Boolits for WWII or older 9mms

[DanM]

Has anyone slugged their old Mk1 Highpowers, P08 Lugers, P38s, and found the bores to be .357-.358"? I have been told by gurus on the Luger forum that P08s were made with .357" bores, same with many early 9x19s. I have been shooting .357" JBs and commercial cast .358" Boolits in my early BHP, Luger and P38 with great results. I found it easier to make an accurate, functional load with the fatter slugs. Not a huge difference, but better on all counts. I would like to get a Lee 6 banger mold for these old pistolas, and am looking at the 358-125-RF, but would rather have one with a TC style nose. The Lee TL356-124-TC might work if I could get one to drop .358+ boolits, but not much hope there. Maybe there is a custom design done for a past group buy? I have tried .358", 125gr commercial cowboy boolits with a round flat nose profile, and they are fine to great in the BHP and P38, but the Luger liked them less. All three like the truncated cone design. Maybe some of yall have been down this road....

[Ricochet]

I used to have a couple of ~1930s 9mm cartridges that were loaded with a copper-nickel jacketed truncated cone bullet. That's an old (perhaps the original?) bullet style.

[DanM]

YEs, that is what they claim on the Luger forum. The first 9x19 design was a TC.

[Char-Gar]

I have an older three hole NEI mold that throws a 120 grain SWC with a nose that is a cross between a SWC and TC. I size them .358 and have shot them in my DWM 1913 Luger, a 50's vintage P-38 and a couple of Brownings HPs and they have done well in all.

I got my first Luger in 1954 and with it came some two boxes of 20's vintage UMC ammo with a cupro-nickle TC bullet.

[versifier]

If I remember it correctly, the tc design was developed to insure positive feeding in combat situations.

[Leftoverdj]

I have a four holer 135 TC mould from the now defunct P&C company that casts fat enough, but it ain't for sale. Might work something out on sample quantities. I have also had extremely good results with the now discontinued Lee 356-150-2R. Lee oughta be able to make one of their own designs a hair fatter without screwing it up.

[Texasflyboy]

These come out of the mould at .358". The Hensley & Gibbs #115 with the later style fat driving band.


http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/115designs.jpg

PM me if you want a few to try out in your pistola to see if the #115 can cure what ails it...

I discovered that even modern mfg. pistols can have oversize barrels. A few years ago, CDNN investments in Abilene TX was selling FN mfg. Browning Highpowers for $399. I purchased a few. I had never loaded 9mm before. So, I cast up a bunch of #115's, and sized them .357" like I was supposed to. I got keyholes more than 50% of the time. At first I thought velocity was the issue.

But when I tried my .357 Mag Star Sizing die (.358") on those bullets, problem solved. I started getting nice tight groups. Later on I manged to slug the barrel of that brand new FN mfg. Highpower. Three or four slugs later confirmed the dimension right at .3565" (That's 356 thou and a half thou). No wonder I was getting keyholes.