Rainier Plated Bullets

[alwaltr817]

I now have a supply of these bullets to load up mild 45 ACP and 38 Special. As for these bullets, is it more important to reduce the powder load or keep the velocity down? In other words, do I need to a lower powder load for 45 ACP even when velocity is way less than 1,200 FPS? Also, is there OAL infor out ther for Rainier bullets? Finally the .357 125 G Rainiers have no crimp groove,.... taper crimp only? Thanks in advance...

 

[EddieCoyle]

I now have a supply of these bullets to load up mild 45 ACP and 38 Special. As for these bullets, is it more important to reduce the powder load or keep the velocity down? In other words, do I need to a lower powder load for 45 ACP even when velocity is way less than 1,200 FPS? Also, is there OAL infor out ther for Rainier bullets? Finally the .357 125 G Rainiers have no crimp groove,.... taper crimp only? Thanks in advance...

No need to reduce .45 ACP or .38 Special loads. I loads tons of the 230gr Rainiers in .45 ACP. I keep the C.O.A.L. at 1.275" and load 5.5 grains of W231.

You can lightly roll crimp the Rainier bullets. The "jacket" is thin enough and the lead soft enough to allow you to do this. Don't overdo it though. I haven't loaded them in .38 but I load them for my .500 Mag all the time and use a roll crimp.

 

[Lugnut]

No need to reduce .45 ACP or .38 Special loads. I loads tons of the 230gr Rainiers in .45 ACP. I keep the C.O.A.L. at 1.275" and load 5.5 grains of W231.

Eddie- I'm picking up some Berry .45 bullets later today. I've been loading my .45 with 5.2 gr W231 lately but at a COL of 1.260". Do you see any issues with that COL? With the plated bullets or otherwise? I think I used the 1.260" from a Speer manual.

 

[alwaltr817]

Thanks guys. I cant recall OAL length I used for 45 ACP but I believe I used 5.6 of 231. I plan to get a 550B soon so I need less expensive bullets for winter practice. I will continue to use XTPs for 357, 10MM, 45 WinMag...I'll correct this reply when I can look at my records. I used Power Pistol in my first round of 38 Special with XTPs....Thanks again..

 

[Big Daddy 45acp]

I started using these bullets last winter. Per the woman at Rainier (Phyllis?), she told me to keep the C.O.L. at 1.26.

I was running 4.6 gr. of Tite-Group, but recently switched to Clays. The Clays rounds are softer shooting.

 

[BillO]

I've been using Berry's and Rainier plated bullets for quite some time. All good results with the except poor accuracy of 357's. Shoots nice and clean and I can use them in Woburn Sportsmen's Club lead-only indoor range.

 

[jhrosier]

I shot a lot of Berry's .40 cal bullets through my Glock with good results.
I used full loads straight from the manuals for jacketed bullets with no problems from metal fouling and the accuracy was outstanding.

BillO, What model .357 was giving you an accuracy problem?

 

[BillO]

I had trouble in both my Smith 686PP and Model 19. I think I pushed them too fast. My 1100 fps 357's did much better.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Eddie- I'm picking up some Berry .45 bullets later today. I've been loading my .45 with 5.2 gr W231 lately but at a COL of 1.260". Do you see any issues with that COL? With the plated bullets or otherwise? I think I used the 1.260" from a Speer manual.

Not at all, 1.260" should be fine. With the pressure being so low in a .45 ACP, OAL isn't as big a deal as in say, the .40 (caveat: within reason!).

I was loading them as short as 1.250 for my S&W 4506 but the longer cartridges fed better in my 1911 - and ended up feeding equally as well in my 4506 and other .45's - so I went with that.

EDIT: If the people at Rainiers recommended 1.260", I'll try some at that length.

 

[BillO]

For what it's worth.... Watch out for Semi Wadcutter in 45ACP. I purchased alot of them only to find feeding problems in Glocks and my Para, but worked fine in Kimbers.

