What do you prefer, standard JHP or Conical?

Trying to think about what I need to order for next season since Terry at Magnus is backed up so far. What do you guys get better results from, the standard JHP with the splits in the tip or the newer style conical bullets? I'll be buying some 45 and 9mm bullets for service pistol.

I've been leaning toward the conical nose bullets, both JHP and JFP. I have not done a large comparison test between conical versus RN JHP bullets, so my results are not definitive.

CONICAL ALL THE WAY. JP

I use a lot of 124 gr. JHP bullets for my 9mm pistols, but I also use a lot of FMJ Truncated 
Cone Flat Points, which may be considered "conical"...
https://www.rmrbullets.com/shop/bullets/pistol/9mm-355/9mm-124-gr-rmr-truncated-cone-flat-point-matchwinner/

I'm not familiar with the difference. Can someone post a picture? My Googling brought up what look like "round nose" JHP for .40 and 9MM, but all .45 JHP appears to be "conical".

As opposed to my shooting, which can be described as "comical".

John, the Hornady 115xtp is the non-conical style. Magnus/Zero offers both this style and conical for their 9mm bullets, I think their 45 offering is just conical or solid nose.

Ah, OK. I'm only familiar with the one profile for .45 JHP.

I don't have a 9 or a .40, so not as familiar with those loads.

My gut feel is the non-serrated (grooved, notched, split, whatever) bullets *should* be more accurate. In fact, I was disappointed that Hornady only offered the XTP for 185's with the 'free 500 bullets' offer when I bought my AP press.

Question is, is the HAP the same profile? Reason being, they're quite different from the Noslers. Different seating die adjustment, and most likely different case capacity/load density as a result. I haven't measured ...

Conical?  correction, Truncated Cone.

Yeah that resembles the Magnus/Zero conical bullet.

There is some confusion about bullet nose shapes. A conical bullet nose has straight sides. Hornady's HAP and XTP 9mm bullets are all truncated cone designs. The difference is that the XTPs have skives and the HAP bullets don't. But they are all 'conical' shaped.

As a guy who doesn't reload, I am curious why no one has mentioned SWC Semi Wad Cutters.

In today's ammo shortage world, I buy what I can at a decent (haha) price.

If you were me and looking for the ideal .45 round for bullseye, would it be:

185 grain
200 grain
230 grain

SWC
FMJ
JHP

Something else?

mikemargolis wrote:As a guy who doesn't reload, I am curious why no one has mentioned SWC Semi Wad Cutters.

In today's ammo shortage world, I buy what I can at a decent (haha) price.

If you were me and looking for the ideal .45 round for bullseye, would it be:

185 grain
200 grain
230 grain

SWC
FMJ
JHP

Something else?

Can't use lead for service pistol. I shoot thousands of lead loads every year.

Mike,

As service pistol requires jacketed projectiles, JHP make sense as they typically are quite accurate and typically have better availability than JSWC (also legal). My JHP preference is the Zero R187-A.

However, for a wadgun, lead projectiles (SWC) are often exclusively used, but some still shoot jacketed for various reasons. The ideal .45 round is slightly variable, some people like 200gr SWC, others 180/185s. Swaged vs cast is also a choice. Feel is also something to take into account 160's feel different than 200s, ect.

Shouldn't Service Pistol REQUIRE 230gn FMJ-RN? A JHP is about as "Service" as a L-SWC.
I never got the accuracy from a 185gn bullet that I get from a 200gn bullet, but YMMV.
Even my very carefully crafted cast bullets just approach swaged bullet accuracy.

Why should it require 230 gr rn?

More accurately 9x19 parabellum

zanemoseley wrote:

mikemargolis wrote:As a guy who doesn't reload, I am curious why no one has mentioned SWC Semi Wad Cutters.

In today's ammo shortage world, I buy what I can at a decent (haha) price.

If you were me and looking for the ideal .45 round for bullseye, would it be:

185 grain
200 grain
230 grain

SWC
FMJ
JHP

Something else?

Can't use lead for service pistol. I shoot thousands of lead loads every year.

While it is true you can't use lead for service pistol the SWC shape is legal. Hornady and Speer make a Total Metal Jacket (TMJ) SWC that is perfectly legal. I have both 200gr and 185gr but prefer the 185. For 9mm I have never been able to tell a difference in performance between XTP, HAP, Zero or Nosler. That being said I avoid Nosler because the shape of the nose can/has caused failure to feed problems.

185gr Speer TMJ

Those are some nice looking bullets Len. I've always heard good things about the old Remington match bullets that were jacketed SWC.

and the Federal GM is a 185 jswc

I want to find some Hornady 200gr JSWC.  No longer made I believe.

Here's why