9mm question

[nixpap]

hi folks, im planning on buying a LW barrel for my G19 so I can shoot lead. all of my alloy is coww. do you folks water drop or air cool for 9mm? I would like to push them up to 1200-1400 fps or so.(if ok to do so) im thinking maybe 356 diameter. I know, slug my barrel.im chicken. lol also any favorite or recommended bullet profile? I hope I posted in the right place. thanks in advance. Nixpap

[HeavyMetal]

I'm a big fan of water dropping 9mm boolits particularly if your going to try and make a "magnum" out of it.
I've shot Lee's 124 gr, RNl ( not tumble lube design) lubed with carnuba red to 1450 FPS with no leading.

Powder was Bluedot

Brass was trimmed to length PMC and Remington, do not used mixed case heads in the 9mm and do not try to use mixed untrimed case's in the 9mm accuracy will be dismal at best.

Primer was federal std small pistol or winchester small pistol primer pockets were reamed and flash holes deburred case mouth, inside, I statred using a 10 degree bevel on and seems to be working very well.

Pistol, at the time and still have it, was a Taurus PT99 with a custom Bar sto 6 inch barrel.

Thats what I do know, I have no experience with lone wolf barrels and even less, by choice, experience with Glocks. LW should be able to tell you what his barrels are when you place the order. Make sure you tell him your going to cast your own with lead so he can send you a barrel cut for the right chamber leade.

So my suggestion is start out easy, LOL!

avoid tumble lube, and make sure every boolit you load has a sharp clean base on it. The 9mm is the most unforgiving round to load for but once you figure it out it can and does perfrom very well, for what it is.

Good luck!

[UBER7MM]

Nixpap,
.
I'm a fan of the truncated cone design. The Lyman 356402 works in most 9mm and is popular. I should think the Lee model would as well, at a fraction of the cost.
.
Welcome to the forum,

[nixpap]

I'm a big fan of water dropping 9mm boolits particularly if your going to try and make a "magnum" out of it.
I've shot Lee's 124 gr, RNl ( not tumble lube design) lubed with carnuba red to 1450 FPS with no leading.

Powder was Bluedot

Brass was trimmed to length PMC and Remington, do not used mixed case heads in the 9mm and do not try to use mixed untrimed case's in the 9mm accuracy will be dismal at best.

Primer was federal std small pistol or winchester small pistol primer pockets were reamed and flash holes deburred case mouth, inside, I statred using a 10 degree bevel on and seems to be working very well.

Pistol, at the time and still have it, was a Taurus PT99 with a custom Bar sto 6 inch barrel.

Thats what I do know, I have no experience with lone wolf barrels and even less, by choice, experience with Glocks. LW should be able to tell you what his barrels are when you place the order. Make sure you tell him your going to cast your own with lead so he can send you a barrel cut for the right chamber leade.

So my suggestion is start out easy, LOL!

avoid tumble lube, and make sure every boolit you load has a sharp clean base on it. The 9mm is the most unforgiving round to load for but once you figure it out it can and does perfrom very well, for what it is.

Good luck!

Thanks HeavyMetal, I got a ton of 9mm brass, all flavors. why PMC and Remington cases? I've been loading xtreme
plated HP & RN and have been ok with mixed brass as far as can tell. the only other lead I have cast and loaded are 38/357 with LLA (of course at lower pressure) also I usually just soak the brass in vinegar and rinse well. it sounds like I may be short cutting things. need a few for tools too.

[nixpap]

Nixpap,
.
I'm a fan of the truncated cone design. The Lyman 356402 works in most 9mm and is popular. I should think the Lee model would as well, at a fraction of the cost.
.
Welcome to the forum,

your not the first I've heard say I like truncated cone design. thanks

[dilly]

Couple tips as 9mm problems come up quite frequently. Do go ahead and slug your barrel. When sizing, err on the side of larger. Don't size down your bullets with crimp. Load, crimp, pull via kinetic puller, and measure to make sure you haven't sized down your boolit.

Remember, if you get really frustrated with conventional lubes you can always try an easy dry tumble powder coat and I think it's a little easier to get right.

[blikseme300]

I have never water dropped for 9mm or trimmed cases as I have never needed to in order to load ammunition that works. My experience has been that as long as the boolits are sized to .3575 or slightly larger and an proper expander is employed to open up the brass to prevent crimp-down then you are good to go.

[tazman]

I obviously don't know what size your bore is, but most 9mm seem to shoot better with boolits sized .357 or slightly larger.
I have had great success with both traditional lubes and tumble lube(LLA). As was stated by a previous poster, make sure your cases are not sizing down your boolits.
I water drop for convenience. It isn't necessary with coww but it makes things easier for me personally.
The truncated cone is the easiest to get going in a 9mm. Lots of people have had issues with the TL version of the Lee tc. The Lee standard lube groove boolit in tc works beautifully.
I understand the wish for speed but you may well find your pistol to be more accurate with a less speedy load. That is the fun in reloading, you can tailor the product to the firearm for best accuracy.
There are enough differences between different firearms and barrels that you cannot assume the max loads are safe in your pistol. Choose a light starting load and work your way up slowly to the max load. That way you can see how your pistol responds to your boolit/powder combination. You may find the most accurate load for your pistol very quickly that way.

[gtgeorge]

I personally shoot .358 in all my 9mm and most need it. So far accuracy has been best with 135gr to 145gr and I prefer RNFP over TC. I do not shoot a Glock though so it may have other preferences. I do shoot in Poly rifled barrels as well as standard with equal results and shoot soft air cooled lead.

[Handloader109]

Make sure you do a dummy round to check the fit. Both the lee Tc and rn have to be seated rather deep to fit the gun. Pull barrel and drop dummy into it. If it sticks and won't fall out on its own, it is too long (or possibly too large diameter smaller probably of this). Then watch your load if your data is for long load.