 

[Lugnut]

Not at all, 1.260" should be fine. With the pressure being so low in a .45 ACP, OAL isn't as big a deal as in say, the .40 (caveat: within reason!).

I was loading them as short as 1.250 for my S&W 4506 but the longer cartridges fed better in my 1911 - and ended up feeding equally as well in my 4506 and other .45's - so I went with that.

EDIT: If the people at Rainiers recommended 1.260", I'll try some at that length.

Thanks- I just bought some Berry's .45 RN plated bullets. The bullets are at least 30 thousandths of an inch shorter that the RN Speers' I've been using- both are 230gr. So I'm sure I can reduce the COL even more with Berry's but I think I'll keep them both at 1.260".

 

[EddieCoyle]

For what it's worth.... Watch out for Semi Wadcutter in 45ACP. I purchased alot of them only to find feeding problems in Glocks and my Para, but worked fine in Kimbers.

I had trouble with SWC in my S&W 1911, but they'd feed fine through the S&W 4506. I found that by loading them a little longer - so that the sharp "step" of the wadcutter shelf was sticking out of the case about 0.030"- made them feed flawlessly through the 1911.

 

[cbuxton41]

Been reading this and plan to reload some Rainier 230GR HP with 5.2 grs W231 for my SA 1911 Pinshooter. Rainier says load these bullets to lead data. The Hodgdon load data for W231 LRN says 4.3 to 5.3grs with an OAL of 1.200. All here say OAL should be 1.250 to 1.275. Will the 1.20 cause problems?

 

[Gammon]

No need to reduce .45 ACP or .38 Special loads. I loads tons of the 230gr Rainiers in .45 ACP. I keep the C.O.A.L. at 1.275" and load 5.5 grains of W231.

You can lightly roll crimp the Rainier bullets. The "jacket" is thin enough and the lead soft enough to allow you to do this. Don't overdo it though. I haven't loaded them in .38 but I load them for my .500 Mag all the time and use a roll crimp.

1.275 is the maximum OAL for the .45 ACP. There are a lot of guns out there that won't chamber a round of this length. I have had better luck with 1.250.

 

[Gammon]

For what it's worth.... Watch out for Semi Wadcutter in 45ACP. I purchased alot of them only to find feeding problems in Glocks and my Para, but worked fine in Kimbers.

I have had nothing but problems with plated swcs in .45. I won't touch them.

 

[Bugs100]

With so many different 45's I was having problems finding a OAL and a load that worked well in all of them. After over a year of trial and error I finally found that 5.1grs of W231 and a OAL of 1.250 worked perfectly in all of them, no matter what bullet I used.

 

[Lugnut]

I have used a ton a plated Rainier and Berry in .45 ACP. I use only 230gr ball ammo and that's all I'd use in a 1911. I had one bad jam but I attribute that to a light load and stock recoil spring. I was knew to reloading and didn't know much about adjusting springs to loads. I always loaded to 1.265"

 

[Ricochet]

I have found that my SW1911 also likes 230 FMJ RN set at 1.265." I usually load 5.3-5.5G of W231 inside. Shoots well.

 

[gerrycaruso]

I've used alot of Rainier bullets in .45acp with 4.5 of Titegroup and in .500 S&W, loaded to 1500 fps. Recoil is mild enough at that velocity that the lack of a crimp groove has never been a problem. Accuracy has been outstanding.

 

[EddieCoyle]

I've used alot of Rainier bullets in .45acp with 4.5 of Titegroup and in .500 S&W, loaded to 1500 fps. Recoil is mild enough at that velocity that the lack of a crimp groove has never been a problem. Accuracy has been outstanding.

I like them for the .500 as well. Titegroup is fast enough so that a heavy roll crimp isn't needed. Berrys makes plated .500 bullets with a cannelure, and I've loaded those to 1700fps with good results using H4227. You really have to crimp them good though because the bullet design only leave about 5/16" of bullet in the case.