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Rainier plated bullets

K.T. Wolfie

K.T. Wolfie

.22LR
are junk!!!! I purchased some of their .45 & .429 cal bullets for plinking. I don't like running cast bullets through my 1911 and wanted the "cheapest" plated bullet I could get for having some fun with water jugs. Talk about junk! I lost about 25% of them due to the plating peeling off during insertion. Then lost another 25% to the bullets being loose in the case AFTER crimping. I was thinking maybe it was a bad batch or maybe it was the caliber but when I went to load up some .44 special, I got the same results. Some people may have no problems with 'em but I won't be buying any more, that's for sure! :mad:
 
Thanks for your assessment of them.

I had considered buying some of them, but so far have stuck with Berry's.
 
I've used Barrys with no problem but since plated bullets are right around the same price as jacketed in 9 and 10mm I just go with jacketed........other than some poly coated 10mm I have bought but not loaded. Those were only slightly more than cast and supposedly can load them as fast as plated, some say jacketed

if you flare the case mouth slightly more you might save the plating ?.........
 
Flaring the case mouth a little more will fix the plating problem. As far as being loose after crimping, if you are crimping with your die still adjusted for a previously used jacketed bullet, it may need a slight adjustment because of the bullet possibly being a thousandth or so under size. What is your aversion to cast bullets in your .45? It is probably one of the best platforms for cast with it's relatively low muzzle velocities. I get it with magnum velocities. Before I started powder coating my cast bullets, I shot nothing but jacketed in my .357, .44 mag, and .454.
 
I seem to have edited a rather important sentence from my original post. The Rainier bullet's diameter & weight is rather inconsistent, varying +/- .005" and +/- .3 grains. I have attributed it to the plating thickness, could be wrong?
Now, as far as the cases go, I swage/flare the mouth on my handgun cases and crimp after loading using a crimp die that is set with depth locks to give consistent crimps. Since I am getting a 25% failure rate, I do not believe it is the dies. Possibly the density or hardness of the bullet is inconsistent?

As far as cast bullets go, perhaps the alloys have gotten better over the years but when I started out doing my own reloads, the cast bullets left a whole lot of residue in the rifling and it made for a rather involved clean-up which I decided wasn't worth the cost difference, of course, I'm talking 30 years ago so perhaps the cast bullets have gotten better?

At any rate....I'm going with Highborn & Barry's this go around and see if they are better.
 
Yeah cast bullets have gotten much better and some of the better manufacturers offer some seriously hard bullets. I only shoot my own cast bullets now however. A varience in diameter of up to 5 thousandths is absolutely unacceptable.
 
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