Your most preferred coated 9mm bullets

[nonamehavei]

I use Lucky13s zombiecoat 147s almost exclusively now. Great cast bullet with a neon green powder coat.

[muncie21]

I've only tried two brands and prefer them both..does that count?

BBI in 147FP and135RN
Bayou in 124TCG, 124RN, 135RN and 147FP

[IDescribe]

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.

James is the cast lead expert and can speak more on it than I can.  But, basically, when it comes to lead, barrel fit super important.  Most jacketed bullets are sized .355.  Most lead and coated lead are .356.    But you can shoot .356 jacketed bullets in 9mm Luger, and you can shoot .357 or even .358 lead in 9mm Luger.   Many pistols benefit from using the larger sized bullet.  They obturate better, and they're less likely to lead the barrel.  With jacketed, both of my 9mm CZs are more accurate with .356, and in the very limited testing I've done with coated lead (with my Shadow Line only), .357 seems like it's trending the same way. 

I haven't bought BBI in a few years, but they were the first coated bullet I used, and I liked the company a lot.  If they're producing 9mm bullets at .357, that's definitely worth heading back their way for a trial.  And by "trial" I mean I'll buy a case.   Note that this is their 125gr, though.  When you go oversized, you will have to shorten OAL a few hundredths compared to standard size of the same profile, and in the case of 147gr bullets, that would likely have you seating past the mechanical limit where the interior of the case starts to narrow.  If I were set on 147gr, I wouldn't buy more than 100 from BBI to test. 

Generally speaking, ACME is my favorite coated lead company, though when it comes to 124/125gr, I have had great success with and love the Bayou 124gr TCG.  And if YOU want 147gr, you might want to try out the ACME 145gr RN.

[bubbas4570]

Prairie Firearms
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.

[painter]

Prairie Firearms
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.

If 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.

Is the Hi-Tek coating powder, or some other compound?

[IDescribe]

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. 

[J Lee]

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.

[IDescribe]

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.]

[J Lee]

ID, you've got motivated to try the BBIs I've had on my loading bench since before Christmas.  Off this afternoon so will get the press set up to load with 231 and test  in my P07. Might be next week before I can chrono but the .357 results in your CZ has got me interested.

SP, sorry we've drifted a bit in your thread but this is usually how I discover.

[Scarlett Pistol]

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.

Deeper, equivalent, or not as deep as this little episode you helped me through? Just for reference.

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.



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).

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

SIDE NOTE: Having to translate tables into HTML coded tables is annoying, anyone know of a tool that does it automatically?

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]

[bsand]

Just do not get any brand of them 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.

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!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[zormpas]

Bayouuuuuuuuuuuu!

[SPO1SHADOW]

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.

[mrcabinet]

I'll throw another vote in for Lucky 13 Zombies. The 125 gr 9mm are great - been shooting them for almost three years now. Great product, great service and great guys to deal with.

[bubbas4570]

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.