38 boolits work for 9mm?

[mvozz]

Great post! I am casting some of the Lee boolets right now for 357 plinkers. Looks like I will have to adjust a bit!!

[Bigslug]

Anybody got a copy of Sixguns by Keith handy?

It's been a couple years since I read a borrowed copy, but I pretty clearly remember Elmer talking about his chronies sizing down the HOLLOWPOINT version of his 358429 and running it to about 900 fps, which when you put 2 and 2 together, is pretty much exactly the 158 grain .38 "FBI Load". I would tend to think, with it's long nose moving the weight outside the case, that might not be a bad combo. Hopefully, someone has the particulars of the charge handy.

[BigAlofPa.]

I have done the opposite. I shot some of the blue bullets 9mm in my 357 and they were accurate.

[tazman]

I have done the opposite. I shot some of the blue bullets 9mm in my 357 and they were accurate.

I have a couple of 38 sp/357 mag S&W revolvers that have tight enough barrels that 9mm boolits should work quite well.

[samari46]

Have a Beretta 92FS and could not get any decent accuracy. Slugged the barrel and instead of .355-.356 I got .357. Bought some Rem 357 magnum .357 125 grain JHP's and started low and worked up to about 1100 fps. Shot great. So no 9mm's or 38-357 are created equal. Frank

[tazman]

Have a Beretta 92FS and could not get any decent accuracy. Slugged the barrel and instead of .355-.356 I got .357. Bought some Rem 357 magnum .357 125 grain JHP's and started low and worked up to about 1100 fps. Shot great. So no 9mm's or 38-357 are created equal. Frank

That is typical of the Beretta barrels. I believe they did that on purpose to help prevent failures to feed. They also have a very generous chamber and throat.
I typically size boolits to .358-.359 for the Beretta.

[yeahbub]

It's instructive to do a chambering test with various diameter boolits to see what your chamber will accept without resistance. Boolit nose profile/OAL vs. the barrel throat could also be an issue. Slug the bore for groove dimension and try a dummy round loaded with a boolit .001 larger. Some years back, a fellow range member showed up with a Taurus PT-99 which turned out to be .357 in the grooves, like a lot of European 9mm's are as well. The chamber readily accepted rounds loaded with .358 boolits and it exhibited excellent accuracy, probably partly because the case was .003 larger and better centered in the chamber as well as the boolit being a better fit in the bore. We shot the Lee 358-158 RF as well as 358-105 SWC, but it's good the 158's were bevel-based because they were getting into the thicker brass walls toward the back. The OAL was still within what the magazine would hold and they chambered freely. It shot okay with factory .355's, but it was like a bullseye pistol with .358's. A young fellow with good eyes, I saw him turn in raggedy one-hole groups at 25 yards. Those 158's worked great in falling plate matches.