102gr 9mm C.O.A.L. suggestions

[Chunkin' Lead]

I am very new to casting and got my hands on a .356 102gr mold. The cast is throwing correct dia. so i am not resizing, but none of my ref materials have a max O.A.L for that particular projectile. I know alot of ppl use this mold for .380. Any help i could get in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Also i am very new to this site so if i posted this in the wrong place feel free to scorn lol, i find this site to have some very useful info and dont wanna get in trouble with the admins.

[kir_kenix]

I would use your barrel to determine OAL. There are numerous on-line guides that will show you how to do this. Basically, you start with the boolit seated out far, and reduce OAL until the case rim is equal, or slightly below the barrel hood. Many people refer to this as the "plunk test," and you can youtube it. Make sure you cycle the rounds from the magazine to ensure they feed correctly once you have determined the maximum OAL that will fire from your barrel.

[kir_kenix]

By the way, am I right to assume that the boolit in question comes from a Lee mold? If it does, this is a great boolit. I use it in a variety of guns, from .380, 9mm, .38/.357, and some rifles with tight bores. I am a huge fan of this boolit, and I am lucky that my example drops .3585-.359 with my alloy. I size all of my 9mm/.380's to .358, unless they have an unusually tight bore (I'm talking about you Walther!). Good luck, and have fun sending some projectiles down range that you created yourself.

[Bwana]

I load that boolit to 1.05" in my 9mm loads.

[Chunkin' Lead]

Bwana i got very close to the same size so i finally got that worked out, then i was having problems with my action but i bumped my 700x charge to 4gr even and fixed that. now i am having leading issues but i have no hardness tester yet so im not sure if its my lube or my alloy.

[ku4hx]

I'm with Bwana ... 1.05" works for me. Lyman lists 1.045" for their 356242 90 grain boolit. I started there and let my barrel's chamber be my guide.

[ku4hx]

now i am having leading issues but i have no hardness tester yet so im not sure if its my lube or my alloy.

What did your bore slug measure? It may not be either lube or alloy related.

[Bwana]

Bwana i got very close to the same size so i finally got that worked out, then i was having problems with my action but i bumped my 700x charge to 4gr even and fixed that. now i am having leading issues but i have no hardness tester yet so im not sure if its my lube or my alloy.

I water drop all my boolits and my hardness "test" is whether or not I can scratch the surface with my thumbnail, which I can't. I use a medium hard lube(45% beeswax, 45%paraffin wax, and 10%vasoline). I size my 9mm boolits to .358". Very little to no leading and my G19 shoots that boolit, in front of 4.5gr of Titegroup, like a house on fire.

[fcvan]

I have used that boolit for .380 ACP since the 1980s. I don't know what the OAL is as I set my dies to a factory FMJ round and loaded the that length. When I started using the it in 9mm i seated to where the case mouth was just above the lube groove.