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The ammo we used at Blackwater
It was some astonishing stuff. Made by International Cartridge Corp., of Reynoldsville PA. It's made of sintered copper and tin. The 9mms weighed in at 100 grains, the ,45s at 155. We shot steel plates at 3 yards and no splash back, no jacket fragments, a couple of times I felt something touch my leg, that was it. But it shot like the devil. Todd Jarret was shooting at 6" targets at 100 yards for the heck it it, knocked one down with 8 rounds, the rest grouped a little low, but it was a tight group. At 10 yards he shoot a one-hole group. They say it's as accurate as ball and I'd believe it.
Jarret said he became a believer when the inventor gave a little demo. He took an H&K subgun, held the muzzle 1-2" from a steel plate, and burned thru an entire magazine at full auto. All that he felt was a sort of draft from the muzzle gasses, and a cloud of copper dust. The company rep said they're now making hollow point. The key is that you can control the behavior by controlling pressure and heat, and made the bottom of the bullet behave differently from the tip. Because it's all copper and a little tin, there's no worry about EPA getting on a range's back over lead, and if you vacuum up the copper and tin they have scrap value.
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The most amazing thing is how light a case is. You go to pick it up and say, "Wow, that sure is light!" I had a few primers that needed to be hit twice in a reliable gun but otherwise it shoot well for me. The price is pretty outrageous but eventually the market will bring it down as demand increases.
Flash, do you mean you buy bullets (components) from Sinterfire? International's owner said they don't sell the components. He did mention that the bullets are brittle and require a precise, gentle crimp, but I'd still be interesting in loading a few of my own.
Don,
Not directly from Sinterfire unless you buy more than a 1,000 at a time, is my understanding. But you can buy 50, 500 or a 1,000 at frangibleammo.com.
I buy the 155 grain 45 bullets. He also has or can get 175 grain. I have purchased and used those also, and the load data for any 185 grain bullet should provide a starting point. I use 10 grains of AA #5 with the 155 grain bullets, and 9 grains with the 175 grain bullets. That is close to the max, so you could use a lighter load as a start.
I am pretty sure they are Sinterfire bullets. They are brittle and I have had a bullet break in half and result in a squib. Luckily, I suspect as much and did not try to shoot the gun without pushing a cleaning rod down the barrel and extracting the broken piece. I have fired a couple thousand rounds of these bullets and this happened only that one time. All that is required is a little extra caution anytime you get a malfunction when using these bullets because they can break when hitting the feeding ramp as the gun cycles. My experience is that it is a rare occurrence, however.
And it isn't a problem for a duty gun because you only used these bullets in training, never in your carry gun.
I started buying these bullets and making my own loads because frangible ammo is so expensive, and you need a lot of it to do any serious extreme close quarter training.
It is possible that the one bullet that broke was damaged by me if I crimped the case too tight.
Just checked FrangibleAmmo.com and I see that a case of 1000 .45 bullets has gone from $180 last October when I last bought some, to $204 today. Glad I bought a lot, wish I had bought more.
Sounds like the stuff I buy from Sinterfire, through a PA state patrolmen who seems to have a franchise from them for internet sales of smaller amounts (1000 bullets or less) to individuals. I love it for steel targets because I don't have to worry about ricochet or splatter. I've also used it in the shoot houses at Gunsite, and it worked great. Shooting through a paper target in front of a concrete block wall at about 6 feet and no splatter of either bullet fragments or concrete that I could notice.
I load the 155 grain .45 the same as for 185 grain Gold Dot HP. I'm not sure what a hollow point frangible would accomplish.