Looking for your favorite coated 9mm bullets. How did they perform? How was bullet seating with your CZ's (plunk test)? Powders they did best with when you loaded them? Any other important info or reasons these are you preferences. If you have a few please feel free to share them all! Looking forward to what you all have to share!
125 Black Bullets CN
125 Black Bullets CN
I assume this is Black Bullets International and not Precision Black Bullets, correct?
Assuming it is BBI, do you have any on hand? Could you measure diameter for me? BBI says they are .356, but I have read a few recent accounts of them being a little over-sized, possibly .357, and that would be very exciting if true. 8)
BAM! 125gr BBI will be my next purchase. ;D
Is it that significant of an accuracy gain or what makes the .357 coated bullets that much better than .356? You know your stuff and shoot a lot, so I'm really curious about your interest.
Prairie FirearmsIf those bullets are indeed powder coated, the process went completely wrong. It's impossible for properly cured powder coating to be damaged by a light sprinkling of water. Improperly cured powder, or uncured powder, will literally fall off the part without the addition of water.
Premium Hi-Tek supercoat projectiles
9mm 124gr RN .356
As I said earlier, they were flawless prior to the light sprinkle from the rain falling. And the amount of precipitation falling did NOT cause me any worries with me leaving my pistol or 308AR laying unprotected on the firing line. This is why I never thought to cover the ammunition.....something in the powder coating apparently did not react well with being re wetted.
Prairie Firearms doesn't use powder coat. They use the Hi-Tek imported by Bayou Bullets.
I just wrapped an ACME bullet, which uses the same Hi-Tek coating, in a wet white paper towel for about ten minutes, and there was zero coating transfer to the paper towel.
One of the most frequent failures in the application of Hi-Tek coating is incomplete/insufficient curing. ACME is one of the few that cures properly. If Prairie bullets are affected this way by water, then Prairie is most likely not curing properly.
I haven't tried ACME yet but think I will.
I haven't tried ACME yet but think I will.
Dimensional consistency from bullet to bullet is among the best. No curing issues. And the coating is evenly applied.
My only warning is that their 124gr RN seats considerably shorter than most in a CZ -- around 1.06. They haven't caused me a problem personally, and they've been very accurate for me, but I know people start to get nervous when OAL gets really short, so it's worth mentioning. My current preference for 124/125 is the Bayou 124gr TCG, but if this BBI (another quality producer) 125gr is oversized at .357, that could become my go-to, for CZ pistols anyway.
THE CORRECT BULLETS:
PS- this looks terrible on the app since I put the data into html tables. View on the browser to make the data easier to read, sorry about that.
I swung by and got the correct bullets from H&S this morning. I could tell he was super embarrassed and he apologized profusely. He readily made things right, so moving along to the important stuff... Here is a picture of the correct 125 gr RNFP next to a Berry's plated 124 gr RN.
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161231/38100688294932415d589a583ab611a7.jpg)
I took length measurements from a sample and I also did the plunk test. Then loaded a few dumby rounds to validate my Max OAL from the plunk test. Here's the numbers for length, Max OAL, and two working OAL's (just for the heck of it).SIDE NOTE: Having to translate tables into HTML coded tables is annoying, anyone know of a tool that does it automatically?
125 gr H&S Avg Bullet Lngth 0.5824 Standard Dev 0.0007 Max OAL 1.085 Adjusted OAL (Max - 0.015) 1.07 Adjusted OAL (Max - 0.010) 1.075 Using First Working OAL Case Length 0.75 Bullet Length 0.582 OAL 1.07 Seating Depth 0.262 Using Second Working OAL Case Length 0.75 Bullet Length 0.582 OAL 1.075 Seating Depth 0.257
Good news: There is lead load data for my two powders (700-X and BE-86).
Bad news: They both have longer OAL.
Good news: The seating depth now seems to be safe with my working OAL
Good news: I have seen seating depths in this range for this bullet weight. The seating depths for the bullets were deeper than mine with working OAL.
Bad news: Those are generally for jacketed hollow points, so that is not usable load data.
