Lee 356-125-2R OAL?

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Hey guys. I've been using my Lyman cast manual for reference and I'm loading a Lee 356-125-2R in 9mm Luger at 1.114 OAL and it doesn't feed well.

I suspect this is a popular boolit. How deep are you seating yours?

Thanks! :Fire:

[rintinglen]

That seems long to me. I run the 356-242 122 grain boolit at 1.070 and it runs well in everything except my Luger.

[Wal']

Have been using a 130grn RN in my HP for a lot of years at 1.080.

Never ever had a problem, but then again its an Browning HP

[hawgfan]

I am reloading the same boolit and this is the load data I have gathered from my reloading books.

Lyman 49th Edition - Doesn't show the Lee mold we have, it does have 125gn jacketed for OAL of 1.075"

Lyman 4th Edition Cast Bullet Handbook - Doesn't show the Lee mold either, but it shows the round nose 120gn lyman bullet for a OAL 1.065"

Modern Reloading by Richard Lee - Shows the 125gn lead bullet we have, and it states the OAL should be 1.125"

Hope this helps, I am using Unquie powder at 4.2gns and my OAL is 1.118 to 1.122, they feed fine in my Ruger P-95.

Just a question, Are you using a Lee Factory Crimp die? It could be a crimping issue you are having. I am not real sure on that, so I am sure someone with more experience will chime in soon.

[Ed_Shot]

I load the 356-125-2R to an OAL of 1.055 for my CZ 75B. The MAX COAL for this boolit in my chamber is 1.065. Given the boolit length of 356-125-2R at .565, when loaded to an OAL of 1.055 it still leaves more room inside the case than either the Lyman 356242 (120) or 356402 loaded to the spec'd OAL in Lyman 4th Ed HB.

I have no feeding problems with my CZ or Browning HP or Glocks (w/LW barrels) or HP 995TS carbine.

[Cherokee]

I used 1.080" for my 9's.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Just a question, Are you using a Lee Factory Crimp die? It could be a crimping issue you are having. I am not real sure on that, so I am sure someone with more experience will chime in soon.

No, I'm loading with a Hornady single stage press and I use a seperate Hornady taper crimp die after I seat.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I'll try pushing them a little deeper.

[fcvan]

I don't know what mine measure to. When I first got the mold in 1985, I cast, pan lubed, and loaded as cast. I set my seat/crimp die to a GI ball round. It has worked in every 9mm I've tried since. I guess I should measure one.

[KTM400]

Hey guys. I've been using my Lyman cast manual for reference and I'm loading a Lee 356-125-2R in 9mm Luger at 1.114 OAL and it doesn't feed well.

I suspect this is a popular boolit. How deep are you seating yours?

Thanks! :Fire:

This is a fat round boolit. I played hell with it trying to get it to chamber in a couple of my pistols. Best advice I could give, is do the "plunk" test dropping a dummy round into the chamber of your barrels when removed from the gun. Also a cartridge gauge helped in finding a usable oal. This boolit makes for a round that looks too short to me but it does work.

I haven't messed with it since getting my master caster with magma's 135 rn mold. This is a much pointier round nose that loads and chambers much easier.

Good luck.

[lwknight]

Different pistols just chamber different. I can set my OMG loads for a Ruger P-95 at 1.150 with no problems but they sure won't chamber in the Baretta.
Beware when seating deeper that you don't compress the powder. Light loads of bullseye or 231 never look back.
Unique and WSF at 5 or more grains are in the watch out class.

Here is a comparison just for thought:
I can load 6.0 grains WSF with the 124 grain Golden Saber and get 1300 fps with no high pressure signs but when loading the Lee 365-125 2R I get higher pressures with 5.2 grains powder. ( also leading galore) Reducing to 4.9 grains calms things down a lot.

My point: Saying that 0.3 grains should not make a hill of difference but demonstrate that it does when your case capacity is 100% used up by seating deeper. Be very careful if you have to seat the bullet deeper. It will take time and finesse and I suggest finding the depth that will work for your barrel and starting out with a reduced load and slowly work up from there.

[chris in va]

Mine drop at .362. You'll want to size them down to .358. For my CZ I set them at 1.07 OAL.

[Tatume]

I assume your ammo works in the magazine. Field strip the gun. Drop a loaded round into the chamber. If it is flush with the breech or about 0.001" below the breech face, it should work in that gun. If the base of the bullet is proud, and you can feel it with you finger tip and tell that it is above the breech face, then your bullet probably should be seated a little bit deeper.

[myg30]

No, I'm loading with a Hornady single stage press and I use a seperate Hornady taper crimp die after I seat.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I'll try pushing them a little deeper.

What load are you using ? powder ? what pistol ? What dia. are you sizing boolits to ? You might try to seat a FEW a little deeper but beware that pressure goes up ! As stated above, see if they drop in your bbl first. You didn't say what type of feeding problem your having ? Stove pipes ?

If you didn't load to many and over crimp them, Id pull them, check your taper crimp see if your crushing the boolit.

If your loading with a Fast powder pressure spikes quick !

Mike

Mike

[trapper9260]

No, I'm loading with a Hornady single stage press and I use a seperate Hornady taper crimp die after I seat.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I'll try pushing them a little deeper.

From what it sound like that if the chamber dose not close the way it should ,then you need to seat them deeper use a dumb round to test before you load any

[loadmak]

I seat mine to 1.055, but that is dictated by my pistol. This is in a S&W SD9VE. You NEED to do the plunk test for your own gun. When I was testing this boolit, I loaded 10 dummy rounds - no powder or primer. Then I loaded them into the magazine and cycled them through the gun by manually operating the slide. I found they cycled reliably at 1.055-1.060, but at 1.060 they just started to engage the rifling so I backed it off a bit.

I have tried these powders with this setup:
3.7-4.2 gr W231
4.0-4.4 gr Unique
3.4 gr Bullseye
3.8 gr Universal Clays

I settled into 4.2 gr Unique, which was most accurate in my pistol. YMMV. Good luck.