http://forums.accuratereloadin...121055002#1121055002

I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

Why plate the bullets?

Jim

Call your local plating vendor. He will tell you .004 is a hell of a lot of plating. When you plate that thick the sharp edges will build up a fin. No matter what I tell you, will believe the plating vendor when he tells you his mimimum lot charge is maybe $100 - then so much per part added to the min lot charge.

Thanks for the info. I am flying blind here and just tossing around ideas.

My main goal is to find an inexpensive way of shooting a Big Bore when my local cost of bullets is over $80 /50 pieces.

The answer is simple: start casting yourself...

You would need molds casting at least twice the depth of plating you desire to start with undersize.

To try standard size, would make standard dimension cast bullets twice the plating depth.

The metal has to be extruded somewhere...

You can electroplate bullets with a small rectifier, plating solution, anode and a glass container. No need to get an undersized mould as the plating is generally just a few millionths of an inch thick (100amp hours of copper plating yields a plating of about .0113 inch). The problem is the plating won't hold up to the stress of firing a high velocity rifle round.

Doubless hit it on the head ...start casting, there is an initial out lay which dissapears real quick when one starts shooting the big bores...i did that with my 416 Ruger ...plus its good therapy making your own proj
Daniel

A properly sized cast bullet with gas check and proper lube can be pushed at 2000fps+. Not to hard to do. If you still feel the need to have a coated bullet you could look at powder coating them. It is much better than plating them anyway. Berry's lists a maximum velocity of around 1200fps for their copper plated bullets. Anything much over that and the plating is coming off and will affect the accuracy.

When I started casting bullets I bought some of the equipment used from ebay. It has allowed me to shoot more than I could before. I have molds for both pistol and rifles and it's quite the fun hobby in of itself.

I use Berry's plated 350 gr. bullets regularly in my Browning M'86. 45-70 at 1,70 f.p.s.+ velocity just about every time the gun goes to the range, withiout ANY problems at all. Of course, I do the same thing with bullets cast of linotype with the same results.