hot mess. I'm not going to use these for special velocities again. My questions? With a hardness of 18, can I load these to light magnum velocities with no gas check?



Moving forward? yesterday I "bit the bullet" and bought these here:

Missouri Bullet Company

http://missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=386&category=20&secondary=12

Coated, softer projectiles (12 hardness) that I should be able to run low and slow with no leading.


Any advice would be highly appreciated!

 

[nachogrande]

INATIMATE OBJECTS HAVE NO IQ.

I'll be glad to help. You can send me those dumb projectile # 3's, 148 gr dewc's are my jam in 38 special. IMO the harder the bullet, the better the penetration & the diameter not fitting correctly, or pushing them too fast would be the "leading" culprit, if indeed it is leading & not powder/bullet lube fouling.

 

[growr]

I would be happy to buy the Summers bullets....have shot many thousands of them with NO issues at all. They ARE for .38/.357 NOT 9mm.
Let me know how much you want for them.
Randy

 

[typetwelve]

How hard are you guys pushing those LRN projectiles? Would you mind sharing some load data of what you run with those?

I'll make a few loads and see if they do indeed lead up.

 

[jag22]

Look at this from a business aspect. Bullet makers don't just make rounds for the heck of it. There was/is enough demand for these to keep making them because someone is buying them. Half the fun of reloading is experimenting, hopefully making things better. Load 'em up and shoot away, your opinions may change but at least you will know what you want to reorder.

 

[rockquarry]

Try all of them in your intended applications; may work very well. .358" diameter in 9mm works better in most guns than .356". As long as cartridges so loaded will chamber reliably and without difficulty, they will probably work fine.

 

[DWalt]

In the dim past, I loaded .357-.358 lead bullets in 9mm. They worked OK. For some chambers, the slightly larger mouth diameter may not fit, but I didn't have that problem.

 

[AlexJay]

Hey guys...
I happened upon this thread and out of pure curiosity and being here to learn, I have a question. Here goes: if one is concerned about leading in the barrel or chambers....why use lead bullets? Would not using a plated type bullet cure that issue? Please advise and educate.
Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[rockquarry]

They won't lead if they fit and the alloy is of the right mix for the pressure/ velocity. Fine tuning the load should make it at least as accurate as a jacketed bullet and likely more accurate than a plated bullet.

However, if you're not casting and sizing your own bullets, it may be difficult to find a commercial bullet that works well, though there may be a few out there.

 

[Protocall_Design]

I don't like plated bullets because I never found any that would shoot a group. I tried different weights and calibers of Berry's and Ranier. At 25 yards couldn't get a group under 5". At 50 yards, half were off the paper. Total waste of time and money.

The guns I used were all S&W revolvers, all of which will shoot tight groups with lubed lead, polymer coated, and jacketed bullets. The only people I know who like plated bullets never shoot over 10 or 15 yards away and can't shoot a group anyway. YMMV.

 

[nachogrande]

IT'S ABOUT THE $ (GENERALY)

Hey guys...
I happened upon this thread and out of pure curiosity and being here to learn, I have a question. Here goes: if one is concerned about leading in the barrel or chambers....why use lead bullets? Would not using a plated type bullet cure that issue? Please advise and educate.
Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

A person can cast their own lead for the DIY's, & if you buy cast they usually cost less than plated. If the load/diameter are good, so will be the accuracy. Velocity is a bit slower IME, but does that matter much???

 

[mikld]

Hey guys...
I happened upon this thread and out of pure curiosity and being here to learn, I have a question. Here goes: if one is concerned about leading in the barrel or chambers....why use lead bullets? Would not using a plated type bullet cure that issue? Please advise and educate.
Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nekkid cast lead first must fit the gun. Proper sizing to the cylinder throats and groove diameters. Alloy needs to be soft enough to obturate and seal the bore. In over 25 years of casting my own bullets there has never been a need for "iron hard" bullets, not even in my Garand or 7.62x54. I have pushed my cast bullets, BHN approx 12, to over 1,200 fps with no leading, but they fit my guns...

...a little help with my foolish projectile purchases. | The High Road

 

[rockquarry]

Regarding plated bullets... I tried some plated .38 wadcutters some years ago. I don't know what brand they were, but they shot so poorly, I haven't tried any plated bullet since. Perhaps I didn't give the bullet type a fair shake, but I'll admit I know nothing about what it takes to get them to shoot well, if that's possible.

