pushing plated bullets too hard

Being retired and living out in the country, I do a lot of pistol shooting for recreation--paper and metal targets...and a few turtles in my ponds and skunks in the yard. I reload for accuracy using lead and plated bullets. I buy plated bullets from X-Treme and Barry's. I don't push them hard since I have found better accuracy with lower velocities. For example, I run 230 grain 45 ACP bullets at about 725-750 fps. In all, I load 32, 380, 9mm, 9mm Makarov, 40 S&W, 41, 44, and 45.

When I need velocity, such as for personal protection, I use jacketed bullets.

Gene Pool
 
In reality, bullets should not have velocity specifications, but instead pressure specifications, except for the problem that most handloaders have no means to measure pressure. If the finished round achieves 1100 fps from your revolver, and its okay, then it won't fly apart when you shoot the same round from a carbine. The velocity rating is a wild guestimate based on how they expect a bullet to be used. In other words, if you have a 1200fps limit on the bullet, it will be good for any load that would produce 1200fps from a Glock, even though your contender will send it out a lot faster.

Plated bullets are usually have a soft lead core. When over pushed in a revolver (pressure, not velocity) the bullet over obturates, and then has to be swaged back down to size with the forcing cone. This has more to do with losing the plating than the velocity. It also accelerates wear on the forcing cone. Generally, the bullet itself with withstand higher pressures as well as higher velocities from carbines or your Contender.
 
Plated bullets have more friction than jacketed bullets; same everything, cast bullet goes the fast, followed by jacketed and then plated. I only use them for pistols, not rifles, with the only exception being m1 carbine.

There is a speed limited determined by the max rpm. Plated bullets are just slightly better than cast bullets. It is function of bullet diameter and barrel twist. This only applies to rifles, pistols seldom reach that limit.

-TL
 
I found it depends a lot on the 'Plating' process.

The actual electrical plating process, soft/pure/CLEAN lead that has electrochemical plating, bonding the copper to the lead core they seem to work very well at reasonably high velocities.
Same rules apply with thin jacketed bullets, don't push them so fast they can't hold the rifling, or you will find fragments of the jacket peppering the target around the main bullet hole,
And since the bullet didn't hold the rifling, accuracy drops since the bullet didn't have enough spin...

The second type is copper or brass 'Washed',
The 'Plating' is very thin, can usually be scratched off the bullet with a thumbnail, and it gets cut through by the rifling, does weird things,
And leaves a lot of lead in the barrel.
I've not had much luck with 'Washed' bullets, not that I shoot much ammo through toe shooters to start with...

I've tried to reproduce the electrochemical ('Hot') plating process, although the results were fine, it wasn't economical to do on a smaller scale...
For the lead to take a proper plate of copper, it has to be VERY pure, and therefore it will be 'Soft'.
You can 'Wash' anything, even plastic or nylon, so I always wonder what the washed bullets are made of... (China industral heavy metal waste?)
 
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