9mm /115 gr coated cast bullet minimum / max charge

[kenk]

Greetings,
I will be loading some 9mm /115 gr coated cast bullets from Missouri BulletCompany, and will be using Bullseye powder. Iam trying to find the minimum / max charge. I did find one place that was saying 3.9 – 4.7, but wanted to see what you folks thought.
Thanks in advance
Ken

[bowenrd]

Get a Lyman Reloading Handbook.

[chutesnreloads]

Your data is certainly in the ballpark.I settled on 4.2g. of same powder just for punching holes in paper.There are better powders for the 9mm though.

[kenk]

Thanks, what do you like for 9mm / .45 Auto?

[Pee Wee]

titegroup

[toallmy]

Red dot-green dot-unique . See a pattern. These is a lot of info in the archives ,just go to top of page and Google it .you will be reading all day.and check out the sticky on setting up a 9mm for cast it can save a lot of time.it did for me .

[runfiverun]

the post above has good advice.
read the 9mm sticky [actually I think there are 2 of them] it will give you a lot of pointers and what to look for.
load details should be pretty easily found here also and bulls-eye will work in the 9mm.
I would recommend it over titegroup in the 9mm for sure.


and the important part.
welcome to the forum.

[Larry Gibson]

I've used 4 gr Bullseye with many different 115 - 125 gr cast bullets in mny diferent 9mm handguns and a few subguns for 40+ years with complete satisfaction. That load has always worked quite well nd is m standard load currently with he Lee 120 gr TC cast bullet.

Larry Gibson

[kenk]

Thanks folks, I will learn much here (if your willing to put up with some of my newbie questions : ) thanks again

[bangerjim]

Just buy the Lyman Cast and Lee boolit load books. Those are the bibles for just about everything you will load. Do not rely on loads from the internet before verifying with published data.

spend a little............shoot a lot.......SAFELY!

bangerjim

ps......I use Titegroup and ETR7 for EVERYTHING. Tons of TG load data out there in the books mentioned above.

[John Wayne]

Hi Ken & Pee Wee!
For those of you who may not know PeeWee he is a great guy!
Ken you can use your search engine for the Hogdon Reloading Data Center and enter your powder, bullet etc and get some good info. I use Titegroup at 3.9 gr with a COPPER JACKETED boolit.
JW

[pretzelxx]

I send titegroup down range with my j words. Holds tight like it says! But I also wish I had some bullseye as well to spice it up
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/07/d1e813cfc3eab9dbe9cfc0c8632a6b36.jpg

This is straight from the 48th edition! (handy to have it right on your phone)

[quilbilly]

My experience looking for a maximum charge wasted a couple years of experimenting. All kinds of strange and wonderful things happened when I tried to turn a 9mm into a mini 357(no I won't tell you about my failures). Being a slow learner, I finally decided to back off to a more civilized load, 4.6 gr of Unique. Haven't looked back.

[pretzelxx]

That's probably the best advice I can give as well. Don't look for that hotrod load. Go for the one you find that works well!

[tazman]

That's probably the best advice I can give as well. Don't look for that hotrod load. Go for the one you find that works well!

I agree with this 100%.
I will add that when using a heavier boolit(135-150 grains) you essentially have a high capacity 38 special. I really like the performance and accuracy I get with them in my 9mm. When using some of the slower powders, 850+fps is easily obtainable without going to max or +P charges.

[jonp]

Speaking of the N340 Lymans bolded as most accurate has anyone tried that powder?

[BBQJOE]

4.6 gr of Unique. Haven't looked back.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f172/barbecuejoe/this_zps5f1b2330.jpg

[bedbugbilly]

+1 to Larry Gibson . . .

And, as mentioned, get yourself a copy of one of the Lyman Cast Boolit Handbooks if you don't have one . . worth every penny you spend on it.

I don't like to give data but will tell you my experience . .

I usually only shoot what I cast. I normally either use the Lee 356-120 TC or a Lyman/Ideal 358-242 - both 120ish grain weight. I also use Bulls Eye and like it. In my Ruger SR-9, 3.7 - 3.9 gr. will shoot well and will cycle the handgun well.

I recently bought a 9mm Shield. In the deal, I got a box of 500 "coated hard cast" 115 grain boolits from SNS casting. In working up a load with that particular boolit weight with BE - I had to increase to around 4.2 gr. for the SR9. Below that, I was getting failure to eject, failure to feed issues as the lower grain weight of the boolit and the normal 3.7 - 3.9 gr of BE was not enough to cycle the slide all the way back. In the Shield, the 3.9 gr. would cycle the gun just fine.

Since I don't want to load a separate batch of 9mm for the two different 9mm handguns, I have settled on the 4.2 gr load of BE since both the SR9 and the Shield function and shoot well with that particular load.

I agree that loading data for some boolit weights and BE can be confusing from one source to another. A good place is to start with the data that Alliant provides for BE or go to a recently published manual that provides data for your boolit and BE. Start low and work up. To be honest, at times when I read what some grain weights some folks are using, I think that mine must be on the "low" side - but I don't load "hot" for any of my handguns - semis or wheel guns. Particularly since my main shooting is "plinking". Every hand gun is different. Even with the same make/model - they each have their own personalities. I have seen the 4.7 max. as well that you state in your post. I know some who love to push the envelope and load at max. As I was taught - I ALWAYS start at minimum and work up from there. If "less" gets the job done, then why use "more"?

There is so much loading data on-line but even that will show a variety of min. max. loads. I'm old . . and I much prefer to have a good loading manual in front of me that I can look at with established load data that I know has been tested. You may have loading manuals . . I don't know. But . . as others have noted . . if not, then get one or two. To me, a loading manual . . or two or three or four . . are just as important as the rest of my reloading equipment whether it be dies, brass, press, etc.

And tazman - I again thank you for all your help that you provided in getting me squared away with the loading/heavier boolit a few weeks back. It is working out well . . . still need to fine tune it some but the 147 gr. worked fantastic out of both the SR9 and Shield!