I’m making these bullets, mainly to check how well I am at making nice renders. This is the first thing I’ve tried to make look nice.
Well, the reflections look ok, but those don’t look like bullets…
They still have the gunpowder section on, it’s modelled off a real bullet I am holding.
At the moment they look more like markers.
Good Luck though.
Maybe look into yafaray?
I think you’ve got things a little mixed up.
The bullet itself (the part that actually is fired at the target) is really just the conic shape at the tip of the bullet. The rest of the bullet’s body is really just the casing, and that’s where the gunpowder is. On the bottom of all that is a little lip and in the center at the bottom is a little primer that the firing pin hits.
The silver piece you have at the bottom shouldn’t be there I don’t think. If that’s what you were thinking contained the gunpowder then you’re mistaken, it’s in the body of the casing.
I agree with H3X, the shape of your bullet is odd I think.
Could we see a wire?
For your material, dont make it so shiny, it’s always copper looking and almost not reflective.
A specularity map may be needed I think.
Continue the good job, you can make it really good.
Carefull, a good render also means a good composition 
ah, I do seem to have go a little mixed up… The bullet I modelled it off, is quite new, therefore quite reflective.
What’s a specularity map? 
There doesn’t seem to be an option to choose the renderer in the newwest blender version. 
I redid it with most of your advice.
Some of the colours are bad, but I couldn’t find better
Ok, the bullet looks more real now, I get it…
Yeah, good job, real bullet looking now.
The composition is also 10 times better.
Ok, I don’t think you need to use another render engine, as GI is not a real need for your scene IMO.
The modeling is verry clean as far as I can see, and you added some bevels too.
Before going further, you could model the bottom of the bullet, where the impact occurs and make the powder explode. It’s just ring cuts (CTRL+R) and edge loops adjustments.
One this detail is modeled, you can push the render quality, you’ll see better your work and it’s easier I think.
A classical studio light up (3 points lights) would suffice, with ambiant occlusion maybe.
A good video tutorial is available on cgcookie.com about light setup by Jonathan Williamson.
Then, the textures, it’ll be the time to explain UV and all the maps you’ll need.
Keep up the good job.
PS : I hope you instantiated your bullet with ALT+D, so if you modify one, all will update automatically…
Hmm, not sure what you mean about the bottom, where thw powder exploded.
The smaller, copper-colored circle in the bottom is a percussion cap. A pin/hammer/something hits that cap and causes the powder to ignite.
Yes, it’s what I mean.
You can look on the picture that H3X posted as reference.
It’s the round on the top left hand corner.
It’s not difficult to model and will help to make your models look even better.
The model you have now is much better. I hope the little insight I provided assisted you with this. One thing I still notice though is that you seem to have 3 “pieces.” The tip (bullet), and then the casing/other part. It looks like the middle area has a different material on it, it shouldn’t. That part is just a little change in the dimensions of the casing.
Must better imo, though, I may make it so there aren’t as many standing
How would I go about adding scratches?
Really better indeed.
Carefull, the percution area at the bottom should be inside, your one looks to be done outside.
Before the scratches, you should work on your shadows I think, and mabe closing a bit the angle view, the corner at the bottom is not needed to be seen.
For the scratches, you have to use uvmapping for good results.
Do you already know how to unwrap a mesh?
Yeah, I know how to sort of UV map, but it usually turns out distorted.
new layout 
and the cap is inside
I moved the camera a little but not too sure what you meant aboutt he shadows, so I turned them off for now.
What kind of lamps do you use?
You can use a sun for example or spots, they have a shadow parameter that is softness if I recall, that make your shadows not so sharp. A value of 10 is starting to give nice results.