Plated bullets in 10 mm???
 

Hi,
has anyone used plated bullets for their 10mm loads? I have some Xpress 180 gr plated, that I had bought for my .40, but never shoot .40 after changing to a .357 Sig barrel. :)
I have a G20 Gen 3, just got it, and have a ton of 10 mm brass. I am just wondering what everyone uses for range ammo?

Thanks,
Steve

Plated bullets are excellent range ammo ... keep the velocities down and they work well. Not as cheap as pure cast but way cheaper than FMJ. I reload, so I used a lot of cast and plated low-level stuff in addition to my full power handloads.

I've never used plated, for any caliber I shoot, but just go ahead, and load to 180 grain lead recipes. You should do just fine, loading the plated bullets, at those levels

I am new to shooting/reloading for Glocks. So this whole thing with the barrels had me a bit leary of loading for it. I usually load and shoot cast, but since I haven't bought a new barrel yet..... I have Clays, Win Auto-Comp, Unique, AA#7, recommendations for the 180 gr plated loads? I haven't used #7 in anything but my JHP .357 Sig loads.

Thanks,
Steve

In most cases if you keep them below 1250 FPS they will work in just about any handgun.
I have reloaded many jacketed, plated and lead for Glocks in 10mm, 40 S&W and 9mm with no problems and much fun. :supergrin:

Sounds good. I'll get some loaded up. I just need to figure out which powder....


Thanks,
Steve

As mentioned, load them light. I've shot several thousand 135 grain with 6.0 grains of W231. That and 165 grain JHP's with 10.4gr BlueDot are my main practice rounds

Here is a few I tried in my G20SF..

http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/show....php?t=1442219

I have three favorite loadings for the 10mm with Rainier plated bullets. All of these loads are shot with my 6 inch lone wolf barrel, I always use winchester WLP primers, and I have tested these in starline, remington, and double tap brass and all 3 brass brands produce same velocity and results, oh and always 1.255 COAL......

• Light light plinking "lady and youth" load... 155 gr flat point, 7.3 grains Unique, clocks mid to high 1200's FPS, power level a hair more then a 40, very light kick.

• Warm load #1.... 155 flat point, 8 grains Unique, clocks low 1300 FPS, still light kick.

• Warm Load #2..... 180 flat point, 8 grains Power Pistol, clocks low 1200's. Recoil almost identical to shooting a full size Gov't 1911 with 230 gr hardball or any 230 gr non plus P loading. GREAT bowling pin blasting load.

• Hot Load #1..... 180 flat point, 8.5 gr Power Pistol. Clocks 1300 FPS. Nice fireball, stout kick, another great bowling pin blasting load.

• Hot Load #2...... 155 Flat point, 9.5 gr power pistol. Clocks 1500 FPS. Hot moma.

Expect 100-200 FPS less from stock length 4.6 inch barrel, perhaps 250 fps less from glock 29 barrel. Dont belive all the bad stuff people tell u about Rainiers cant be pushed fast. Mine work fine as long as you bell out the case mouth generously so plating wont be disturbed and use virtually no crimp, just enough to cartridges will chamber, no more no less

And one more thing- these are with Rainier plated, I have no experience with the Xpress brand, but I would assume velocities and pressures would be similar. From my experience the Rainier plated work fine pushed to these high velocities, but if you try my light loads first and work up u should be fine with the other brand plated u have

Thank you for all of that info. I feel pretty confident in loading those now for range use. How many grains of Unique would you put in for a 180 gr. plated FP? I was thinking 8, but looking at your 155 that may be a bit much even with C.O.L. at 1.260"

Steve

After doing more searching it looks like 7 gr will work pretty good with 180 gr at 1.260". Should be light.

Steve

Good advice. A tad more is ok too, up to about 1050 fps for a 180.

PowerBond plated bullets are great "copper bonded" (like a thickly-plated bullet). I have loaded 1500 of them in the past few months with great results - unlike the Berry's & Rainier type of plated bullets. I have loaded a few thousand traditional plated bullets before finding PowerBond.

