Expansion with plated bullets?

[Confederate rifleman]

Just curious, do the various plated bullets expand and if so how do they compare to say, the non-mag .45 XTP's? They seem rather inexpensive and if they expand well I might give them a try.
P.S. my loads usually max out around 16-1700 fps. Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Just curious, do the various plated bullets expand and if so how do they compare to say, the non-mag .45 XTP's? They seem rather inexpensive and if they expand well I might give them a try.
P.S. my loads usually max out around 16-1700 fps. Thanks!

If the plated bullets are essentially pure lead they would be expanding bullets. If they are a hard lead alloy expansion would not be likely......unless you are into shooting motor blocks!

I would think the plating would have little to no effect on the expansion characteristics of the core metal.

Comparing different bullets expansion characteristics is not a simple proposition. If you shoot different bullets into a consistent medium under identical conditions at the same velocity you can of course observe and or measure comparative expansion. How those results would relate to performance on a live animal is entirely another question.

 

[GM54-120]

Im not sure yet but i might this weekend.

I know in the 50 Beowulf at close to 1800fps the Rainier 50cal plated 335gr hp is like a Powerbelt. PANCAKE!!

 

[Confederate rifleman]

I like pancakes :twisted:

 

[sabotloader]

Confederate rifleman

I like pancakes also for breakfast but I do not want a bullet to pancake - it robs to much energy to soon....

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Sabotloader, I agree.However,the powerdump of one of my Winchester 230 jhp's at 1450 fps is awe inspiring.I routinely dig these out of the dirt expanded FLAT and over an inch in diameter, but I still get pass throughs on quartering shots.Nast nasty little pancakes...

 

[sabotloader]

Confederate rifleman


This is my ideal of a perfect pancake....

 

[GM54-120]

Finally got to shoot the GMB54 and the Rainier 50cal 300gr HP with 100gr BH209. It retained 234grs and didnt penetrate as far as the Barnes 325gr Expander and not nearly as far as the Rem 385gr CLHP.

Kind of a no Brainer there.

Very soft shooter though in the 6lb carbine. The mushrooms were in the .800 range. None of my expansion caparisons were very good though since the books were not well soaked. They shot most of my milk jugs too. :lol but i did shoot one jug by itself. The jug turned to shreds.

It held up ok for a little 300gr 50cal plated bullet at an estimated 1700fps.

I shot the little Barnes 155gr TAC-XP in the Accura 45 with 100gr of BH209 and it held almost 100%. It was moving way outside it fps rating. The 50cal 385gr CLHP held 382gr though. I think its going to replace my Barnes Original and half the cost.