coronel

Are Rainer bullets any good for personal protection in hollow point? I called Mastercast bullet company and they told me they use Rainer bullets in their remanufactured ammo. I am talking about 38 spec. +P and 357 magnum both respectively in hollow point.

rocky

Personally I would trust commercial defensive ammo first and foremost. Federal, Winchester PMC , ect. Yes they probably will work, but the newer designed stuff is made to expand and perform better.

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Nemo Me Impune Lacesset

Link to my kydex builds:http://rocknloadkydex.blogspot.com/

zxd9

You could do better. I wouldn't call Rainier plated bullets top tier. Speer Gold Dots would be better.

Are you making these for practice or carry? Personally I'd rather not carry my own reloads. I think the big boys have much better quality control than I.

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Musketeer

I am against reloads for carry. I only say that so you can then judge the advice I am going to give. If you want to know why then just do a search, it has been covered endlessly.

Modern defensive ammo is not simply a weight of lead and a jacket (or plating in Rainier's case). The method of manufacture for something like a Gold Dot or Ranger T is far beyond simply filling a mold with any old lead and applying a jacket. That old method was why you needed JHPs from Corbon traveling at ludicrous speed in order to ensure expansion.

Now I am a big fan of Rainier and use their 180 grains for my 10mm. The HP though is dinky to be certain and I would not count on it expanding more often than it would plug up and turn to ball.

If you MUST use reloads for defense (and I have yet to find a real reason but that is for another thread) then use a properly designed bullet purpose built to the task.

farronwolf

When and if I ever get the chance to sufficiently test some loads, I will be going with Speer Gold Dot hollow points. I don't think that I would go so far as to try to save that much down to the Rainier level for hollow points.

For punching holes in paper that is one thing, but if you really must rely on them I prefer to use a tried and tested piece of lead.

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Just remember that shot placement is much more important with what you carry than how big a bang you get with each trigger pull.

aus71383

No, Rainier bullets are for targets or hunting small game at best. They are made of very soft lead, and the copper is only a plating - chances are good you would get some deformation and fragmentation - but I would anticipate poor performance overall for penetration and expansion.

Austin

frankmako

i use rainier bullets for practice. they work well and i have never had any problems with them on the range. they should work just fine. it is up to you. reload done right can be better/ are better than factory ammo. i have seen and used some bad named brand factory ammo. but i have never had any problems with my reloads.

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P95Carry

Best kept for practice IMO - yes they are on soft side but adequate for practice reloads ... but no more.

The 9mm is I think the most useful of their offerings. As for SD - no, there is better stuff on offer.

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Chris - P95
NRA Certified Instructor & NRA Life Member.

"To own a gun and assume that you are armed
is like owning a piano and assuming that you are a musician!."

If a BG dies as the result of pointing a gun at me, then he has merely succumbed to an occupational hazard of being a thug

Shizzlemah

all of my .45ACP (SWC) , .44SPL & .44MAG (JHP) are loaded with ranier- I love em.

The JHPs seem to hold together very well and expand nicely. It's just a small datapoint - but I wouldn't exclude rainer from your personal defese selection. The only way to know for sure is to try some.



note: the ranier HPs that I run have a cut hollow point- it is not simply plated. There are serrations, etc, in the cavity. The cavity is also not round, it's got a bit of a hexagon shape to it. The exposed walls of the cavity are lead.

While I wouldnt use homegrown reloads for defense, commercial reloads shifts that burden and I (gasp) am running black hills reloads at the moment - until I can test some ranger stuff.

mrrogers1

A buddy and I run Ranier 124gr RN for practice reloads and subgun competition but I would be one of those "Not for SD" people. Unfortunately in our world, it just opens another door for some BG's legal defense or civil defense team to go through. "He loaded those to inflict maximum harm on my client." even though he pulled a gun and tried to kidnap his family....

Good quality factory ammo can't be beat for SD and they did all the heavy lifting with R&D and our boys in blue contribute live (well they were alive before the test) data from the field. (I carry FED HST in my PM9, G26 and G19)

IMHO I would say the Ranier's are great for practice, not an option for carry duty.

YMMV

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