What Is Polymer Coated Ammo and Why Do We Use It?

Ammo comes in all shapes and sizes, but it also comes with different coatings. The most common “coating” for many bullets is a copper jacket. However, there are more options and polymer-coated bullets have been gaining more traction in recent years. Of course, all of these variations have their pros and cons, but let’s dive into polymer-coated ammo and see what it is all about and why you may want to try it out.

What Are Polymer-Coated Bullets?

All bullets have some sort of coating or lubricant that makes it easier to fly down the bore of a firearm. Otherwise, the barrel would suffer much more damage and your shot would be less accurate. The idea with polymer-coated bullets is to make a bullet with a cheaper lubricant that is still as accurate. That lubricant is a polymer coating.

When you are using polymer-coated bullets, your firearm will not get nearly as dirty. Plus there will be less smoke than normal when firing(which comes from the burning lubricant). Seeing as they are typically cheaper and still accurate, polymer-coated bullets have become very popular in the reloading community.

Other Options

Besides coated, you also have jacketed and plated bullets. Jacketed ammo is what most people are familiar with. You can easily find plenty of different calibers in a full metal jacket. These rounds are often made of lead and “jacketed” with a harder metal around it (typically copper). These jacketed rounds are better than just plain lead cast bullets because they reduce wear on your rifle, as well as reduce smoke. They also help the accuracy at high velocities.

Plated ammo is another good option to go with over cast bullets. Their cores are made from lead just like the jacketed rounds, but instead of having a jacket, they are plated electrically. This process can take anywhere between 6 and 12 hours.

Advantages of Polymer-Coated Bullets

Compared to traditional rounds, polymer-coated ammo has many advantages. For starters, the lubrication is much better than it is with cast or jacketed bullets. That means that there is going to be less friction between the bullet and the bore, and there will be less debris build up in your barrel over time. Plus, the lubrication of the coating also produces less smoke than other rounds.

The toxic gases typically produced with the standard lubricant are also eliminated all together. As for reloading, these polymer-coated bullets work very well for reloaders. They are easy to handle, and the coating does not come off on your hands, which also reduces lead exposure. These bullets are also much cheaper than jacketed or plated rounds, which is the main reason many reloaders will use them.

That being said, they will make you pay more attention if you are using them in reloads. You have to make sure you do not cut the bottom of the coating with the casing or else they could become very inaccurate. 

Here is a quick summary of the advantages of polymer-coated ammo:

• Less friction between bullet and bore
• Less smoke after the shot
• Less debris left in the barrel (like lead)
• Elimination of toxic gases
• The coating does not rub off in your hands
• Great for reloading
• Typically cheaper

Disadvantages of Polymer-Coated Bullets

The biggest disadvantage to polymer-coated bullets is that the coating will melt if it reaches high velocities. This is why we typically see coated bullets in pistol rounds and not rifle rounds. This melting will obviously cause the bullets to be inaccurate at long ranges. To eliminate this problem, polymer-coated bullets are typically only used in cartridges that produce rounds slower than 2000 feet per second.

There are not many blatant disadvantages to polymer-coated bullets. However, I would say that they are not perfect for everyone. If you are shooting polymer-coated rounds, you are probably loading them yourself and everyone has their preference when loading. Plus whichever firearm you are using may do better with jacketed, plated, or coated ammo depending on a variety of factors. 

The main deciding factor would have to be the price, and determining whether the rounds will be accurate. Prices vary around the web and in stores, but I have seen many reloaders online say they can get coated bullets for a third of the price as jacketed bullets. So if you are able to get these polymer-coated bullets for a good price, and can reload them yourself into an accurate cartridge, then it is a great option to try if you are a reloader.

Foundry Outdoors is your trusted home for buying archery, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting sports, and outdoor gear online.

We offer cheap ammo and bulk ammo deals on the most popular ammo calibers. We have a variety of deals on Rifle Ammo, Handgun Ammo, Shotgun Ammo & Rimfire Ammo, as well as ammo for target practice, plinking, hunting, or shooting competitions. Our website lists special deals on 9mm Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 45-70 Ammo, 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 5.56 Ammo, Underwood Ammo, Buffalo Bore Ammo and more special deals on bulk ammo.

We offer a 100% Authenticity Guarantee on all products sold on our website. Please email us if you have questions about any of our product listings.