Apparently, cast bullet rules don't apply to plated bullets. Cast bullets have to fit to work well, but fit isn't critical with jacketed bullets. Plated bullets must work for some people or these bullets would disappear from the market.

 

[typetwelve]

Nekkid cast lead first must fit the gun. Proper sizing to the cylinder throats and groove diameters. Alloy needs to be soft enough to obturate and seal the bore. In over 25 years of casting my own bullets there has never been a need for "iron hard" bullets, not even in my Garand or 7.62x54. I have pushed my cast bullets, BHN approx 12, to over 1,200 fps with no leading, but they fit my guns...

...a little help with my foolish projectile purchases. | The High Road

LOL...yup, I posted that one there as well. Trying to get info and opinions anywhere that I can...


I'll admit that I don't want to overthink this, I'm just trying to save some $$ that I've already spent.

A vast majority of sites that I've found selling cast bullets only offer 38 in either .357" or .358" and 44 in .430". I'm sure there are other's that would offer them in a range of +/- 1 thousandth increments, but I'm not really willing to go that deep and I'm sure the $$ would be much higher. Because of that, I'm not going to take the time to measure my bore if my choices are pretty set anyway.

I'm going to switch to coated rounds moving forward, I'm just trying to find out the best thing to do with the $200 worth of projectiles I have sitting around.

 

[typetwelve]

Regarding plated bullets... I tried some plated .38 wadcutters some years ago. I don't know what brand they were, but they shot so poorly, I haven't tried any plated bullet since. Perhaps I didn't give the bullet type a fair shake, but I'll admit I know nothing about what it takes to get them to shoot well, if that's possible.

Apparently, cast bullet rules don't apply to plated bullets. Cast bullets have to fit to work well, but fit isn't critical with jacketed bullets. Plated bullets must work for some people or these bullets would disappear from the market.

I'll say that for a total reloading amateur, both coated and non shot extremely well.

Here's a 5 shot group shot from a rest, single action 10yds with those #1 hard cast bullets:

Like I said, shot perfectly, just leaded like crazy.

Here's a 16-shot group shot standing, double action 10 yds with the coated 148gr WCs

...and they didn't lead one bit. I'm super pleased with them.

 

[jag22]

alexjay, I understand what you’re saying. Time and experience are my teachers. Certain guns were basically designed with certain ammo in mind. The 1911s just shoot better (my experience) with 230 grn round nose, 38 specials like 158 grn round nose lead. I’ve tried plated in several calibers and like others have said, accuracy suffers. I don’t care for the smoke with lead rounds but I guess there are sacrifices you have to make for better accuracy.

 

[rockquarry]

typetwelve-just a suggestion: shoot the benchrested groups at 25 yards; much easier to weed out bad loads. A lot of poor to mediocre loads will do well at 10 or 15 yards.

 

[typetwelve]

typetwelve-just a suggestion: shoot the benchrested groups at 25 yards; much easier to weed out bad loads. A lot of poor to mediocre loads will do well at 10 or 15 yards.

Yeah...that's next. For now, I was just testing out the rounds so see what they would do on some private property vs the range. It was silly cold and windy so I didn't want to mess with a 25 yd stretch just yet.

I'll do some more "serious" data collecting once the weather is no longer so brutal. I want to chrono my loads and get some longer distance testing to see what they will/won't do.

 

[growr]

bullets

LOL...yup, I posted that one there as well. Trying to get info and opinions anywhere that I can...


I'll admit that I don't want to overthink this, I'm just trying to save some $$ that I've already spent.

A vast majority of sites that I've found selling cast bullets only offer 38 in either .357" or .358" and 44 in .430". I'm sure there are other's that would offer them in a range of +/- 1 thousandth increments, but I'm not really willing to go that deep and I'm sure the $$ would be much higher. Because of that, I'm not going to take the time to measure my bore if my choices are pretty set anyway.

I'm going to switch to coated rounds moving forward, I'm just trying to find out the best thing to do with the $200 worth of projectiles I have sitting around.

You DO have offers to purchase from you...............
Randy

 

[ajgunner]

Here is another thought---have you tried calling them for help?? I have stopped in to pick up bullets more than once. They are always friendly and seem to be pretty sharp on their product knowledge.

Returns & Refund: Laser-Cast offers a 100% money back guarantee on our cast bullets if you have any issues with leading that we cannot solve. If you are unhappy with your purchase for any other reason, you may return the products and you will be refunded the cost of the bullets. Shipping charges are nonrefundable. Please contact us at 800-811-0548 or [email protected] if you have any questions or need more information.