Hey there just started casting and having all sorts of problems

[jessesmith121]

As the title says I started casting not too long ago.. Having issues with the boolit tumbling out of the gun.. Using lee mold 124 gr 9mm flatpoint tumble lube... any suggestions on the load for this setup including OAL?

[OptimusPanda]

How big is the groove diameter of the barrel and how big are those bullets casting? I know bad things happened the first and only time I used .356" cast bullets in a .3575" grooved 9mm.

[Yodogsandman]

I have the single lube groove Lee mold. I seat to 1.055" O.A.L. using 3.8gr of Bullseye.

[RogerDat]

Most reloading manuals give an OAL for the loads.

This is sort of crude but if you suspect the bullet might be small, set it on something hard and tap the nose with a hammer, then run through larger sizer. Bullet squishes out when tapped, gets bigger diameter, then bullet swages back down to the size desired when run through a sizer. Might try .358 sizer. If that works you at least know the problem. Then can try "beagling" the mold, or using a screw in the base of a bullet cast in the mold to spin the bullet with some rubbing compound to increase the mold size a bit. Or knowing you need larger bullet just buy the larger mold, that of course works too.

[GhostHawk]

Any time I had a gun that shot lead boolits which keyhole a larger boolit always solved the problem.
Normally also vastly improved groups as well. YMMV

[runfiverun]

yep only two things cause tumbling.
not gripping the rifling or not pushing it fast enough.

you did pick our number one thread causing mold for 2014 though.
it generally come down to the boolit being too small [which is not gripping the rifling] and design issues.
the tiny drive bands aren't strong enough to grip the rifling well.

try sizing to 358, not making the boolit smaller when loading it, and water dropping from the mold.
those should help.

[sigep1764]

You could also try powder coating the boolit to increase its diameter. Lots of info on here bout that.

[Boogieman]

Lee's tumble lub bullets don't work well in the 9mm. There quite a few posts on this forum about this problem. It may be the narrow bands allow gas blow by at 9mm pressures. Lee's 120gr. TC works for me and it can be tumble lubed. Most tumbling is caused by undersized bullets and higher pressure loads make it worse.

[OBIII]

Slug your barrel so you know what you are dealing with.
OB

[bigolsmokebomb]

I wasn't having quite as a severe issue as you are but I did find out that while I was sizing my boolits .356 my barrel diameter is exactly .356 and that was causing issues with accuracy and blow by causing a little bit of leading in my barrel even with the PC. right now im using the lee 124gr TC boolit mold but there is a group by for a mihec mold that throws a .359 bullet and he will make it throw either 135 147 or 152gr with or without the lube groove. ive heard really good things about mihec's molds so I jumped on the list last night. from what I hear a good mold makes all the difference and ive always said lifes too short to shoot crappy ammo.

[mdi]

Can't do any troubleshooting without facts; measure the diameter of the bullets. Slug and measure the barrel of your gun. As a start, try for bullets .002" larger than groove diameter...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

As the title says I started casting not too long ago.. Having issues with the boolit tumbling out of the gun.. Using lee mold 124 gr 9mm flatpoint tumble lube... any suggestions on the load for this setup including OAL?
jessesmith121, Welcome to the forum.
There has been some good advice so far...I surely can't add much for detailed solutions to your tumbling tumble lubed 9mm boolits.

The only suggestions I can offer you is 9mm is not the easiest caliber to start loading boolits with, due to it being a High Pressure round. When you find a load you want to try, hopefully one from a published book that includes chamber pressure, then read the following link about alloys and the Max pressure they can handle.
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
this link is also in a banner on the bottom of this page.

Also, here is a real good detailed post on loading for 9mm.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121607-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

Good Luck,
Jon

[fredj338]

What gun? Glocks are notorious for tumbling with bullets even 0.0005" too small. many glock shooters are running 0.358" bullets in their stock bbls. The TL design also gets a lot of poor accuracy reviews vs std lube groove designs. Powders, like TG, can also be an issue.

[jessesmith121]

thank you all for the responses... It has given me a starting point

[Wayne Smith]

Jessie, there is a sticky of many pages dealing with casting for the 9mm. I think it's still down in Pistols and Handcannons but it may have been moved to the Classics and Stickies section. I recommend you find this and read it. It will be more than a start!

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

The first thing I'd do is inspect the bore. Is it leaded? If so, that is almost certainly your problem.

[Wayne Smith]

The first thing I'd do is inspect the bore. Is it leaded? If so, that is almost certainly your problem.
Good thinking - if he's shooting undersized boolits ...