Berry's Plated Bullets

Aguila Blanca- thanks for the information, I use Berry bullets in several calibers and am always looking for good load data.
 
Good article. The writer may be late to the party. I've been loading plated bullets for years (I'm partial to X-treme; but Berry's are great too).

Because of plated bullets, I basically quit loading lead. Less messy at the load bench. No lube smoke at the range. Much much much easier firearm clean up.

Well worth the slight extra cost compared to straight lead.
 
I call Bull on this article. Over the last 26+ years (Speer #12 Copywrite 1994) Gold Dots, Unicores, etc. have been on the market and Lane Pierce (author) has loaded, tested, and commented them. They always were and have been PLATED bullets. He may not have used Berry's but he has written extensively on Speer Plated Products over the last 30 years.

I've been using West Coast / Accura / Xtreme since ~1991. Tried Rainiers and a couple others. Not all plated are the same as far as core hardness and plating thickness. Lee data is copied from a colaboration between Accurate Arms (pre Western) & Rainier. Shame is that Western took down AA's page on the data which inculded an explination on WHY they compiled the pressure tested load data. Rainier had some of the thinnest plating around.

If you believe this garbage don't load the 30 carbine bullets as they will go WAY past the 1500 fps for thick plated speed limit. Xtreme has tested that bullet to 2200 fps. If STAFF or anyone else wants to call me on this point they had better CALL Xtreme and ask them for themselves first. I've driven this bullet to over 2100 fps (chrono'ed) with accuracy comperable to FMJ.
 
I have shot several plated 9MM bullets from different mfgs. Some are shinier than others but far as I can tell they all shoot the same. Midwestern, Berrys, Extreme, Ranier, and prolly others. I usually buy from who has them in stock at the best price.........I recently ordered some coated bullets from Brazos, delivery slow these days, may be after the election by the time I get them.
 
Berry's bullets are a great bang for your buck. I just wish they'd offer more variety in their bullets, specifically making some bullets for .32 revolvers and more bullets with a crimp groove for .38/.357 and .45 Colt.

The plating can take every bit of the 1250 fps velocity, but the recoil generated (especially in light revolvers) can pull bullets out of cases quickly without a proper crimp.

The alignment is key and one reason I use a Lyman M die when I load .32. Plan to buy the M die for .38 and .45 in the near future.
 
SHR970 said:
I call Bull on this article. Over the last 26+ years (Speer #12 Copywrite 1994) Gold Dots, Unicores, etc. have been on the market and Lane Pierce (author) has loaded, tested, and commented them. They always were and have been PLATED bullets.
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I expect we're not quite comparing apples to apples here. The Speer calls the Gold Dot's plated surface a "bonded jacket" and it is made for full jacketed bullet velocities. Their 55-grain Gold Dot 223 load, for example, has a 24" barrel muzzle velocity of 3600 fps, which is faster than most 223 jacketed bullet loads in that bullet weight, and well past Berry's rifle bullet velocities. I don't know what Speer does differently in their plating chemistry or process, but the result is harder than you get on Berry's and tolerates higher peak pressures. It is geared to jacketed bullet performance where Berry's seems to be geared to common cast bullet performance. When the article mentions plated bullets, it is meaning the latter category, as the Gold Dots are not normally referred to as "plated", but rather as "bonded jackets" even though plating is how they are made.

Incidentally, it is peak pressure and not velocity that determines a bullet's limitations. A Berry's that is loaded to 1250 fps in a 4" 9 mm barrel will go faster in a longer barrel and do just fine, as pressure is getting lower by the time 4" is reached and will get still lower beyond that distance in a longer tube.
 
I don't know what Speer does differently in their plating chemistry or process, but the result is harder than you get on Berry's and tolerates higher peak pressures.
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Once again: Not all plated are the same as far as core hardness and plating thickness.

The Speer calls the Gold Dot's plated surface a "bonded jacket" and it is made for full jacketed bullet velocities.
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Marketing talk; nothing more. The jackets and cores in Gold Dots are more tuned to the specific application. Other plated bullets, not so much. Rainiers tended to be the softest with the thinnest jackets. Xtreme and Berry's are on the thicker and harder side and Speer in the uberthumper calibers are the thickest.

link to THR thread Very early on different products jacket thicknesses and some core are laid out.
 
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