Anyone having luck with cast in S&W Shield?

[Oily]

Don , Just saw this thread and wanted to comment on your results at 25 yds. My wifes Shield would not hold that accuracy at 25 yds with jacketed bullets no matter what the brand or reload of my own. Given I haven't loaded much 9mm and I know it is particular, all loads factory and home grown all had fliers that were not attributed to shooter error. She is a "little" impatient and really busy so I traded it for a XDS compact and all the issues went away and she has a smile on her face when she shoots to relieve her tension. Thank the Lord. I am not admitting that I cause the tension that she has to release or that my passion for the shooting sports can be construed as neglect or negligence in any form. Furthermore my "hobby" has negated many arguments and disagreements that could have escalated because i went to my reloading room and let things cool down. Patent Pending

[Lloyd Smale]

don't own a 9mm shield but do have a 40 and its no tack driver with any ammo. I seems to shoot cast as well as jacketed though. I have loaded 10s of thousands of 9s though for other gun. Most accurate was an sti Trojan that would shoot one inch or less 25 yard groups. Once I found a load it like it didn't matter much if I sorted brass or used about anything and I never trim handgun brass. Biggest variables ive found with the 9s and for that matter the 40s and 45s too is bullet size and alloy. All of them like the largest bullet that will chamber reliably and ALL of them like harder alloys. Group sizes with the same loads comparing something around 10bhn to #2 or water dropped ww is about double. Ive found some rare exceptions but for the most part even if a gun will shoot soft without leading harder is about always more accurate and more consistant. Now maybe trimming or separating cases might add a tiny bit of accuracy if your looking for a one inch 50 yard group for comp shooting but its not enough for me to go through the bother.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Can someone explain that .38 SW expander plug to me?

Does it go in the powder-through expander die? It doesn't look tapered at all.
Why is it helpful?

[sigep1764]

Can someone explain that .38 SW expander plug to me?

Does it go in the powder-through expander die? It doesn't look tapered at all.
Why is it helpful?

The point of the 38 SW expander plug is to open your brass to 357 or 358 during the belling process. This allows you to seat a larger than diameter bore lead boolit in the brass case without the case swaging the boolit to a smaller diameter. If you look up Lyman M Die, it will be similar in concept.
Example:
Somebody uses a typical 9mm plug to bell the brass and seats a .358 sized boolit. Next step, remove the bell. Now, we have to double check that the boolit wasn't mashed to a smaller than .358 size when it was squeezed into the case. So we pull the boolit and measure. Most often times the boolit is .356 or .355 and in most 9mm's, that is too small. It is because the 9mm expanding plugs were designed for hard 9mm jacketed boolits and only open the brass to .353 or .354 at best.

[Boolseye]

Sir,
You are on target with your thinking.
Just getting the cases expanded more, be it with a .38 S&W plug, a NOE expander or a Lyman M die, is an important first step. Bypassing the carbide ring on your Lee fcd is also vital.
Since I rarely use my Lee expanders, I take the innards out of the fcd and put them in the expander die body. I sometimes add a small nut if there’s too much gap between the crimper and the adjuster. In rare circumstances I use the fcd as-is, and that carbide ring can always bring an oversized round back to spec if need be.

Cast is fine in the 9, thousands of rounds without a keyhole in years.
-BE

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Next step, remove the bell. Now, we have to double check that the boolit wasn't mashed to a smaller than .358 size when it was squeezed into the case.

This is where I'm getting confused. It doesn't appear that the expander is the problem. It seems more like it is a post-seating sizer that is cause the grief. So why would a .38 S&W expander help?

[crandall crank]

Been loading 9mm for quite a while, both cast and J'd. No problem in a Shield, even less in a BHP.

[whisler]

The 38 S & W expander is longer in the expansion area so it expands the 9 mm case deeper. 9 mm cases are tapered so they are smaller the deeper you go. Expanding the case deeper keep the tapered case from swaging the base of the boolit and making it too small in diameter.
Hope this helps

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Ohhh. Because the 9mm case is so short, the wall thickness begins to increase at the depth that is common for bullet seating? Thus, if this area isn't opened up it can swage the boolit down.

[sigep1764]

Ohhh. Because the 9mm case is so short, the wall thickness begins to increase at the depth that is common for bullet seating? Thus, if this area isn't opened up it can swage the boolit down.

This is correct, sir. If you want to find out if your crimp die is swaging the boolit down, seat a boolit and don't crimp it. Now pull the boolit and measure its base. If its the same size as when you started, reseat the boolit and crimp(just set the crimp die to remove the bell). Now pull it and measure the boolit base. Wherever the boolit is being squeezed to a smaller size, you will be able to find it.

[marek313]

If u guys slugged out .358 from shield, it would be same as PT111 G2. From A lot of research i have found the following.
1. 9mm dies will swag down your bullets down. If u are using Lee die set buy a PM EXPAN PLG 38 S&W not 38SP. that will help against swagging the bullet down to .355 from .358
2. you can use Range scrap and powder coat with lower load and get good results. at .356-.358 soft lead will expand with lower load. I was recommended lead hardness of 11 to 14.

all these suggestions are from members of this forum and not mine. Soon i will be making boolits for PT111 G2 and Shield since they are same slugged to .358

My PT111 G2 will not shoot anything bigger then 0.356. I make .3575 for my Sig P320 but they dont work in my PT111 G2. Also nothing but RN boolits feed in my G2 because anything else causes FTFs. Not a big fan of that PT111 G2 but it makes a good basement gun just in case