Plated bullet reloads?

[Patronen]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I am somewhat confused by what you mean by 'plated bullets'. A production military-type FMJ will be a copper 'cup' filled with lead. It is not 'plated'. I've never measured one but I'd bet the jacket is in the .010" - .015" range, at least. (Think 3 to 5 sheets of notebook paper thick). There's usually some copper jackets lying on the floor at the range; I'll grab one next time I'm there and measure it.

There is a kind of cheap bullet that is commonly called 'copper washed' which is exactly like it sounds. So thin you can pick it off with your fingernail. I would expect these to behave like a 'standard' lead bullet. I hate these; they will deform if you drop them, and sometimes just by loading them in a magazine.

A few years back a guy at a gun show was peddling the copper washed bullets saying people were buying them to get around gun club range rules that banned lead ammo. Your spot on when you say you can pick it off with a fingernail.