Browning Hi Power OAL question

[Schony]

Hello, I am a new "member" to the forum but have been lurking for a couple years now lots of great info on here! So I have just started casting for my BHP 9mm using a lee 356-125-2R mold. I am also using Lee dies on a hornady lnl press. So I am setting my dies up and am a little confused on the OAL. I read that the bullet should slide down the barrel and make a klunk noise and should spin freely. I started around 1.15 and the bullet was hitting the rifling had to bring it all the way to 1.053 till the bullet stopped contacting and could be spun easily and drop out of barrel. Not sure what to do this is way below the spec's, is there something I could be doing wrong?

[williamwaco]

Ignore the loading manual's OAL. It will be different for every bullet and pistol.

There are three conditions you must meet.

1) It must be short enough to fit in the magazine.
2) It must be short enough that the front band of the bullet does not inhibit the closing of the slide.
( This is the purpose for using the barrel as a Gauge. )

3) It must feed reliably from the magazine into the chamber and allow the slide to lock into battery. It must do this when you work the slide manually, AND when the firearm is fired.
To test this issue, make three or four dummy cartridges with no powder or primer. Deliberately seat the bullet out too far. Then gradually turn the seating stem in about one turn, reseat the bullets a little deeper, and test for all three conditions, by loading them into the magazine and manually cycling them through the action. Repeat until everything works manually. When everything works reliably, stop. Seating the bullet deeper will only raise pressure and eventually it will be too short to feed reliably.

Now load about a dozen and check them at the range.

DO NOT LOAD 100 rounds and then find out later that they will not work.



Enjoy the challenge.

.

[Schony]

Thanks William, so 1.05 isn't a crazy low length? I will be using unique powder and was planning on starting them around 4.5 grain, this sound safe for this OAL? If they are longer and the bullet is just hitting the rifling but still feeds is this ok? If I push the bullet down with my finger it goes in more but hits rifling and I have to pull it out with a little force.

[Schony]

Don't know these just don't seam right... Maybe I should just go with max length that they will chamber and function. Don't want to blow my gun up or get hurt.... Guess i should have went with something other than round nose. Anyone have anything like this b4?

[beagle]

Oh yeah, plenty of problems like this before. Book OALs are not reliable and there are darn few published for Lee bullets or RCBS bullets so it's amatter of trial and error and any errors need to be on the conservative side. My garden above the shop is full of 9mm bullets and I keep plowing them up when making my garden. Drop the powder charge a bit, load three until they chamber and feed and then I tested in the garden. If pressure looked all right and they didn't function, I upped the powder some until I got chambering, no pressure signs and reliable functioning. Then, I chronographed. Then, I tested for accuracy and started all over again with another powder and bullet.

9mms are crazy cartridges to load. Small density cases and they require a fairly fast burning powder and as much OAL as the pistol will tolerate. These three characteristics can get you into pressure problems really fast so that's why I say, drop the powder charge first off.

Case manufactures make a big difference as well. I opened the primer pockets on some WW and RP cases once with Red Dot. I'd been shooting FC and Speer cases and they accepted the load all right. The RP and WW and GI cases were thicker. But, I didn't hurt anything and I have plenty of 9mm cases.

Now, I have two High Powers that accept my loads interchangeably and function and shoot fine.

Keep meticulous records as you go along so you'll have the "recipe" on hand when you want to load again. Especially record cartridge OAL which will give you the seating depth on a specific bullet.

Good luck./beagle

[beagle]

Take a look at Castpics/Articles by Members/Cast in the 9mm High Power./beagle

[winelover]

I don't use that particular bullet, but do load the RCBS 125 grain RN (gas checked) to 1.091 OAL in my Hi-power. I use more than 4.5 grains of Unique with no problems.

Winelover

[Schony]

Take a look at Castpics/Articles by Members/Cast in the 9mm High Power./beagle

Thanks Beagle some good gun specific info there, I see he is using a OAL of 1.11.

Winelover if you do a bullet drop at 1.091 do they drop all the way in or do they hit the rifling?

[winelover]

Drop in, not engraving the rifling.

Winelover

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome to the site, Schony!

And welcome also to the bizarre world of 9mm cast boolit reloading. I use the methods described above to arrive at the proper OAL for my pistols when data is lacking--or some other anomaly confounds the process.

I'll repeat my usual mantra concerning BOOLIT DIAMETER here, because 9mm throats are all over the map in that sense. Treat the 9mm like it's a rifle--it acts like one, with diameter variation and high operating pressure. Size boolits to match the throat, and use an expander die that corresponds to actual boolit diameter--about .002" smaller than the boolit. Don't go mondo strong on the taper crimping, either--all that's needed is to take the case mouth flare out. It took me several years of inaccuracy--leading--and inadequate performnce to learn these caliber quirks, which attend the 40 S&W and 10mm to some degree as well. Best of luck, and enjoy the chase.

[beagle]

Schony.....I wrote that and yes, I would recomend that starting out that you use as much OAL as the gun and magazine will bear. I'm using two Brownings. One's a Browning made in Belgium and the other is a FN clone with the automatic cocker. The Belgium is less picky than the FN.

Since you have a HP, look for some milsurp Beretta M9 military mags. These can be easily adapted to the HP by drilling a new hole in the mag for the magazine catch and a little fitting work with a needle file and they work just fine with the HP. Gives you 14 in the mag and one in the chamber. They stick out of the grip about 3/4" but what the heck for $6-8 bucks for a high cap mag, you can't have everything.

I carry mine on the tractor all the time and ran up on a yote last summer. My wife saw it and cracked up. I was chasing the yote on the tractor and shooting./beagle


Thanks Beagle some good gun specific info there, I see he is using a OAL of 1.11.

Winelover if you do a bullet drop at 1.091 do they drop all the way in or do they hit the rifling?

[Schony]

Thanks for the help guy's, I guess I will make some dummies a little longer maybe start around 1.1 and see how they load in mags and chamber. When i was doing my testing they would drop almost all the way in when they where a little longer and with a slight push of my finger they where all the way in.

[ku4hx]

See:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=146639

[williamwaco]

Don't know these just don't seam right... Maybe I should just go with max length that they will chamber and function. Don't want to blow my gun up or get hurt.... Guess i should have went with something other than round nose. Anyone have anything like this b4?



YES

Agree. I don't like round nose. I use truncated cones. BUT. That is personal preference. Many very accomplished loaders and shooters use round nose exclusively.

[Schony]

So i've been doing some more reading and researching and think i may have found my problem. In this picture I am loading like the cartrage in the far left where they go all they way down. I think I need to adjust my headspace so it is flush...

I thought the shell was suposed to go all the way down and then rotate by finger, guess I will have a look at it when I get home from work. This is the 1st auto i've reloaded for so I am still learning. I hope this will solve my problem about such a short OAL.