I'm losing steam trying to develop accurate cast 9mm.

[W.R.Buchanan]

^^^^ I forgot to mention this in my Response^^^^^ You need a baseline to compare you reloads to.

Randy

[JBinMN]

How does it shoot with factory ammo and handloaded jacketed bullets? You have to start with a baseline and sometimes that's it.

^^^^ I forgot to mention this in my Response^^^^^ You need a baseline to compare you reloads to.

Randy

I am hearing/reading an echo....


Imagine that...



Post#41:

Marek313,


I think it is best to use the most stable position & rest you can, to test accuracy and verify where the firearm is shooting with a "baseline" ammunition before you try to work on any changes & then do the changes, "one change at a time", without doing any other changes, to get the best most accurate results of what is happening .

G'Luck with your testing & experiments. See ya around...

[Petander]

Thats another thing I wanted to check again because a while back I loaded some Lee 358-158-RF

This bullet works very well for me in 9mm (357 size) with case full of slow powder (3N37) @ 950fps. Just expand the case deep enough. Sized 356 it is easier to load and still shoots clean (Hi-Tek) but the accuracy is not there. 357 is very accurate,like a good J-load.

I use those in a Tanfoglio pistol and a suppressed B&T carbine.

[toallmy]

I started casting for the 45 acp with soft pure + tin and it worked wonderfully , but when I started on the 9mm it was very aggravating but worked out after reading the sticky mentioned above I switched to a 50/50 alloy and got the brass to stop sizing down the boolits during loading with a 38 Smith and Wesson expander . I tried some plain base checks but at the loads I load they were unnecessary after working out my other problems . The little 9 is a lot of fun when you get it all sorted out .

[marek313]

Back to the basics it is and as many of you pointed out with 9mm its mostly sizing and swaging down issues
Rechecking everything I found out that my bullets are getting sized down to .355 after seating and before FCD. I'm pretty sure I checked this before multiple times and I didnt have this problem. I might have used little bit harder alloy back then so maybe thats what helped it keep its size bit right now its definitely a problem. I just ordered NOE exp plugs in .357 and .358 so hopefully one of those will work and stop swaging my bullets.

[toallmy]

I found I was smashing them down wile seating the cast boolits after I went through the trouble of getting them lubed and sized at .357 , after I fixed that it was smooth sailing .

[LAH]

I'm shooting a CZ75, Saeco 928 sized & lubed .358", mixed cases, 3.5 grains of Promo, loaded on a Dillon. These shoot very well but I've never took the time to put them on paper though I've run a couple thousand through the gun. Maybe it's not as good as I thought? Think I'll shoot it on paper this summer. The gun is in Nebraska at present.

[LAH]

Let me correct myself. I have put a few on paper when I started with the CZ.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...hp?238677-Cz75

[fredj338]

Back to the basics it is and as many of you pointed out with 9mm its mostly sizing and swaging down issues
Rechecking everything I found out that my bullets are getting sized down to .355 after seating and before FCD. I'm pretty sure I checked this before multiple times and I didnt have this problem. I might have used little bit harder alloy back then so maybe thats what helped it keep its size bit right now its definitely a problem. I just ordered NOE exp plugs in .357 and .358 so hopefully one of those will work and stop swaging my bullets.

Stop using the LFCD, that might be 50% of your problem.

[asmith80]

^^^^^^^ agreed. The Lee taper crimp die does a much better job without running the risk of swaging your boolits down after you went through all that trouble to size and seat them properly

[tazman]

Notice that he said before using the FCD. He isn't blaming that die at this point.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I've never found a cartridge harder to load for accuracy than the 9mm. Not saying it can't be done. But I've shot $2,000 Wilson Combat ar9s, $2,000 1911s and lots of polymer pistols and they were all a pain when it came to making them shoot well. Of course accuracy is a subjective thing. For me I'll take sub 2" groups at 20 yards from a bench. But I really hope for sub 1.5" at 20 yards. Now I've managed to find loads that bring most of my 9mm pistols under 2" at 20. But it was work. As somebody mentioned chambers and bores are all over the place when it comes to 9mm. I've owned 1911s that will shoot and chamber 358-158-RF OTOH never found an M&P that you could come close to chambering that bullet in. Another issue I seem to have with 9mm is consistency. I've shot more sub 1" 20 yard groups with my Dan Wesson Valkyrie than any open sighted pistol I've owned. The problem is, invariably, the next group will be 2-3 inches. Drives me crazy! I've been hoping MiHec will have another run of gas checked 147 grain HP moulds soon.