HELP. Reloading 9mm cast bullets

[aaholland]

I cast some powder coated 9mm 135 grain hallow point flat base bullets. I sized the bullets with a .357 push through sizing die. They measure .3565 now.

I just made some sample ones setting up my dies.

• The one on the left had the brase expanded using a Lyman Neck Expanding "M-Inchdie (38 Spec/357 Mag/357 Rem Max/38 SandW). The brass looks slightly bulged in the middle after running throught the die. When I seated the bullet part of the powder coating was scraped off.
• The one on the right I just used the factory power through expanding die that came with my 9mm dies. This one had no power coating scraped off but it had 2 areas directly across from each other on the base of the bullet where there were notches in the lead.

Any advice? I did read correctly that 9mm does not need to be trimmed, deburred and chamfered?

[R.Ph. 380]

I would still chamfer the case. Looks like your sizing die puts a burr there.

Sent from here to there by me using smoke signals

[Valley-Shooter]

All cases should be deburred and chamfered. Especially with cast bullets. You get away from doing it with jacketed bullets, but it always helps.

If you don't, you get lead shaving.
You need to check that you are expanding the brass enough so the bullet can enter without shaving the side.

[aaholland]

All cases should be deburred and chamfered. Especially with cast bullets. You get away from doing it with jacketed bullets, but it always helps.

If you don't, you get lead shaving.
You need to check that you are expanding the brass enough so the bullet can enter without shaving the side.

I will go try that and report back later

[375RUGER]

set your M-die or expander to give a little more mouth flare. I don't see any in the pic.

[Phlier]

I load cast 9mm en masse. Usually 1k per week, but sometimes up to 5k per week. At those levels of production, chamfering is out of the question.

I get around this by putting a bit more flare on the case mouth than what is shown in your pictures. As part of my QA process, I do randomly pull boolits. I don't ever find boolits scratched or otherwise deformed. Belling the case out like this does shorten the life of the brass somewhat, but it beats the heck out of chamfering that many cases.

It's hard to tell from the angle of your pictures, but it doesn't look like you have much bell/flare on the case mouths.

Edit: 375Ruger beat me to it by six minutes. I need to learn to type faster.

[farmerjim]

In addition to chamfering and deburring the M die should also be adjusted so that it puts a bell on the case mouth to prevent the shaving.

375RUGER and Phlier beat me too. I am an extra slow typist.

[oteroman]

Chamfer g

[oteroman]

No chamfering.
Bit more bell.
When the bell is correct, you can feel it when you place the bullet into the case. You do NOT feel the case edge at all.
I load VOLUME, this works.

[Jal5]

Inspect the expander die. If necessary polish it a bit on the inside so no burrs marking anything up. In addition to belling the case mouth a bit more I routinely lube 9 Mm brass just a few sprays of a lanolin based lube let dry then reload. Makes everything smoother

[gloob]

set your M-die or expander to give a little more mouth flare. I don't see any in the pic.

You can't set M die to give more flare. It flares or it doesn't. And the flare it gives is marginal, at best, for cast bullets.

For instance, 40 SW M die expands to 398 with a 402 flare. But once the brass springs back, the ID of the case mouth is less than 401. This shaves and molests the bullet to an incredible degree, when used with my set of 40SW dies. I couldn't even pull a bullet, they were in there so tight. When I bought my first M die, I was under impression they were made for cast bullets, but this is actually not the case. M die standard sizes are way too small for cast bullets. They work fine for rifle, because of gas checks and harder alloy. Pistol, not so.

Since OP is using 357 plug, he probably has something like 355 expander, 359 flare. Just barely big enough to start the bullet, maybe. If OP has calipers, it would be nice to hear the exact dimensions.

Personally, I use the largest NOE 38AP expander plug. 356 expander, 360 flare. Perfect for 355-356 bullets, IMO.

[Screwbolts]

I am in the group of a bit more flare / bell to the case, just the current slowest typer.

Ken

[Shepherd2]

I've loaded 10s of 1000s of 9mm and haven't chamfered 1 case. Your case needs more flaring. I don't see any in the picture.

[Thompsoncustom]

I don't chamfer any of my 9mm brass but I built a custom expander for my M die out of a 357 expander I believe just needed cut and reprofiled to the 9mm length. Some of my brass looks buldged a little but I also opened up a lee FCD to fix that without undersizing bullets. My vote also goes to you need more expansion/flare on the case.

[Forrest r]

A m-die in a 9mm case.

[IMG][/IMG]

If you don't adjust the m-die deep enough the top ring/strep out on the top of the expander plug is useless. No top of the case flare, no work right.

Some 9mm cases that have been flared and have bullets set in them ready to seat.
[IMG][/IMG]

All those bullets are sized to .358" left to right:
mihec 640 158gr
148gr hbwc
h&g 110gr wc
mihec 125gr (The only bullet pictured intended for the 9mm)
150gr hb fn raphine
h&g #51 158gr swc

A close-up of the h&g #51 "keith" style swc for the 38spl/357's sized to .358 sitting in a 9mm case along with the bullet in and a flared case.
[IMG][/IMG]

If you cannot set the bullet your seating in the cases like any of the ones pictured above, you are not putting enough flare on them.
If you are worried about putting a bulge in the middle of the case, you should not be. That bulge from the expander ensures you don't swage/damage the base of the bullet. I seat the bullet in 1 stage and use a taper crimp die in a separate stage. A simple taper crimp die is all I've ever used.

2 of my favorite 9mm reloads, the mihec 125gr hp (green) and the lyman 150gr hb fn (red). They are both sized to .358" and are reloaded using the methods described above. There's no bullets being scraped while seated, bases being swaged, case bulge.
[IMG][/IMG]