124GN 9mm LRN Tumble lube

[thegasharkman]

I have been pouring with a friends LEE Mold and have made a great stash of these rounds. They are single lube groove, tumble lube style bullets. The mold manufacture says no sizing needed. I loaded some with Clays Universal 4.5GN with CCI Primers. I have had lots of problems with chambering, in several different weapons. I used my micrometer and they are with in the textbooks standards any advice?

[runfiverun]

nevermind the books.
you need to seat to what works for your gun.
getting the lee t/l to feed generally means seating it shorter.
then you can work on the other problems that pop up.
as you seat deeper you also have to cut the powder amount there is no linear rule of thumb to follow.
just be conservative you can always work up,sometimes there ain't enough pieces left to work down.

[Gliden07]

Checkout this link very good info. I'm gathering stuff to reload 9MM now so I'm interested in your outcome. I wanted to use tumble lube Boolits also but was advised against it.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121607-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

[thegasharkman]

OK I kinda figured just mess with it until it works. I also discovered the bases of the brass are ballooned, my friend that loads says this is caused by getting cases fired from a Glock. Is there a way to fix this?

[mdi]

Your first post says "single lube groove, tumble lube style bullets". Single groove bullets are just that, one lube groove and tumble lube has multiple small grooves. Many true tumble lube design bullets won't need sizing, but you'll have to know the groove diameter of the gun they are to be used in. If they are too large (mebbe .003"+ over groove dia.) they may be stretching the case over allowable OD. If you're having chambering problems, check the finished OD of the cartridge. Semi-auto cartridges headspace on the case mouth so if the case has flare that wasn't removed, that may be stopping the case from chambering. Try the "Plunk" method of testing your finished ammo.

[thegasharkman]

Ok so the mold package says lee 124gn tumble lube lrn. It however only has 1 groove. I removed the bullet seater and ran the brass through and it fixed the bulge on the brass. I went and test fired 7 rounds with different lengths and found that with a COL of 1.075" functions the best. Seems that the head spacing was good and the bullet hit its mark almost exactly at the aiming point. Is it better to pan lube the rounds with 1 lube groove?

[runfiverun]

you can tumble lube a traditional lube goove boolit.
if you pan lube you have to either cut the boolit from the lube or push them through a sizer to clean the excess lube off.
sounds to me like you have found that sizing and crimping in two steps works best.
as it does on bout all rounds.

[Shiloh]

What do they drop at?? I have one 9mm mold that drops large enough. The LEE 125 gr. RN. The other is a LEE 125 gr. RF which is a .38 boolit
I size to .358 for 9mm. I both conventional lube and TL these boolits with fine results.

SHiloh

[thegasharkman]

they drop at .356

[MtGun44]

This should help.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121737-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

Bill

[MT Gianni]

This would not be the first used mold put in the wrong package. Lee's numbering system has changed over the years as well.

[MikeS]

Have you weighed any of your cast boolits? As it appears that you got a mould that's in the wrong packaging there's no telling what weight boolit the mould you have is dropping unless you weigh them. Depending on the packaging is a bad way to do things! A picture of the cast boolits would help us out as well.

[Boolseye]

You have a standard bullet mold, not a TL. Keep it, it will give you less trouble.
Tumble lube it or pan lube it....pan lube then tumble lube, if you really want to rule out lube as an issue. The tumble lube design boolits have 5-7 micro grooves, not a single one.

Load it to the max oal that will still feed and chamber well–we've all been up against the 9, so
count yourself fortunate if you succeed right away. If not, welcome to the club. It can be done.
and this forum represents your best chance at success.

Also, as MikeS suggests, weight your bullets. Perhaps it's a 102 gr.

[williamwaco]

I have been pouring with a friends LEE Mold and have made a great stash of these rounds. They are single lube groove, tumble lube style bullets. The mold manufacture says no sizing needed. I loaded some with Clays Universal 4.5GN with CCI Primers. I have had lots of problems with chambering, in several different weapons. I used my micrometer and they are with in the textbooks standards any advice?


Forget the claim about no sizing needed. That is sales pitch.

You can indeed shoot them without sizing, IF YOU CAN CHAMBER THEM.
In my experience, one to two out of every ten will not chamber.

Sizing them all is much less trouble than dealing with pulling the ones you can't shoot.

I long ago gave up in "shooting them unsized".


.

[thegasharkman]

they are 133 to 136 grains

[Balta]

bullets from Lee mold ,125 grain 2R ,Tumble lube look like this

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=53641&d=1343945383

[Balta]

And didnt have much luck with this design and tumble lubing.._=) i do have same mold in conventional design and it works great..Not sure that options without sizing bullets is best !I size at .357 for my CZSP01 and G17!

[Boolseye]

they are 133 to 136 grains
hmm...good-sized 9mm boolits. That's a max or near-max charge of Universal (4.5 gr.)–I would back it off some, regardless of what else you do. Lee makes a "bulge buster" that may address the ballooned cases...can't really speak to that problem, not having seen it.

[Gliden07]

Would'nt a full lenth sizer get rid of the buldge??

[thegasharkman]

57084What would you suggest for the charge. I found that load online but it was for a 125gn and now knowing that they are 133-136gn I have to find a new charge weight. The test fires were very heavy on the recoil, I would like to load these at min or just over min pressure esp since my wife doesn't have the strongest wrist. I found that this case bulge comes from factory glock barrels, according to the local glock dealer. I took the bullet seater out and the die sized the cases full length no more problems.


hmm...good-sized 9mm boolits. That's a max or near-max charge of Universal (4.5 gr.)–I would back it off some, regardless of what else you do. Lee makes a "bulge buster" that may address the ballooned cases...can't really speak to that problem, not having seen it.

[Boolseye]

Try 3.8 to 4 grains of Universal. You could also try 3.5 to 3.7 grains of 231 or Bullseye.

[Tbird]

My lee mold drops at 120 gr..I size to 356..seat on first drive band..
3.7 tite group..run thru factory crimp die..no jambs Browning HP

[on1wheel01]

I had the same problem. I had to adjust my dies a little. Once done they are doing great. At first my boolits would not seat 100% into the barrel, and I would have to push my slide a little to make it seat.

I'm using the 120 grain tc 6 cav die. Puts them out right at 356 so I don't size them. Using 4 grains of titegroup just as I do my 124 grain hollow points. No issues at all

[Boolseye]

In general I use powder charges at or under starting loads for my cast bullets.

[blueeyephil]

I have the same bullet mold. I haven't reloaded a lot with it, mostly reload for .40 S&W. But I just pulled out some of my test targets and looked like I had good results with 3.7 gr HP-38. My Lyman third edition shows max of 3.1 grs of Clays with 125 gr. lead bullet giving 1030 fps. Not the same design though.

The difference in weight is probably because of your alloy. Lee lists bullet weights based on #2 alloy, not wheel weights like most people use.

By the way.... Double... Triple check any load data you see on the net with a good manual or two.

[Boolseye]

looked like I had good results with 3.7 gr HP-38.
HP-38 and 231 are the same (check hodgdon site to confirm)