Glocks and plated bullets

24 October 2016, 15:30

I am familiar with the the practice of avoiding cast bullets in Glock pistols (or any polygonal bore), in favor of jacketed bullets. What about plated bullets like Berrys, etc? Have they had any adverse effects in such barrels?

24 October 2016, 18:14

Woodhits

Have at it: plated bullets are fine to use in Glocks. Rogers Shooting School in Georgia prefers plated bullets due to the decreased risk of jacket fragmentation on their steel targets.

During the five days that I was there, I shot a couple thousand rounds of plated 9mm through my factory Glock barrel without cleaning. 90% of the shooters on the line were also using Glocks with plated bullets.

Multiply that by the number of classes they've held over the past few decades and I think any issue with plated bullets would have revealed itself by now.

24 October 2016, 19:19

McKay

Yes I use the Heavy Plated bullets from X-treme Bullets. Ran tens of thousands of them down glocks and other guns.

24 October 2016, 19:27

p dog shooter

The fact is many have shot thousands of rounds of cast bullet through their glocks with out trouble.

one just has to be careful about keeping the barrel clean

24 October 2016, 19:38

dpcd

It is a hyped up myth; use hard cast in them all you want. Like they said not to use cast in Desert Eagles; hell, I shot a thousand of them through it and it didn't plug up the gas port.

25 October 2016, 03:37

tiggertate

Yes and no. I know plenty of cases of people running good hard lead well lubricated bullets through Glocks in the thousands. I also know two who had blow-ups and the commonality was soft swaged lead 9MM handloads. I also know of a 470 Nitro Merkel blown up the same way.

Only my opinion but I believe if you are shooting good quality cast bullets of known composition and diameter, you are probably safe. If you are shooting soft, poorly made, or slightly undersized bullets with a high degree of leading you are running a much higher probability of a kaboom.

To directly address your question, I shoot plated Rainier bullets in my 10MM G40 with complete abandon.

25 October 2016, 11:17

Idaho Sharpshooter

hard cast, no issues to date.

I used a lot of the Laser-Cast in my Glocks over the last four years.

As a rule, the mfgrs hate it when you use reloads. Period.

Rich

25 October 2016, 19:15

Rusty

I thought that is why they make Berry's bullets?

Rusty
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26 October 2016, 00:10

noylj

I know some one will call me names, but why aren't these questions directed to the bullet manufacturer?
For example, just a quick check on the Berry's site found this:
Question: Can I shoot your plated bullets in my Glock?
Yes. We have a large contingent of loyal Glock shooters using our bullets. The plating is thick enough that you will not get lead fouling in your bore, which is the nemesis of polygonal barrels.

We are just civilians. We can talk about what we "think" and our experiences, but the manufacturer should be the one who knows. I don't want someone's safety riding on what my experiences are and I am not going to push any one do anything the manufacturer does not recommend.

The thing about Glocks is that so many people don't know anything about lead bullets or polygonal barrels (particularly when they first came out), don't know to check the bore frequently as they shoot to verify the bullets are not leading the bore, and don't know that a LOT of very fast shooting heats up the bore and will make any leading progressively much worse at an accelerating rate. Thus, they broke almost every rule and suffered another Glock KB.

26 October 2016, 01:41

duckboat

I shoot Ranier 200g bullets out of my 45 GAP with no problems. They can be a little more touchy when seating the bullet compared to jacketed, but after I got the hang of it, they worked out fine.

29 October 2016, 02:07

tiggertate

quote:
Originally posted by noylj:
I know some one will call me names, but why aren't these questions directed to the bullet manufacturer?
For example, just a quick check on the Berry's site found this:
Question: Can I shoot your plated bullets in my Glock?
Yes. We have a large contingent of loyal Glock shooters using our bullets. The plating is thick enough that you will not get lead fouling in your bore, which is the nemesis of polygonal barrels.

We are just civilians. We can talk about what we "think" and our experiences, but the manufacturer should be the one who knows. I don't want someone's safety riding on what my experiences are and I am not going to push any one do anything the manufacturer does not recommend.

The thing about Glocks is that so many people don't know anything about lead bullets or polygonal barrels (particularly when they first came out), don't know to check the bore frequently as they shoot to verify the bullets are not leading the bore, and don't know that a LOT of very fast shooting heats up the bore and will make any leading progressively much worse at an accelerating rate. Thus, they broke almost every rule and suffered another Glock KB.

That's fine in theory. Until you ask Glock the same question and they say not no but HELL NO. Who do we believe?

29 October 2016, 07:02

Steve E.

Ran about 3k of the Berry's bullets through my G22 and nothing bad happened.

Steve.......

29 October 2016, 09:02

sputster

A host of answers. I will give some Berry's bullets a try as they are available nearby.

Thanks all,

31 October 2016, 20:19

deltam

Another relative newcomer to the bullet scene is PC bullets. I have shot commercially available poly coated bullets successfully in my polygonal barrel handguns. Some folks, especially those who roll their own, have had mixed results.