9mm tumbling and leading issues think i found a solution

[Sgtonory]

Wanted to share what i have learned with reloading 9mm with cast boolits the last year. I had no issues when i was casting with harder lead like ACCOWW but i am a cheap SOB and i have a ton of range scrap from a indoor range but is pretty soft around 10bhn. My issue was the case was swaging down the boolits below .356 some as far down as .353 and was causing tumbling and leading. I tryed to fix this with a 38 special Lyman M die. This helped but i still had swaging of the boolit to .355. Next i purchased a RCBS .358 neck expander. Loaded some up and pulled the boolits all mic .3568 on bottom driving band and top was .357 boolits started out as .358. Now time to hit the range and verify.

[Tatume]

The truth is in the pudding.

[tomme boy]

Use a Lee 38 S&W powder through expander and it will save you even more of a hassle. That is the common fix for 9mm swaging your bullet. Then run your bullets at 0.3575" min or 0.358" like I do and the leading goes away completely.

[wv109323]

I had a RCBS bullet mold and it would not cast large enough for my pistol. I traded it and bought a .358 mold and size to .358.

[Sgtonory]

My issue was even a .362 sized boolit was swage to .355 or smaller even when useing a Lyman m die for 38 special. The rcbs .358 fixed that as it opened the brass another .0012

[tazman]

I am using a standard Lee 9mm expander/powder through die. I size my boolits to .358. I have yet to measure one swaged down to .357 or below unless I am seating a boolit way too deep.
However, I water drop my boolits from the mold. They are coming out around 18 bhn according to others testing equipment. I suspect the extra hardness is all that's keeping me from having the same problem.

[captaint]

I guess I've been lucky. I use Lyman Dies, the 4 die set with the M die. I forget what the expander mic's at, but I have pulled a couple of boolits and they remain .358. No leading issues, so I've not had to make a big deal out of it. My alloy is generally just air cooled WW's with a little tin. Mike

[gefiltephish]

There are members here who can make custom plugs for m-dies. Buckshot has made quite a few for me. Because 9mm has proven to be so picky for me, I have a whole range of plugs to accommodate the wide variations in brass wall thickness, internal taper and hardness.

[Ed_Shot]

I guess I've been lucky. I use Lyman Dies, the 4 die set with the M die. I forget what the expander mic's at, but I have pulled a couple of boolits and they remain .358. No leading issues, so I've not had to make a big deal out of it. My alloy is generally just air cooled WW's with a little tin. Mike

Same here....the expander plug on the M-Die I use for 9mm is 38AP. I size to .358 and have never had any leading in the several different 9MM pistols and carbines I load for.

[62chevy]

If you use the powder through or the universal expander from Lee try this product from NOE: http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product_info.php?cPath=91&products_id=1204&osCsid=gur2grgtau78khoh1vb51elok1

[rsrocket1]

Have you tried Powder Coating? I was geting light leading in my 9 and 40 pistols with TL lead boolits, but once I took to ASBB tumble coating, there has been no leading at all in any of the barrels. What ever soot is in there disappears with a single pass of a bore snake. I heard that PC has an effective hardness of BHN 29 (?). Even when I size the PC'ed bullets to 0.356" or 0.401" I get no leading at all. I use a hodgepodge of COWW, dead soft scrap lead and melted down reclaimed shotshell shot. The last 25 pounds of bullets was made totally from a bag of reclaimed shot.

[gefiltephish]

Yeah, I've had good results with PC as well. Was going to mention it earlier but figured this thread is really about swaging during seating. Of my 3 9mm's, the Sig 938 will take anything without protest. Neither the XD or LC9 like lubed lead. The LC9 doesn't even like jackets! All 3 are good with plated and PC though.