My friend doc450 recently got some bullets from Falcon Bullet Company that he uses for 50 yard handgun competition. He has had very good luck with them, often winning his Class.

Here is their site: http://www.falconbullets.com/default.asp

But he recently got some new lead bullets that had a new coating on them to allow higher velocity without leading or excessive smoke. I decided to try some to see how well they worked.

I contacted Falcon bullet Company and get them to send me some 180 grain .40 S&W bullets with their new FalCoat coating on them.

I have a Glock Model 22 in .40 S&W that has always been a tack driver for me.

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I would shoot it more, but Glock discourages shooting lead bullets in their pistols because of the polygonal rifling that they use. Lead bullets will lead them badly and cause high pressure spikes. Therefore, they strongly suggest that only jacketed bullets be used in their pistols.

This causes a problem for me, as I cannot afford to shoot only jacketed bullets in that pistol and as a result, do not shoot it as much as I would like too. But maybe a coated bullet might solve that problem.

Here are the bullets as I got them.

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As you can see, the coating is a red color and coats the entire surface of the bullet, except for the base of the bullet. Their site says the coating has a lubricant in it that will allow higher velocities without leading.

I loaded up some rounds with some once-fired brass I had on hand.

The bullets certainly do have an unusual "look" to them with the red coating.

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I loaded them fairly "warm", as I wanted to see if they would resist leading in the pistol. They were loaded with a near maximum charge of Blue Dot powder for a velocity of around 1,000 fps.

It was time to go to work.

I had loaded two different loads, one with BlueDot that was fairly "hot". The other load was loaded with some AA-5 and these were at a lower velocity, but still around 850-900 fps.

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I shot some from a rest to check accuracy, and they were very accurate.

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My son Abel also ran the pistol and shot well with it.

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We had met my buddy doc450 and he had brought one of his competition pistols, a S&W .44 Magnum, with some 240 grain Falcoat bullets loaded for it.

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He had also loaded some JHP loads and wanted to compare accuracy of the two loads.

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Here he is shooting a steel plate set up at 50 yards, with a red dot scope.

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He had no trouble ringing the plate every time he shot.

We were wondering just how tough the coating really was, so he brought a small hand torch and we heated the base of one of the bullets until the lead melted.

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As you can see, the lead melted before the coating was harmed in any way. This stuff is tough.

Here's doc shooting at a 6 X 6 inch swinger at 50 yards. That's a long way for such a small target.

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I tried it standing up and it was tougher than it looked, but I managed to ring it a time or two.

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Doc gave Abel some coaching and Abel managed to hit it consistently.

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Here's a group doc shot at 50 yards with the FalCoated bullets.

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We walked down to see how the steel swinger target looked. Here it is.

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But we were very interested to find several flattened out bullets that still had some of the coating on them. Amazing!

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We set up doc's chronograph and shot his loads through it and found the rounds were hitting about 775 fps. A nice, easy .44 Special load that is very accurate.

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When we got home, I sprayed solvent down the barrel, scrubbed it with a brass brush and pushed a clean patch down the barrel. Here it is.

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All you can see is powder fouling. There was no leading at all, and no red residue from the coating.

Conclusions:

1. The bullets shot accurately and had absolutely no leading in our guns.

2. Falcon Bullets sells their 180gr TC un-coated lead bullet for $43 per 500. The FalCoated bullets go for about $52 per 500. Slightly higher in cost, but much cheaper than JHP bullets.

3. The bullets performed just as advertised and worked great in our pistols. Doc has won matches shooting them in his guns.

4. It's fun to shoot stuff.