9mm's in carbine?

[Rather-B-Huntin]

I'm as green as a boolit caster can get and want to ensure I do it right the first time.

I've been smelting wheel weights for about three weeks into muffin sized ingots. Just got a Lee Prod. Pot IV yesterday and hope to get some molds this week to get started. Plan to use Lee molds and sizers, water quench, and pan lube w/ Darr's formula.

One of my main casting interestes will be 9mm RN bullets for use in my RRA AR-15 with 16" barrel. Will probably use Clays for propellant for velocity in the 1,250 to 1,300 fps range.

My question is whether molding with straight WW's will be sufficient to prevent leading? Or should I add other alloys to the WW's, or even gas check?

All help much appreciated!

[MT Gianni]

No experience in the carbine but I shoot unchecked boolits up to 1400 fps without leading. If the boolit fits and the pressure is neither excessive nor insufficient for the alloy it should be fine.
In general, leading in the front of the bbl indicates you are running out of or failing in the lube dept, in the chamber end it indicates poor fit among other things. Let us know how it turns out.

[Rather-B-Huntin]

I'll try a few and see how it goes.

[KYCaster]

I think you'll get better results with a slower burning powder than Clays. A powder that will burn completely in a 4 inch barrel won't gain much velocity in your rifle barrel, whereas a slower powder will make better use of the combustion space, giving you a bigger velocity gain for the extra barrel length.

Something like Unique, Universal, Herco, Blue Dot or even a little slower would be my choice.

I had very good results in a Marlin Camp Carbine with Universal and a 135 gr BB boolit.

Jerry

[jdgabbard]

I have a Ruger PC-9 Carbine, and I've had fairly good results using unique and the Lyman 356402 TC. Not really much leading, but I haven't had super great accuracy, in my opinion anyways... Tho this would propably change with a little more development. But my MOPP (Minute of Paper Plate) is working just fine for me at the moment...

[chris in va]

I've had zero luck so far with my HiPoint carbine. Normally it shoots like a laser with FMJ but I can't get it to shoot straight with a TC 124, round flat nose 125 or 147. Lots of keyholes unless I really load it down to mousefart levels.

Many people suggest the 38 special 125gr RFN mold, I may try that here soon. It seems to have a lot more bearing surface.

[quilbilly]

I have a T/C carbine in the 9mm caliber. I have tried the really fast burning powder which worked well in my P-38 but had various problems in the carbine. I switched to Unique and the accuracy problems went away. Currently I am using a 150 gr RN in 357 caliber (T/C uses a 357 bore).

[ofreen]

I didn't get good accuracy in my Colt 6540 until I tried the RCBS 124 RN gas checked boolit. This one cast from wheelweights, Hornady gas check, sized .357", combined with 7.5 gr Blue Dot shoots as accurately as WWB. Which is to say about 4 moa at 100 yds.

[kawalekm]

Hi RBH
I have a .357 carbine and shoot Lyman's 358477 SWC in it at 1800fps. This bullet is made of wheel weights plus 5% tin to duplicate Lyman #2 alloy. I get excellent results with little leading. There is some, but it cleans out with just a tight cotton patch. Not bad for a plain base bullet.

Another load I make that will perform closer to your 9mm is the same bullet with 8.0 grains of Blue Dot. In a 6" revolver it is going 1090fps and 1265fps in the carbine. I load the same amount of Blue Dot with my 120 grain 9mm TC so I'd expect the velocity increase to be approximately the same.

I'd expect you'd want a somewhat slower powder than Clays if you're shooting in a carbine. I'm partial to Blue Dot, but I know of a gun writer that developed an accurate 9mm Carbine load using H110!
Good luck,
Michael

[mcdonl]

I've had zero luck so far with my HiPoint carbine. Normally it shoots like a laser with FMJ but I can't get it to shoot straight with a TC 124, round flat nose 125 or 147. Lots of keyholes unless I really load it down to mousefart levels.

Thats a pisser. It is my 995 I was looking forward to casting for the most. I will be using 125g RN 2 0give... think that will make a difference?

[45 2.1]

I've had good results with three boolits in the 9mm Carbine barrels. Those are the Saeco 122 gr. RN plain base, Lee 120 gr. truncated cone and the BRP 358-136-PB. All these should be sized to a little over 0.357" and should be water dropped. Accuracy is typical of the 357 Mag in a rifle.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have been using the Lee 356-120 TC sized .356 and lubed with Lee 50/50 alox, with either Unique, Bullseye or 231. With Unique I am getting 1 1/2" 20 shot groups at 50 yds, out of my 9mm AR. This is the most accurate boolit I have found in my AR, and I am not getting any leading. The only other load that I have found that shoots as well is the Hornady HAP bullets with Unique or Power Pistol.

G

[wizard93]

I'm shooting 125 grain LRN boolits cast from the Lee 356-125-rn 6-cavity mold using WW alloy, water quenched, sized to .356", and lubed with Jake's purple ceresin lube. I'm using Winchester 540 powder (wish they still made this one, is there a replacement?) around 5 grains, can't remember the exact charge now. I'm getting around 1200 fps from my Hi-Point 995 carbine. I'm going to try other boolits in this carbine sometime, but for now, it's fun enough for me. But long story short, I've had some pretty good luck with cast boolits in the 9mm carbine. I'm working on loads for my HP 4095 carbine as soon as the weather warms up.

Here's one target showing what the carbine does with cast boolits at 25 yards:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd282/tburdette303/Hi-Point/Target4.jpg

Hope this helps.

wizard93

[GabbyM]

WW-540 is replaced with Hdgdon HS-6.

[finishman2000]

i shoot alot of 9mm carbine. i have two 995's and an uzi. all like the 147gr water dropped the best. i use aa#7 and getting 1250fps out of the carbines. 1050 out of the handguns. no leading.

[Russel Nash]

Tagged for later....

One of these days I will get a pistol caliber carbine, most likely an AR. Thanks for all the informative posts everyone!

[zombiekiller]

I shoot cast out of my Hipoint 995 with great results. Straight WW lead water dropped from the Lee TL RN 124gr 6 banger. I put a normal sparse coat of Alox and no sizing. I'm cheap so I load it with AA#2 at an avg velocity of 1249 fps (7 fps variance). I'll bet that AA#7 or another slow burn powder would probably be better in the carbine but I have lots of #2 that I use for everything else and it works just fine. I basically follow the instructions that came with my 9mm set of lee dies and have never had any problems. I've yet to shoot it beyond 50 yards but I got slightly better accuracy than the Winchester NATO spec that I was shooting through it and have no leading after a normal afternoon of 100 rounds.

[chris in va]

I will be using 125g RN 2 0give... think that will make a difference?

Might. I recently tried some 124gr 38 special .358" that have a lot better accuracy out of my CZ 75, and once my HiPoint comes back from the factory (again) I hope they will perform better than the 124gr 9mm TC boolits that keyhole and/or shoot buckshot patterns.