Summary: My seating depth seems to be within the safe limits with both working OAL (so I would use the shorter one to be safe). Without load data this means I would have to make work ups on my own. When reading and asking about this on the forum it seems like a Chronograph is a good tool, but I have also gotten direction that there are other better signs of reaching the top of pressure windows. That being said...
I am assuming that since my OAL is much shorter than the load data that exists I have greatly reduce my starting loads. Should I just go buy a chronograph or are there other legitimate ways to do this safely? If so, please share so I can have clear directions (links, articles, other posts, anything you have I'll take). Thanks again for sticking this one out with me and being patient, and thank you again for the help!
125 gr LCN 700-X 1.125" OAL STARTING LOAD 2.9 gr 899 FPS 23,700 PSI MAXIMUM LOAD 3.4 gr 1,003 FPS 31,600 PSI Source: Hodgdon Reloading Site 125 gr Lead RN BE-86 1.120" OAL STARTING LOAD 5.1 gr NA NA PSI MAXIMUM LOAD 5.7 gr 1,179 FPS NA PSI Source: Alliant Reloader's Guide - Online/td]
Just do not get any brand of them wet.This could be the reason I had two FTF last match. It was raining hard, and I kept picking up the last round I unchambered and putting back into my magazine. They got wet!
In my experience the coating turns into a feed ramp sticker, and one that I cannot determine by sight afterwards. And it didn't take much more than a light sprinkle of rain to do this to mine.
Other than that they worked as advertised, just nothing I want anything do with anymore....as these were the only failure inducing ammunition I can find....good for training in random FTF's.
Before getting sprinkled, they were flawless.
The 2 easiest ways to tell if a bullet using the Hi-Tek coating is coated and cured correctly right out of the box, 1st, can you see through the coating, does the coating appear translucent? 2nd do they have a strong odor of burning wire when fired. If you find either then the bullet is not coated or cured correctly no matter who makes the bullet. Just because a big name in the industry makes the bullet does not mean they know how to apply or cure the coating and the evidence is overwhelming in the market.After reading the replies above, and yours, I am inclined to think the coating is incorrectly cured. I did not think the coating is quite as "thick" as it should be (looking at other coated boolits), and I do not notice an "off" smell while firing, but the coating is definitely nothing like the other coatings I have seen in the above pictures. Although might even are green, they do not seem nearly as bright or (for lack of any other descriptor) like the candy coating of an M&M...just think, more along the lines of a tumble lube coat.
I haven't tried ACME yet but think I will.
Dimensional consistency from bullet to bullet is among the best. No curing issues. And the coating is evenly applied.
My only warning is that [the ACME] 124gr RN seats considerably shorter than most in a CZ -- around 1.06. They haven't caused me a problem personally, and they've been very accurate for me, but I know people start to get nervous when OAL gets really short, so it's worth mentioning. My current preference for 124/125 is the Bayou 124gr TCG, but if this BBI (another quality producer) 125gr is oversized at .357, that could become my go-to, for CZ pistols anyway.
[Clarified who "they" referred to.]
I just loaded up some ACME 124's for my Shadow Target 2 at 1.070 for consistent plunks and spins. At about 1.073 they would plunk but not spin. I use HP-38 and I've got some at 3.9 and some at 3.7 to see which I like better. I'm looking for soft repeatable shots.Welcome!
My Standard 124gr ACME load for my Sig P226 and HK VP9 is 3.9gr at 1.090 OAL.
Thanks for the Welcome!
The tolerances are fairly decent I think. I actually went to 1.068 - 1.071
I loaded 100 last night and all plunked and spun freely so I think I'm in the right window for my chamber.
My thinking is if your test rounds wouldn't spin at 1.073, and you've verified your tolerance brings you to within .002 of what's too long, I'd add a little more margin for safety is all.
Thanks, I'll bump it down a bit then.
BAM! 125gr BBI will be my next purchase. ;D
So you want a generous clearance present when even your longest round hits the chamber. That's what assures 100% functionality. That's the thinking behind what he's telling you.
Now I just need to dial in the charge.