What do you Cast/size your 9mm powdercoated bullets to?

[kryogen]

What do you Cast/size your 9mm powdercoated bullets to?

(Dont tell me to slug my barrel, this is not the question. My barrel is 357 if you care that much.).

My question is how do you size, before, after, and to what diameter, and how much over your slug.

So answers I am looking for would be:

"I cast out of a 356 mold, and then PC, and then size to 357."
And honestly, this is probably what I am going to try to do. I'll cast some and then test 356, 357, 358....
Since 358 gives the occasional FTF, I guess that if 357 works I'll keep it there.


Cast out of a .356 mold(approx .3575), then powdercoat, and then size to .357?
or do you cast, size to 356, powdercoat, and keep it that way? or re-size to 356?
or what?

Since they tend to not lead, I guess pushing it at .358 is not a plus ?

Since most barrels are 357, why are 9mm plated bullets 355 or 356 anyway?

[sparky45]

If you've slugged your barrel(s) you should have your answer. That being .001-.002 over your slugged value.

[birdadly]

That's the answer for lead bullets, correct? I think it may be up in the air yet what the best size is for PC bullets. I believe everyone's still testing things on their own without any true answer. -Brad

If you've slugged your barrel(s) you should have your answer. That being .001-.002 over your slugged value.

[A pause for the COZ]

I am in the middle of an experiment. I usually shoot my LEE 105 gr swc sized to .358 standard lubed in my 9mm and .380
They shoot just fine, but I would occasionally have a feeding problem. Figured it was happening with cases that the brass was just thick enough to cause a problem. At .358 I was not really giving it any room for varying case thickness.

So today, I cast up a few hundred more of them. I then ran them through my Star sizer at .356 with out adding lube.
With standard lube I could not do that as this squeezes the lube grooves to much.
With PCing, who cares I dont use the lube grooves for any thing any way. I wont re size them again after coating. I will just load them.

Each little experiment I try PCing the more I like it. Powder coated cast bullets work real well in my bullet feed die. And it may open up some more bullet options if we can swage them down and still use them.

Whats funny, for me Powder coating pistol bullets was not even on my radar. I only cared about the possibility of increasing the velocity on my cast 223 load.
Funny how that works.

[prickett]

What do you Cast/size your 9mm powdercoated bullets to?


Cast out of a .356 mold(approx .3575), then powdercoat, and then size to .357?
or do you cast, size to 356, powdercoat, and keep it that way? or re-size to 356?
or what?

Since they tend to not lead, I guess pushing it at .358 is not a plus ?

Since most barrels are 357, why are 9mm plated bullets 355 or 356 anyway?

I sized to .358 for traditional lead and have kept the same for PC. I may be able to reduce, but I already have the sizer.

[popper]

I tried going down a thou. in 30/30 & 308, groups opened up a little. I cast, coat & Lee size. My 9 does fine with .357.

[kryogen]

I guess I will just try a few at 356, 357, a few at 358, and report.

Plated bullets are 355 and 356.

[xacex]

Short answer, .357 with a Lee sizer. Why, my guns will take them at that size, and I don't have a bigger size to try.

[kryogen]

Before or after pc

[mdi]

So far, I'm sizing my PC bullets to the same diameter as my cast lead; 9mm, .357", 38/357, 358", .44 mag., .431"...

After coating and cooking...

[bangerjim]

I size B4 AND after PC on my 9's...............0.356.

Seems to work for my S&W 9.

Yours may be different.........slug that barrel!

banger

[kryogen]

quit telling me to slug my barrel... this was not my question. my barrel is 357, like almost all 9mm barrels...

[sparky45]

Maybe you shouldn't have asked a question. I have three 9mm guns and there isn't two alike in terms of bore. SLUG YOUR BARREL!!

[prickett]

FWIW, slugging my barrels didn't help at all. I simply use .358" in ALL my 9mm's (which have a wide variety of diameters). Even the tightest leaded until I got to .358".

[mdi]

quit telling me to slug my barrel... this was not my question. my barrel is 357, like almost all 9mm barrels...

I have two 9mm pistolas, neither are .357". "Most" don't apply to barrel diameters...
In your first post you supplied the answers you wanted, just read those.

[Floydster]

I have four 9mm's none of them slug .357,( like almost all 9mm barrels)hardly, I don't know where you got that from.
None of mine slug over .356, two CZ's and two Springfields--just sayin.
Hence, I size to .356.

[KTM400]

I have sized to .356 with mixed results. I sized at .358 with feeding / chambering issues. Had to seat to very short OAL. I have settled on .357. Good accuracy, no feeding problems and I don't have to keep track of what boolits were sized to what diameter for which barrel. You could do it that way using different colors for different sizes for different barrels. Too much effort for me.

[kryogen]

Probably going to end up being 357. Waiting for my new mould and pc gun

[totalloser]

I size 9mm and .357sig to .357" I size .38spl and .357mag to .358" I do this so that I can share my ammo with my buddies *without slugging their barrels* . For me it is worth a little potential loss of accuracy to share with my buddies.

Boolits drop .358", get .001" pc +-.0005" and get sized after coating cools, usually before the alloy has time to precipitation harden.

Pricket- your description of leading sounds like a soft alloy issue to me. Like you are right on the edge of the chamber peak psi in lead tensile strength. PC should solve that issue since if the chamber pressure overcomes the alloy tensile, it still cannot gas cut which causes most leading. Getting adequate hardness for 9mm can be a challenge since it's a rather high pressure cartridge. I found I was only able to meet book spec on hardness with pure WW water quenched. For context I was able to go 1/4 to 1/3 ww to scrap (pure I think) plumbing lead for .45 since it's a much lower pressure cartridge.

[Benjlan]

I am having good results at .3575 with a .356 barrel using lee 125gr mold not tl. I size after coating. So this puts me at .0015 over bore. I got this number by starting with a lee sizer and opening it up untill my fav Bullseye load worked. I have no idea what hardness my lead is but it is straight wheel weights. I use hf es method and bake at 400 for 10 mins in my 30 dollar convection oven. The barrel is in a Glock 34 and 17 and 19. So far so good.