Marco Califo said:
Berrys Bullets says YOU CAN USE JACKETED BULLET DATA. just stay under max velocity for your plated bullets.
"Load data from any load manual or website can be used. Full-metal jacketed, lead bullet, or plated bullet load data can be used as long as the following standards are adhered to:
I don't dispute what Berry's web site says but I don't think we should rely on it, because it makes no sense whatsoever. Load data are specific to the actual bullet used (not just the weight), the actual case used (not just the caliber/chambering), and the actual primer used (brand, and magnum or not magnum) ... in addition to the powder type and charge. I've been loading Berry's plated bullets for probably ten years, maybe more. I have loaded and shot tens of thousands of them, mostly in .45 ACP. I have seen their suggestions regarding what load data to follow change over the years. At one time it was "lead bullet data." At another time it was "jacketed bullet data." Now it's "any bullet of the same weight."
WRONG! Over at the M1911.org forum, one of the members who is a bullseye shooter and avid reloader started a database of bullet specifications. This was precisely because of vendors like Berry's, who sell bullets but don't provide load data. The idea was to see what bullets most (or least) closely match up with other bullets.
https://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?77249-Collecting-Dimensions-Bullet-Data
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...uItM0glf7wjhd8/edit?hl=en&hl=en#gid=519572970
My own early experience with Berry's 230-grain plated, round-nose is a good example. I had settled on Winchester 231 for powder by the highly scientific expedient of buying what my local shop had on his shelf that day. Same thing for primers: Winchester large pistol. Knowing that I was going to start reloading, I had been saving my brass for quite some time, and I was shooting almost exclusively Winchester "white box." So I was into Winchester for everything other than the bullets.
So I looked up .45 ACP on the Winchester/Hodgdon web site, and I plugged in 230 grain for the bullet weight and Winchester 231 for the powder. They only show two loads, one for a
lead round nose and the other for a full metal jacket
flat point bullet. At the time, Berry's catalog was advising us to use mid-range data for lead bullets, so that's what I went with. The Hodgdon site (and the Winchester printed reloading data book) told me that the starting load should be 4.3 grains, which was supposed to generate 699 fps. The max load was 5.3 grains, which was supposed to generate 834 fps -- so the max load was pretty close to the military spec for .45 ACP.
I split the difference and started at (IIRC) 4.8 grains and 5.0 grains. I expected velocities in the mid-700s. 4.8 grains actually produced 65x fps, and 5.0 grains was just bumping into 700 fps.
I use Lee's Autodisk powder measure, so I don't get to tune my loads to the nearest tenth of a grain. I used a more accurate, drum-type measure for the sample loads, but for production I use the Autodisk. The next larger aperture happens to drop 5.4 grains in Winchester 231. By the book, that's above the max load. I tried it anyway, and it produced about 760 fps with zero signs of overpressure. By the book, I was OVER the maximum load, but the velocity I got was 9 percent less than the predicted velocity for the max load.
Why? That M1911.org database holds the answer. Among 230-grain bullets (jacketed and plated), Berry's is about the shortest
bullet in the bunch. So, setting the C.O.L. based on other [longer] bullets means there's more volume left in the case under the Berry's bullets, thus lower pressure and lower velocity.
Will you blow up a gun following Berry's guidance? Probably not. But don't expect the resulting velocities to match the published data you cribbed from a different bullet and case combination.
