Plated Bullets
There’s a lot to do this time of year, and the temp falling always reminds me I need to stock up on primers, powder and bullets so when spring time gets here I’ve got all the ammo I need. Last season, I found a company that I think makes some great 9mm bullets called HSM. I picked the 124 grain bullet they make for my 3-gun and USPSA load. These bullets are full metal jacket (fmj) round nose, pretty standard. The difference between these and most bullets, however, is that they are plated and not jacketed. This is why these are so much cheaper than say, Winchester 124 grain fmj bullets. The Winchester bullets are jacketed. This means that they start out life as a copper cup, which is stretched by a series of punches, in a huge punch press machine. Near the end of the process, a lead core is put into the jacket. A plated bullet, on the other hand, starts out as a lead core that is smaller than the final dimensions of the finished bullet, but has the same shape. The lead is immersed in a solution with copper suspended in it. This solution, when electricity is applied, allows copper to be deposited onto the lead core to form the jacket. The cores are electrically charged, and rolled at regular intervals to keep the deposition of copper even. This method has been used for years, but the bullets produced this way have gotten steadily more consistent. Now, 9mm bullets for 3-gun don’t need to be all that consistent, right? Well, no they really don’t. The interesting thing is that the plating method is growing in rifle bullets too. Federal Fusion ammo uses plated bullets. The new Speer Deep Curl bullets are plated. Both offer more than acceptable accuracy for much less than a jacketed bullet. For long range rifle competition, jacketed bullets are the way to go. But, if you need to save some money on your short-range ammo, try some plated bullets.
