The cost of shooting has increased these last couple of years. In the past year I have sold more casting equipment than ever before, a fact that confirms that the cost of CMJ bullets has been the main factor in this increase.
But casting your own bullets is a dark and mysterious art that only the most dedicated master. For us normal reloaders who only want to make holes in paper targets a new solution has made its arrival…
Bullet Corp
The okes at Bullet Corp took cast bullets to another level. Their bullets are hard cast lead but it is coated with a product called Hi-Tek.
Now here is the difference in the bullets that sets it apart.
1. Hard Cast Lead, most CMJ bullets are made of soft lead BTW. Hard cast lead will stand up much better to more powerful pistol loads… But just plain lubed hard cast lead will not perform well with a powerful, quick burning load and will foul your barrel, loose accuracy and will create smoke. Now coat that same hard cast lead and you have a different story…
2. The Hi-Tek Coating, this polymer like coating over the hard cast lead bullet now takes away the negatives. It acts much like the copper plating found on CMJ’s. You now have a hard cast lead bullet that will stand up to powerful, quick burning loads. The coating also removes the use of lube which in turn reduces fouling in your barrel and the smoke produced. It will also increase the accuracy of the bullet.
Bullet Corp recently sent me a batch of their 147 grain 9mmp flat point bullets coated in what they call “Kryptonite Green”…yes they have a lot of colours to choose from. These look good but in the end I am more concerned on how they perform.
So first thing was to see if the weight and length is consistent.
I took a sample of 20 Bullet Corp bullets and weighed them. They weigh a bit more than 147gr and my average weight was 148.45gr. This should not be a problem for what my intended purpose is.
On the length side they averaged out to 16.34mm, this is just a bit longer than the same size CMJ. Again this will not be problem.
The weight and length was consistent across the test sample.
Now on to loading these…
First, you need to flare your cases a bit more than for a CMJ. These bullets have a flatter bottom and I had to adjust my flare on my powder die a bit more aggressively to accommodate this and make sure the bullet does not fall while cycling the press. This is normal for cast bullets.
I adjusted my COL from 27.2mm to 27.8mm to accommodate the extra length of these. This was just me overthinking things and I am sure I could have left them at 27.2mm. As long as they feed in my guns I am happy.
Bullet Corp suggests that these are not crimped with a Factory Crimp Die. But I ran them through my FCD with a minimal crimp and had no coating shavings. The crimp is just enough to prevent setback and left no mark on the bullet.
I run all my rounds through the FCD. I use the FCD more for its post sizing abilities.
Once I had my dies set up I loaded 20 of 3 different powder volumes and went off to the range to shoot them over my chrony.
Ran them through 2 guns with different barrel lengths. All 3 volumes functioned perfectly and factored in the gun with the longer barrel but only the highest one gave me a velocity that will factor both guns.
(When I factor for our two competition guns I aim for 130 from the shorter barrelled gun and 135 for the long barrel gun. My load is higher than required and that is why I am not going to share it.)
This was my previous load for a similar CMJ bullet.
I checked each hole in the target for any signs of tumbling and found none at 5m and at 15m.
Accuracy was much the same for me as with a CMJ.
Before I went to the range I cleaned one of the guns barrels but left the other one dirty. When I got home I inspected the barrels and could not find any sign of fouling or leading.
So far I am impressed. I am going to load a few hundred of these and go shoot a few competitions.
Will report back soon.
In the meantime if you want more info about these you can head on over to Bullet Corp’s website below.
480BC plan to stock these soon.
Hi Derick, yes they easily survive the hammer test. I've also (vigorously) wiped mine with an acetone rag ... nothing comes off. That's not the be-all and end-all however; I still have a lot of leading in the last two inches of the pistol barrel. I cast my own and coat with Hi Tek. It's not the complete bullet that Bullet Corp supplies.
Does this bullets make the hammer test,like with powdercoated bullets? . One of my powder coated bullet hit with a hammer as flat as a R5 without paint chipping. Black spots is piant from my anvil.
