Experimenting 9mm bullets in 358 Win and 35 Whelen... just because...

Hi everyone!
I went to my reloading room looking for what to load and I noticed I was out of the 200gr Lee clone of the RCBS boolit.
While thinking of what else to load, I logged in to "CastBoolits" and check the 350 Legend discussion and after reading a few responses, I thought if I can use 9mm bullets in my 358 win and/or my 35 Whelen. I check the 9mm bullet against the muzzel and I noticed that it had sufficient surface for the bullet to spin.
Needless to say, before too long, I was putting together some loads. I started with the 35 Whelen and I figured 11.7gr of Unique should be sufficient for the 115gr JHP 9mm bullet.
Took it to the range and I was really surprized! I was able to print some ragged decent groups at 50 yards but would also get some flier groups from time to time. I came back home and loaded some 358 Win, basically same load as I did for the whelen. The results: just about the same. Some good groups almost ragged holes and then some groups that created like two diferent groups from the same 5-shot groups.
Anyway, I am sure this had been done by other already but for me it was a great experiment because I did not have boolits made and this is a great alternative for paper punching while having fun.
Have a great weekend.
Camba
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The first two target pictures show the results with the 9mm bullets. Some of the lose bullet holes are from sighting the rifle until I was in the orange dot. I did not have pictures of all the groups I made but that shown is what was typical.
Last picture is a 5-shot group using the same load but with the Lee 200gr FP boolits.

9mm is .355.
358 Win & .35 Whelen is .357/.358.
Could explain those flyers.

I'm surprised that you had sufficient neck tension for the .355"s to stay in the cartridge. Now you have "emergency knowledge" to use if you need to. Rock on, brother.

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I used the Hornady neck sizing die and seems that it works.
I had a couple of thousand 9mm bullets for my pistol that I bought bulk and I just had to try it.
Camba


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I never got consistency shooting 9mm ammo ( cast or Jacketed ) out of my Ruger .357 Blackhawk with the conversion cylinder.
I think the boolit was just too small for the .358 barrel.

I loaded some Berry's plated .358 125 flat point bullets in a 358 win over 5 grains of bullseye made a good 25 yard load for camp meat on my last Alaska trip

Size your boolits to.358 if your mold casts them large enough to do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kycrawler

I loaded some Berry's plated .358 125 flat point bullets in a 358 win over 5 grains of bullseye made a good 25 yard load for camp meat on my last Alaska trip

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Moose?
[emoji1783]

Could larger lead 9mm Makarov bullet be sized down for a better fit.Guys use them in chicken loads in the 9.3x62 Perhaps simply paper patch or powder coat what you are using.

They are JHP bulk bullets


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Did some more shooting with this load last saturday and it is confirmed. Less than 1” groups with my 35 Whelen and just over 1” with both of my 358 Win rifles.
Definitely a nice accurate plinking load.
Camba


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If you remove the expander button and rod when FL sizing smaller bullets will get enough neck tension to hold a bullet. We do it all the time with .308 in a .303 British that should take .311-.312

That is very true.
What I am using is the Hornady neck sizer die and it comes nice and tight.
In the past I tried the same experiment and the bulles would be easily pushed in deeper. With this die from hornady, it is tight.



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I used my rcbs full sizing die and the 9mm bullets would easily push through. It is confirmed. The Hornady neck sizer die is tighter than the full sizer from rcbs.
Camba


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I have thought of doing this for my 35 Whelen using 38 SWC that are sized .358 for my local in door range.

Here is a treasure trove of load data using fast pistol powders to down load rifle cartriges. I used the 32-20 data on my .300blk to come up with a super quiet Titewad load.

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Wow! I'm suprised how well they shoot. I've always been told it would not work.

I "Bump Up" Everglades Ammunition 9mm (.355) 147gr JHP in a BT Sniper Point Form Die to .3575 and they shoot great in a Coonan .357 Magnum pistol and 357 Maximum rifles. Im going to have to try the raw 9mm and see what happens.

I had a thought while reading this. You could use 9mm (147s?) and powder coat them and the fit would be close.

Paul in WNY

What I tried was jacketed hollow point 9mm bullets in the 358 win and 35 whelen by neck sizing the cases with the Hornady neck sizer for 35 cal and surprisingly, the 9mm bullets fit tight to the case. I am sure, using the same die would do fine to hold the boolit in the case but that could cause leading in the barrel. Not sure with the powder coated as I have not use pc boolits yet in any of my rifles.
Good thought.


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