I loaded up 100 of my 180 gr with 7 grains of Unique. I will try those on my next range trip. Actually only got 99, one case cracked, I guess the nickel got hardened.

Steve

I like the 11.0 grains of AA#7 group, what OAL are you using?

Steve

Rainer or Berry's 200 grains with 12.0 grains of AA#9. Never had a problem, accurate. Have to be a little careful when seating that the seating stem does not flatten the nose too much since they are softer than jacket bullets.

Hi
1.260". All the loads are that length. I didn't write it very large, but it's written under '180gr SPEER TMJ'..

Ok good, I'm going to try that load also.

Thanks,
Steve

Plated bullets are great. I use them almost exclusively for my plinking rounds in all handgun calibers.

For 10MM, I have loaded 180 Grain bullets with as little as 5.7 Grains of Unique and it functions all my 10's just fine. The slide tends to move sluggishly however.
Typically I load 6 grains of Unique under a 180 X-treme plated bullet. I get about 1000 FPS out of a Glock 20 with a steel guide rod and 22# spring. It feels like a light 9MM!

X-treme bullets states that their bullets can be pushed to 1200 FPS without issue. I have pushed them to 1400 FPS without coppering (is that even a word?) or leading.

Berry's markets a "double-struck" plated bullet rated to 1400.

I've used them both and can recommend them with confidence.

ETA: COAL is 1.250, primers are CCI #300 or Federal #150's.

arkdweller22 - That is good to hear, I have been looking at Berry's also, as I haven't been able to find anymore of the Xpress locally. I did end up loading 100 rounds of the Xpress 180 FP over 7 gr of Unique and used OAL of 1.260" with WLP primers. It's good to know that I can go down to 6 and get a good load.

Thanks,
Steve

Piperman, I have no experience with unique powder and a 180 gr slug in 10mm, but yes I agree I think 8 grains would be very very high pressure. Personally I have found in the 180 gr weight power pistol to work very well for light to medium to hot, and blue dot around 11 grains for really hot 180 grain loadings, 11 gr blue dot clocks 1385 fps from my 6 inch barrel

OhioGlockMan, after I started re-reading everything and looking at other empirical data, I realized that might be pretty hot. I don't have any Blue Dot, that was why I was looking at the Unique, and AA#7. I don't use the 180gr slugs in .40 any more, since I don't like the round, I wanted to use what I had for now, and get some experience loading 10mm loads. I may get some blue dot and work some of that up. I never cared for the Unique in my .45, just seems really dirty. I only have a stock Glock 20 barrel for now. Does anyone make a fully supported barrel for the Glock?

Steve

piperman,

Unique will work great for what I call light "lady & youth" loads in the 10mm, up to a tad bit more power then the .40, but you will need to use power pistol or blue dot or #9 or 800X for hot loads. Well I bought my lone wolf barrel a couple years ago and its fully supported- some people recently on here have said their new lone wolf barrels are NOT fully supported. I wrote lone wolf company an e-mail and they stated they still are all fully supported. I don't know what to make of that honestly. Whatever aftermarket barrel you get I highly recommend a 6 inch, it will add 100-150 FPS without having to resort to higher pressures and you dont notice it when target shooting. I just put my stock barrel back on in a miniute for CCW

Oh and Ill add I LOVE power pistol, thats the one id recommend for all round use in the 10

OhioGlockMan,

I had read that too, that was why I was concerned. I didn't want to have to go to Bar-Sto if I didn't have to, lots more money but I know they are good.
I was thinking of getting the ported barrel if I went longer, which was also my desire to do. Yes, keep the stock one for CCW for sure. I may just go get some Power Pistol then. I can load hotter with that than Unique, if I so desire, which would be nice. I suppose a 22# spring might be a good idea too?

Steve

For me range ammo is my SD, HD and hunting ammo. I practice, plink and have fun with my working ammo.

In short no plated bullets will ever visit my barrel. :)