Jacketed or non jacketed ammo?

C

climo

Inactive
I'm new to handguns and just picked up an older Ruger P85 9 mm. It's in great shape since my friend hardly shot it and he has owned it since new.
Anyway, I've heard conflicting stories on what type of ammo you should use and when. Some say only use the jacketed bullets so the barrell remains in good shape. Others say just use regular non jacketed bullets. Since the P85 is older you think I should spend the extra $$ and get the jacketed 9mm ammo?
I also heard that revolvers can fire just about every type of ammo <cheap to expensive> and not have any problems. A semi-auto pistol cannot do that. Is this true?
 
If you look in the right places, your question becomes a moot point. You can get a box of 50 jacketed 9mm rounds for less than $5. See www.natchezss.com for deals on S&B and CCI Blazer. I don't think you can find any factory 9mm lead rounds for cheaper than that.

Shooting regular lead through your gun will typically make it dirtier faster. You'll be cleaning a lot of Lead+powder out of your barrel rather than just power + miniscule bits of jacket material.
There's also the possibility with certain guns (I don't know if your Ruger is one of them) that too much lead fouling will help cause an excessive pressure condition with time.

Never shoot reloads if you're unsure of their quality and/or where they came from. That can give you more trouble than any lead bullet can.
 
Everything else being equal, I draw the line at 1000fps. If my load is faster than that I use jacketed ammo. My experience with lead bullets has been when I exceed 1000fps I start to get extra lead in the barrel and keyholing.
 
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