[Cherokee]

My most used CB is the Lee 356120TC conventional, cast from 3/3/94 alloy and sized to .356 for my 9's using CR lube. I push these from 1000 to 1250 fps with better accuracy than I can shoot. I use the same headstamp cases usually (no trimming) but mixed brass does OK as well. 356 works for me but many use a larger size. See how it goes for ya.

[captaint]

You are correct, sir. I actually size mine just a hair under .358, but what the heck... It works. AS long as they feed & chamber OK, you're good. Mike

[nicholst55]

Take the time to read the thread at the link below. It is a sticky in the Wheelguns, etc. subforum and addreses your subject pretty thoroughly.

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

[mdi]

Whenever I start casting/reloading for a new caliber, I go with a tried and true bullet design (for my revolvers I went with SWC, for my 45 ACP I used Lyman's 225 RN, for my 9mm I started with a 124 gr. LRN). I think it's easier and you have info available for any problem encountered right here. Loads are plentiful too. Slug your barrel so you'll know what size your gun needs (not a WAG!). I have 2, 9mm and one (older gun) is .358", and my newer gun is .3565"...

I don't water drop any of my cast bullets and I've shot my wheel weight alloy bullets as fast as 1300 fps in one of my magnum revolvers.

[Larry Gibson]

nixpap

Suggest you add 2% tin to your COWWs and let the bullets AC for 7-10 days before lubing, sizing or loading. They will be plenty hard enough for any 9mm load. I started out back in '69 with the 356402 and used several other designs as well. Sized them at .356 because that was the 9mm size. Shot them in numerous 9mms over the years including subguns w/o a problem. I developed a "standard" load of 4 gr Bullseye with any cast bullet of 115 - 125 gr. That load has functioned every thing. I also suggest a soft lube such as a NRA 50/50 lube or BAC.

However these days I use the Lee 356-120-TC because it is an excellent 9mm design, functions in everything and comes in 6 cavity moulds. I size them at .357 and have not found a need for larger (yet). My load is still the 4 gr of Bullseye. I got over the "1200 - 1400 fps" desire when I found it really wasn't needed for my practice and general shooting cast bullet loads.

Larry Gibson

[tomme boy]

Two things I had to do to keep a 9mm from leading was to install a 38 S&W expander in my powder thru die and to hone out my seater die. The expander stopped the case from squeezing the bullet down. The seater die was also swaging the bullet down with anything over a 0.3565" bullet.

[dondiego]

Try your stock Glock barrel too. You may not need a LW barrel.

[Shiloh]

I water drop everything. If it is wet, it isn't hot.

Shiloh

[h8dirt]

I don't water drop 9MM's that are BHN 14, lubed with White's BAC, sized to 0.358" and shot to moderate velocities. Never a problem.

[MtGun44]

WWts plus 1-2% tin, air cooled are plenty for all my 9mms. Strongly recommend .357 to .358 diam and
Lee 356 120 TC conventional lube design. Many have failed with TL designs in this cartridge, a few have
succeeded. RN designs are more likely to have issues with tight throats, where TCs seem to feed a
bit better and are easier with tight throats.

Check out the sticky on "Setting up a new 9mm for boolits" - may save you some grief.

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

Do you really expect 1400 fps from 9mm? Sounds pretty unrealistic to me, unless you are
thinking of a 90 gr boolit or something like that. More like 1100-1200 is reasonable, even
for most factory ammo.

Bill

[HeavyMetal]

I suggested PMC and Remington cases as they are most common here followed by Winchester.

For my reasons I will suggest you find Ken Waters Pet Loads 9mm update and read it. In it he determines huge variations in case length, in the same 50 round box of factory loads and a very big difference in case capacities amongst the major brands avaliable.

Once you start pushing the envelope in the 9mm for velocity you'll want to load in the largest case capacity to reduce pressures.

Hence my case suggestion for the large capacity.

Now Ken's data is a little dated, done in the late 80's early 90's but still usefull technique and charts to help keep you out of trouble. Nice list of load data as well and yes he got some of the 90 grain HP's into the 1400 with excellent accuracy to 50 yards!

My load of Bluedot is compressed and is the reason I ws using the Lee RN 124 gran boolit because it did not go into the case as far as a TC boolit would.

with the 9mm you have a lot to learn and a lot of fun ahead. get the Pet loads book and follow Kens writings he was the best for detailed load info.

[nixpap]

as MtGun44 said, 1400 fps might be a little much.

[nixpap]

WWts plus 1-2% tin, air cooled are plenty for all my 9mms. Strongly recommend .357 to .358 diam and
Lee 356 120 TC conventional lube design. Many have failed with TL designs in this cartridge, a few have
succeeded. RN designs are more likely to have issues with tight throats, where TCs seem to feed a
bit better and are easier with tight throats.

Check out the sticky on "Setting up a new 9mm for boolits" - may save you some grief.

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

Do you really expect 1400 fps from 9mm? Sounds pretty unrealistic to me, unless you are
thinking of a 90 gr boolit or something like that. More like 1100-1200 is reasonable, even
for most factory ammo.

Bill

Good read.

[JimmyBallew]

I'm running a Lone Wolf barrel in my Glock 34, using lyman 356402 And Lee 356 125 2R moulds dry tumble powder coated. Sized to .357 the bullets were just oversized enough that they would hang in the chamber when I went to unload and show clear (IDPA). A lot of times I had to find somthing to press the lower part of the muzzle against to get the bullet unstuck. I went to a .356 size die and the sticking went away. The .357 bullets didn't hang in the stock barrel, only the Lone Wolf.