All my manuals show .356" lead bullet diameter for 9mm Parabellum/Luger; .355" for jacketed. I wouldn't be using .357" bullets...
Polymer-coated bullets are way cleaner than pure lead... I like Blue Bullets but there are plenty of others.
Never tried or even heard of polymer coated. I'd be concerned about that shit getting in my barrel but I'll check 'em out.
Okay, let me elaborate for non-reloaders. Swaging is running the bullets through a die that changes the diameter. Go in .357 or whatever, come out .355. You can swage jacketed or lead bullets.
My concern is that I'm not sure about how the pressures of swaging are distributed and while it works fine to bring pulled bullets and form hard to find bullets to the correct size, my concern is that the bullet could wobble on exit and damage a suppressor. I know no mfg. would sign off on this, so I'm just trying to find out the collective knowledge. I guess like me most of you are trying not to do stuff like this with your can.
I don't use lead bullets in a can except for .22 cans. Plated bullets I tread like FMJ's since they've always pretty much worked like 'em. I have one takedown 9mm can but it doesn't really get dirty. But it'd be the Omega 9k I use these in.
If the bullet isn't perfectly distributed with respect to weight and twist it can come out of the barrel and wobble until it either straightens out due to spin or it gets worse and goes end over end, keyholing. If you swage and load bullets for a rifle that doesn't have a can and it's not keyholing, you still have no idea whether or not it's stable on exit. Fact: many bullets exit and wobble a short bit before stabilization --I've got a few high end cans that have the blast baffles oblong for just that reason and KAC does it too IIRC.
I didn't know about these 165s until I wrote this though and they're cheap as shit, I can crank out 1000 for less than $100. Probably gonna be the way to go provided the plating is even. That's the problem with plated bullets, sometimes the plating is uneven or barely there in spots. I'll have to get some to try out.
I don't shoot too many lead bullets. My Dad casts, swages, gas checks, pistol/rifle all that stuff, I'll be honest..........it looks like a huge PIA. He did get some (I think) polymer coated bullets from Missouri Bullet Co. this week that looks interesting.
I don't either, just the plated ones for bulk blasting 9mm rounds, .40 and .357 practice loads and .50BMG FMJ's (FWIW Rainier plates the 124 FMG RN and the .334 .50's very thick to the point it literally builds up a jacket --and that 9mm bullet is actually very accurate, I placed high in a competition using 'em). I got into swaging bullets on the small single stage for the BMG, pulled bullets are much cheaper. But yeah, sometimes loading can be a real PIA. Try loading .50 BMG --in bulk and belting for an M2HB. That's hard work. But it's a helluva lot cheaper than $1000 per 200rd. case 1in 5 API/T!
