Best plated hard cast 40 cal bullet for the cost ?.

[gew98]

I'm going to start loading some 40 S&W brass up for a buddy since I now have a bucket of once fired brass. I'm open to suggestions on ideas for the best plated cast bullet out there on the cheap to buy. What would one suggest ?.

[Guesser]

Plated bullets; Berrys, Rainier, are not hard cast. They are quite soft inside the copper plating, swaged, I would suggest. Call Berrys and ask.

[Rocky Raab]

Berry's uses a lead alloy that isn't far from wheelweights. They cast their cores, impact form them to the right shape and then plate them. Finally, they are impact-formed a final time for dimensional accuracy. Rainier does much the same thing, although I have not toured their plant as I have Berry's. Both companies make very good bullets and have exceptional customer support.

[sig2009]

Precision Delta FMJ. Berrys and Rainier are plated and cost more than Precision Delta FMJ.

[Guesser]

I did not pose the original question but I'm interested in the answer to it.
WWs do not constitute "hard cast"
Does anyone plate hard cast bullets and offer them in bulk?

[wildphilhickup]

X2, I could use about 20,000.

[runfiverun]

hard cast denotes the use of an antimonial alloy instead of a tin/lead alloy.
the bhn of the plating will be harder than either alloy.
if you want them harder than you need to specify plated with copper and zinc or copper and tin alloys as the plating material.

[Bret4207]

Hardcast is an ambiguous advertising term that denotes relative hardness, but relative to what?

Who ever came up with that term should have to live with Rosie O'donell for the rest of their life!

[357shooter]

Are you looking for hard cast or plated? Companies like Berry's sell both, but they are different bullets. The hard cast are typically 15 BHN or more, but not always. It's a vague marketing term (like Bret4207 said) so you'll have to check each suppliers site for the approximate BHN.


I've had good success with Magnus bullets, in other calibers. Look at: http://magnusbullets.com/store/index.html and click the link for 40 bullets (if it doesn't go directly there).

I have limited experience with plated and can't offer suggestions other than the big guys like Berrys and Rainier, like others have recommended.

[Guesser]

All good information, but; using the common usage term "hard cast"; does anyone plate them??? Just trying to get an answer to the original question.

[357shooter]

Thought I answered that. There are plated and there are hard cast. They are two different bullets. Even Berry's sells both. But not plated hard-cast.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I use All of them,,, but the ones I am currently buying are X-treme Bullets. They are made the same way as Berrys and Rainier IE cast and then plated, and then sized.

The one thing that sets Xtreme apart is their prices include shipping. This is no small thing as their prices are nearly the same as other brands "without " the shipping.

www.xtremebullets.com

Randy

[mdi]

Hardcast is an ambiguous advertising term that denotes relative hardness, but relative to what?

Who ever came up with that term should have to live with Rosie O'donell for the rest of their life!

I agree. The term "hard cast" has lately become the the term used for just about any commercially cast lead bullet. I guess anything other than pure lead can be called "hard cast...


I vote we eliminate the term "hard cast" from our vocabulary as it has no definate meaning.

[Rocky Raab]

Me too. It is either meaningless or means anything one chooses to assign to it. Blessed Saint Elmer used the term for an alloy that probably wouldn't test over about BHN 12. Commercial casting companies call their products "hard cast" no matter WHAT the actual hardness might be. And many casters use the term to mean "Mine are harder than yours."

All meaningless.

So to Guesser I can truthfully answer, "Yes, you can get plated bullets with 'hard cast' cores. Just call Berry's or Rainier or any other maker of plated bullets. Because they all use lead cores that are harder than something."

[Guesser]

I was using the commercially accepted and widely used term "hard cast" as commonly applied in todays marketing of commercially produced and marketed lead alloy bullets. Most of the ones I see are called hard cast w/BHN advertised in no uncertain terms as being 18 or higher.
That is what I took the original question to mean. Seemed a simple and straight forward question, at the time.
I am now convinced that I was way too naive in that obvious assumption.
Thanks, guys.