9 mm loading

[slk]

Does anyone here have a good recipie for 9mm. Also what molds or bullet shape or weight seam to work the best for this caliber.

Thanks
Steve

[bowenrd]

Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook is a good book for info.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Starting with bullet shape....round noses, conical noses truncated or pointy will feed the most reliably. Bullet weight is usually 115-125 grains. Some folks like to use gas checks, but you can get away without them. Lyman, Lee, Saeco and RCBS all make a wide selection of 9mm bullets to choose from.Prices vary as do personal preferences. You have to look at catalog listings and pics of what is available. I use 3 different molds; H&G #310, Lyman #356242, and RCBS truncated conical....all in the 115-125 range. All feed and shoot well in a Baretta 92SB, Luger, and a S&W 962. In the powder department, a wide range of powders will all work well. Start with a couple of good manuals and it is suggested that you start out with lower loadings first to see what does what. Different folks do different things with 9mm ranging from target to hot rod. That part of it is your personal call. After wandering around for a long time among various powders I finally favored IMR 4756 (4.7-4.8 grains) as it worked all the actions, grouped well at lower pressures and didn't batter the guns. But like I said... that's just a personal preference. A lot of forum members do a lot of 9mm and they will help you a lot further than I have with their 9mm work and experience. LLS

[Larry Gibson]

I've been shooting cast in 9mms since '70. I've used several moulds but have been using the Lee 356-120-TC the last few years exclusively. This is for three reasons; 1st is it functions in all 9mms, including a couple subguns, I've used it in, 2nd is it is accurate and 3rd is it is available in a 6 cavity mould.

I cast them generally out of WWs + 2 % tin AC'd, sized .358 and lubed with Javelina. I load them in milsurp and commercial cases over 4 gr of Bullseye. I've never had the leading, tumbling or inaccuracy that plagues other users of the 9mm.

Larry Gibson

[Dannix]

Hi Steve. Welcome to the forum. Note: There's a lot of great info out there if you do a search. :)

Mould
If you want a mould right now, I've heard good things concerning Lee's 358 125 RF design, and I've also heard ordering directly from Lee instead of a vendor e.g. Midway et al may help in avoiding getting a rubbish mold (LEE isn't exactly known here for good QC). I've also heard good things concerning Lee's 105gr 9mm design. You could also consider signing up for one of Mihec's 140g moulds in this group buy (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=105336). That's a route I'm taking.

If your mould drops too small, you can beagle (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=117331) it.

Lube
white lable lube' (http://www.lsstuff.com/)s BAC and Carnauba Red are good, popular lubes for 9mm, and the bullshop (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=100396) offers speed green and a new lube called lotak (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=109247).

PB GC Die
If you really get desperate with trying to come up with a good 9mm boolit load, you can try Pat's 35 calibre PB (Plain Base) gas check die with Aluminium flashing. Kind if nice having this option as you don't have to worry about getting a new GCed mould.

Powders
I've seen some praise for WSF and Silhouette, but Blue Dot gets mentioned a lot and AA#7 seems to be a winner as well. You can do your own forum searching on this topic.

Hope this helps

[Cherokee]

Welcome Steve - I use the conventional lube Lee 120TC bullet in 9mm and Super 38 at 1k to 1.3k velocity. I found a 3/3/94 alloy of 13 BHN, air cooled, gave better accuracy in MY guns than WW. All mine are .355 barrels so I size to .356 and use Lar's Carnauba Red lube. OAL for the 9mm is 1.055" for MY match chambered guns. I do not get perfectly clean barrels, they do have some trace leading but do not seem to hamper accuracy after 2-300 rounds and clean up easily. My most accurate 9mm cast bullet load is with Power Pistol but WST, 231 and HS6 also do very well.

[MtGun44]

Stongly recommend that you slug your barrel, or just start at .357". Also, recommend the
Lee 356 120 TC with air cooled wwts.

PLEASE spend some time with the search engine looking for recent 9mm threads, this one
has been beat to death and you are just plowing old ground. Not difficult, but there are
known good routes, and some significant amount of erroneous info. Most prominent
in my view is the claim that hard boolits are needed for 9mm. Not so, but fit is
critical.

Bill

[CZ shadow]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new member, so forgive any mistakes.

I have recently taken up the fantastic sport of pistol shooting. I have bought my first pistol a CZ shadow 9mm.
I already reload, but i want to get into casting my own boolits for the shadow.

I'm looking to cast 124-125 grain what I would like to know is:
1. how hard should my lead be have been told Lymans No 2 should be OK
2. what sizing die would be best, have read conflicting info I know 9mm is a standard .355 and that .356, 357, 358 works.
3. would range lead be Ok to melt down and used in my CZ.

Thanks I ook forward to reading what people can advise me.
Thanks
Ray

[MtGun44]

Hard, like #2 is NOT necessary. Plain old air cooled wheel wts is fine.

Start with a known good design like Lee 356 120 TC and a known good lube
like NRA 50-50 (Javelina is one brand, there are many).

Slug your barrel, or use .357 to start, probably will work.

Range lead should be fine, but MAY need a bit of tin to help fill out.

Please use the search function on "9mm leading" and spend some time reading.

Bill

[slk]

Ok guys I slugged my barrel on the Beretta M9A1 9mm. Grove dia is .356. So when I look at like a Lyman 2-Cavity Bullet Mold #356242 9mm (356 Diameter) 120 Grain Round Nose.

I am confused????? The mold says .356, but I need to size to .357. So how can that work. If the mold is only producing a .356 bullet and I need it larger to be able to size it down to be one thousanths over my grove diameter. Am I missing something here. I don't see a mold for357 or 358

Thanks Steve

[MtGun44]

Mold vary, but they are supposed to produce a boolit a few thousandths larger than the
nominal diameter. Usually no problem getting a "356" mold to go to .357 or .358, but not
ALWAYS.

With a .356 groove, try .357 and if that doesn't work, go to .358. Try the Lee 356 120 TC
with NRA 50-50 as a starter and likely shortcut to success.

Bill

[slk]

Is anyone loading the heaver 147 gr bullet.

147gr 356637 Designed for IPSC shooting, this is a tapered heavy weight 9mm. Excellent accuracy reported as declared by Lyman

I wonder if that is a good choice. I know when I look for factory bullets I never see any heavier that about 120-124 or so. Any advantage to the heaver one?

Steve

[MtGun44]

It's slower. Personally, I think that the 147s are out of the normal wt range for the
cartridge. Not an issue with a revolver, but with a semiauto, the ammo has much more
limits imposed by mag length, chamber throat cut, feed shape requirements, and recoil
impulse limits to funtion the action.

I suggest you start somewhere in the middle of normal - as suggested, and succeed there
before you go out and explore the edges of the envelope.

Bill