My 124 grain 9mm bullet wont fit my barrel

[isaac0071]

I've casted 300, 124 grain rn 9mm bullets, powder coated them and sized them. I sized to 356 but they won't fit my barrels.

[isaac0071]

The guns are a glock 23 with a lone wolf conversion barrel and a walters ppx.

[matrixcs]

Sounds like you do not have an adequate throat or the overall length is too long. Casting the chamber and throat will tell you the story on the throat it may be .355.

[dragon813gt]

Sounds like your OAL is to long for the round nose design. Seat them deeper until they pass the plunk test.

[mozeppa]

drive one thru the barrel with a brass rod....then measure it.

[mongoose33]

drive one thru the barrel with a brass rod....then measure it.

Yes to the above.

OP, when you say the bullets won't "fit your barrel," what does that mean? A loaded round won't chamber? They won't drop through? (they shouldn't).

Did you remove the casemouth expansion with a taper crimp?

[isaac0071]

I use a lee factory crimp die and it doesn't pass the plunk test. I will drive one thru the barrels and measure thank for the advice.

[Schrag4]

Just out of curiosity, why do you feel the need to use the Lee FCD?

[Boolit_Head]

Lone Wolf barrels have very short throats, sounds like your OAL is to long to fit. I would not do it now but if you eventually settle for a long OAL LW will throat the barrel to fit some dummy's you send them. I've got a LW conversion barrel for the 22 but haven't used the 124's yet. The loads I did for my .40 LW barrel had to be at minimum OAL to chamber properly with a 140gr TC bullet.

For now if they won't drop in you need to figure out why. Slugging may not tell you much at this point since your issue is before the bullet enters the bore. I'm betting the issue is your OAL,124 gr .356 should not have a issue in most barrels. The LEE FCD is notorious for sizing down lead bullets during the crimp. Might want to pull one and measure it, I'll bet it is under .356 now.

[isaac0071]

My OAL was 1.12, I tried seating and little deeper to 1.090 and that's fixed the problem. Thanks for the help. I've only been reloading for one and half years and have learned a lot from you more experienced reloaders.

[mdi]

"Won't fit my barrels" What exactly does that mean? Are the too big in diameter? Are they too ???

[isaac0071]

They wouldn't chamber. Like boolit

[isaac0071]

Like boolit_head said the throat in my lw barel is very short, which I didn't know thanks boolit_head. So I set them a little deeper to 1.090 and that fixed the problem.

[runfiverun]

well you jumped ahead in the steps for making successful ammunition at home that's for sure.
I generally start by making a dummy round or three and figuring out the oal that feeds and ejects before doing anything else.
this oal is gonna give me a volume of useful case capacity which is going to influence my starting load.

[gwpercle]

For 9mm luger, I keep a few berdan primed cases around for making dummy rounds with. No powder, no primer, just a boolit. I have 4 different moulds and use these to get the seating depth worked out. After passing the "plunk" test, we called it fitting the chamber, then load 4 or 5 in a magazine and manually cycle the action to simulate firing. If they all feed fire and eject you are good to go. Keep a dummy or two on hand to quickly set boolit seating depth next time you load that particular boolit. Saves time after that.
Gary

[isaac0071]

Thanks Gary I will. I did that with my Sig's and I came to 1.12-1.13 for them with the same bullet. So I figured it would work with these guns. It's what I get for thinking for myself now that I'm devorced. (Lol)

[edctexas]

Remember that seating the boolit deeper will raise pressure. You want to be careful with cartridges like 9mm.

Ed C

[runfiverun]

for sure you need to be careful with just seating a boolit deeper.
you need to be especially careful if using tite-group powder.

[isaac0071]

I definitely will be watching for excessive pressure signs.

[roypete007]

My cz75 is alot tighter than my Glocks or Rugers 9mms. I ve had the same in 45 acp with 1911s and Glock 21. I wish i had this site then. I dissasemble the guns and drop the loaded ammo them in the barrels now. If it seats and drops freely...i know im good. I have had to shoot a couple hundred rounds in the past that i had to re-seat and re factory crimp. Luckily i never had any too hot. Learning OAL the hard way will ruin a range trip. When in doubt..take the time and pull them.
first post.
Rp