Accuracy and bullet type.

P

Prof Young

New member
Shooters:

I know there are a lot of factors involved in accuracy and don't want to be guilty of a "single cause logical fallacy" . . . but with my 9mm, 44 mag, and 45 colt, I've noticed that I get much tighter groups with jacket bullets than with the plain hardened lead.

Is this a universal phenomena?

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
It can be more critical to match the bullet diameter to the bore diameter when shooting lead bullets.

It's common to see people recommend slugging the bore to determine the actual bore diameter and then using a lead bullet that is one to two thousandth's over that size.

Also, in revolvers, significantly oversize, or undersized chamber throats can result in poor accuracy with lead bullets.
 
John , a good example is the micro-groove Marlin barrels for 45-70. Common comment is they are inaccurate but that's not true. The micro-grooves are .002" deep while standard depth is .004". The lead bullets for the micro-groove have to be carefully chosen both for diameter and hardness [harder bullet for higher velocity. Then you get accuracy !
In a similar way for a 45acp lead bullets are .001" larger at least than the jacketed.
 
Target shooting with a 1911 style .45 ACP I (and most everyone I knew) used lead semi-wadcutters .452 in diameter. I usually used 200 grain bullets but sometimes 185 because they were a little cheaper.

They were cheap and accurate for me. I never found jacketed bullets to be any more accurate. Remember though, this was target shooting and not self defense type loads.
 
No, that sounds to me like you have not found the right lead bullets.

You find the right ones by matching bullet diameter to slugged bore groove diameter +.000 - .002". Get a Meister bore slugging kit for this.

Then you determine a Bhn range for your slug based on velocity. Lots of advice on the web.

Jacketed bullets have the advantage of having the jacket with an ever so slight bore sealing springback.
 
That's just how things are working out for you and your firearms.
Click to expand...

Pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. As others have said, there are many factors that contribute to accuracy with lead bullets. Not so many for jacketed. Thus it's easier for most folks to get better accuracy with jacketed bullets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top