Cast 9mm Luger frustration! PLEASE HELP

[sOhioJoe]

First things first, hello to all my casting mates! Here's my deal. I've got a Lee round nose mold for 9mmLuger which seems to work very well, great looking bullets. I'm loading to run in my Glocks but its not working out very well. When I switch out the Glock barrel for a Lone Wolf match barrel they will not fit. I've read several posts on this and tried most all of suggestions to correct this problem but I'm still having trouble. My dies are Lee Deluxe 4piece set. The brass drops in and out perfect but once I seat a bullet it no longer fits. I've adjusted the seating depth and the crimp over and over. Still nothing! I've not been using the factory crimp die. I'd really like to see this work, anymore suggestions?

[emorris]

I have to seat the lee 125 rn bullet to 1.065 in order to chamber in my lone wolf barrel. What do you mean by" it wont fit"

[Larry Gibson]

What are you sizing the Lee cast bullets to before loading?

Try several loaded rounds in the Factory Crimp Die and see if they then fit the match chamber of the Lone Wolf barrel.

You might also tell us the alloy used, the lube, the powder used and the charge of powder?

Larry Gibson

[sOhioJoe]

They lack about 1/8" of dropping in all the way

[sOhioJoe]

These were cast with wheel weights and tumble lubed with LLA. Sized to .356
I've seated the as short as 1.100. I'm using Unique powder

[elk hunter]

Joe,

From the information given I'm going to guess that your match barrel has a tighter chamber than your stock barrel. 9 mm Luger brass is made all over the world and can vary quite a bit, combine a thick case with a slightly oversize bullet and that round may not fit. Measure the diameter of a round that chambers and then one that doesn't. If the one that doesn't chamber is more than say .005" larger, you may have to size your bullets to a smaller diameter to get them to chamber.

[novalty]

What size are the bullets? Guessing one of the following two issues: oversized boolits, too long OAL.

[Case Stuffer]

OP failed to mentioned type of crimp. One should use a taper crimp not a rool crimp with semi autos. Loading book OAL are for specific bullets and many cast boolits have to be seated deeper than expected.

[sOhioJoe]

I'll check the measurements again and get back with you on this. When I slugged the barrel it read .355. So I was sizing them to .356. If I have to size them smaller is that gonna be an issue as to the leading in the barrel?

[Wal']

If I have to size them smaller is that gonna be an issue as to the leading in the barrel?

Yes ...... leading would be an issue.

If you're slugging @ .355 normally you would size .357.

I think elkhunter is close ............ your match barrel might have a tighter chamber.

[dudel]

Joe,

From the information given I'm going to guess that your match barrel has a tighter chamber than your stock barrel.

Lone Wolf barrels DO have a tighter chamber than the stock Glock. That's intentional. LW will open the chamber up for you (they used to do it at no charge), all you had to go was send them the barrel and a few dummy rounds. OTH, if your LW barrel chambers a factory round, then you are a bit out of spec. If your LW barrel won't chamber on a factory round then you may have a mis-cut chamber. Note that a round nose profile will contact the leade before a TC profile.

Comparing your round to a factory round will give you some hints.

[mdi]

Micrometers are your friend, every reloader should have one. A chamber is a hole, and a cartridge is a peg. For the peg (cartridge) to enter the hole (chamber), the peg must be smaller than the hole. Measure the bullet. Measure the finished reload. Measure the length. Somewhere the cartridge is too big. Find out where the cartridge is too big, and when it occurs. Can't really troubleshoot chambering problems without facts; measurements, everything else is a WAG...

[MtGun44]

Failure to chamber is usually too long OAL (may require a different boolit shape, I
recommend the 356-120-TC) and a tight enough TAPER CRIMP.

Inadequate TC is a common cause of this malady.

This may help.

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

Bill

[abqcaster]

I had similar problems with a .40 barrel from LW. Even the lee TC wouldn't work. it was definitely the chamber being too small. I ended up having to shell out a little more for a well made semi-custom mold with.010 rebate at the base of the nose on the 1st drive band.

[sOhioJoe]

The thing of it is, factory ammo fits perfectly. So I'm thinking its just that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna go back out there and give it another shot. I'll be back!

[BCRider]

If you're trying to crimp too tightly you may be bulging the cases further back.

If you don't have one already get a set of calipers. The digital ones can be found for cheap these days. Or, if you're like me and hate always finding a dead battery, opt for a dial caliper. Now with a sized casing from the die measure the diameter at the mouth and back along the case in 1/8 inch steps. Finish loading that same case and re-measure. If you find that the waist is bigger at some point it COULD be your problem.

Another could be if you're using a factor taper crimp die to both seat and crimp all in one step you may be swaging out the diameter of the boolit. I've had this issue with some .45ACP where the crimp was set in too much and it swaged out the diameter of the boolit so it wouldn't seat on the casing mouth like it's supposed to do. The proper answer is to use a four station loader and seat only with one die then taper crimp with the next. That way the crimping won't "bulldoze" the lead ahead of the mouth.

[ku4hx]

Joe, From the information given I'm going to guess that your match barrel has a tighter chamber than your stock barrel.

As much as I like my Lone Wolf barrels, I recently got one for my Gen4 19 swapped out for this very reason. It would chamber rounds just fine so long as the boolit was no larger than .356". Problem was I wanted to load boolits .357" in diameter. Actually I want to load .358" but my cases resize them to .357" so I'm happy with that.

The replacement barrel works just fine with the unsized .358" boolits.

[barrybrice]

I had a similar problem with a custom Barstow barrel. You need a fourth stage for your press. The fourth stage is a specific taper-crumpet die. Only crimp the bullet in the third die when you're seating it to keep it from falling down any lower. Also make sure in your first die that you fully size the brass.

[Mike Hughes]

Try COAL 1.06, my S&W 9mm will not consistently chamber at 1.10. As mentioned above, must have adequate crimp

[NicholasDM]

I'm brand new to casting, myself. I'm using the TL356-125-2R Lee mold for my Sigma 9VE and had to seat my bullets down to 1.109 before they'd chamber just like factory loads or my PRN loads. My PRN loads chamber at 1.168. I use the Lee 4-hole turret and crimp using the bullet seating die the same amount of crimp for my PRN loads.

[Larry Gibson]

The thing of it is, factory ammo fits perfectly. So I'm thinking its just that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna go back out there and give it another shot. I'll be back!

Run some of your loaded round that don't chamber through the Lee FCD and see if they chamber.

Larry Gibson

[popper]

Make sure the sizer is adjusted properly and don't over crmp which could buckle the case, preventing clambering.