Tips on loading cast in 9mms?

[brewer12345]

I will soon have a block 19 clone with an aftermarket barrel suitable for shooting cast. I would like to try using powder coated lee 35; ,105 swc since I have a pile on hand and have read about people using these in 9. Ok to start out with these sized to 358? Anything else I should be aware of when loading this cartridge?

[Conditor22]

1 slug the barrel
9MM case is tapered, don't over crimp pull your first loaded boolit and make sure it's not downsized.

More info is available by searching 9MM in the search box

[Eddie17]

I’ve cast, loaded an shot the 105g Lee bullet. I’ve had better results shooting Lee’s 126g TL design. I save the 105g Boolits for shooting soft in my 38 an 357

[Taterhead]

It is pretty common to size .357 for 9mm cast. I fund that loading into FC brass gives the best assurances that my ammo will kerplunk.

Pay attention to the position of the bullet shoulder relative to the leade. That is the cause of many chambering issues. So the COL from the manual is definitely not plug and play.

Conditor22 gave good advice about crimp.

Plan to spend a little time with your barrel and some dummy rounds to get the right bullet diameter, COL and crimp before introducing combustibles.

[Walks]

Get a Lyman-M die. They are the best expanders around. Seat and crimp separately. And adjust the crimp to just "kiss" the case mouth.
If your expander is .354 and your bullet diameter is .357 all you need to do is straighten out the case mouth to touch the sides of the bullets.

We loaded for Years before Taper Crimp dies came out.
All you really need is to Close the case mouth to touch the bullet.

[sigep1764]

What press will you be loading these on, single stage or progressive?

[brewer12345]

Single stage basic lee. I don't anticipate this will be a high volume effort, but in the interest of ensuring supply when the commode hits the windmill I would like to figure it out. My other obvious alternative would be a 133 grain round nose flat point 358 boolit that closely resembles the 125 grain Lee offering everyone seems to love.

[Taterhead]

Get a Lyman-M die. They are the best expanders around. Seat and crimp separately. And adjust the crimp to just "kiss" the case mouth.
If your expander is .354 and your bullet diameter is .357 all you need to do is straighten out the case mouth to touch the sides of the bullets.

We loaded for Years before Taper Crimp dies came out.
All you really need is to Close the case mouth to touch the bullet.

FWIW, RCBS and Redding expanders are also "M" style style as well. I retrofitted all my RCBS expanders with the newer M profiles and, in some instances, the "Cowboy" expander plug assembly. The Cowboy is a M profile with a touch more shank diameter specified for cast.

[kevin c]

I use HiTek coated casts of 95-3-2 alloy, sized to .357 in my Gen 3 G34 factory barrels, and have had no leading problems. .357 has worked in all my 9mm Glocks, with .358 causing some chambering issues. I use the "plunk" test in the barrel to be used to be sure the COAL works (though, honestly, I rarely have problems unless the slug is .358 or is a heavy truncated cone loaded on the long side).

[Texas by God]

I just loaded Lee 105 swc's as cast, LLA lube, over 5 grs of Bullseye for my 9mm Shield. Using Lee dies. They work wonderfully and are accurate. This makes the first time I've had good success w/9mm cast but I've only tried 3 pistols previously.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Petander]

Get a Lyman-M die. They are the best expanders around.

I tend to agree.


I use this 38 S&W expander for my 163 grain .357 dia 9mm subsonics. This expands deep enough with a 3565 plug, then flares nicely to 363 or so for straight seating.

NOE plugs for the Lee die are very good,too. But the Lyman is one solid tool,better body than Lee.

[rubinschmidt]

Slugging that barrel is the best advice. I have barrels that fling .356 all over the place and won't do with less than .358 cast or .357 jacketed.

[gwpercle]

I have loaded that boolit in several 9 mm's . Newer pistols have little or no throat. Sizing and seating depth is critical . Boolits cast and sized .357 worked much better than when sized .358 ... in my guns .
Every gun , barrel and chamber is a law unto itself . My old WWII made German Military Walther P38 has a generous chamber and long throat , it will digest .358 boolits but my newer Beratta , Taurus and Springfield...it's .357 max. , .358 and they will fail to chamber , sometimes .
Cast boolits in the 9mm is not easy/ simple , several aspects have to be worked out .
Take the boolits you have and load some dummy rounds (no powder, no primer) , they must feed from magazine and into the chamber manually ...that's step #1 .
The 9mm with cast boolits is the only round that made me say bad words and even think that "this may not work" ...
it's a little stinker !
Gary

[fredj338]

In an after market bbl you probably don't need 0.358 or even get them to fit the chamber. I run 0.357" in just about everything, but some of the Glock after market bbls are really tight & I can get good results with 0.356" in mixed brass.

[trixter]

Using Cast bullets for my 9 has been an experience. I started with 357 (good-OK) and Lee Liquid Alox, then I decided because I was having such good luck with my 45's being powder coated that I would give the 9's a try. I am using the TL356-124-2R, and that is when the fight started. My groups are horrible, so I am tweaking things one at a time; OAL, grains of powder etc. I have not made too much progress but I am getting in a lot of shooting time in. I just did a new batch 1000+ of powder coated ones and going to resume experimenting again. This is so much fun.

[higgins]

In addition to Federal brass mentioned above, my experience has been that Blazer brass is also on the thinner side.

[JBinMN]

I will soon have a block 19 clone with an aftermarket barrel suitable for shooting cast. I would like to try using powder coated lee 35; ,105 swc since I have a pile on hand and have read about people using these in 9. Ok to start out with these sized to 358? Anything else I should be aware of when loading this cartridge?

I had to start laughing out loud when I read the first sentence and the bolded part. I am not sure if it was a "typo" or intentional, but , to me, it was pretty funny.


I do not own any "block" or even Glock 19 or any "Blocks" or Glocks, so I will likely not be able to help out much.


G'Luck! though, as I understand that many have a lot of issues with them, & lead boolits.

I Do hope you understand the humor & don't get uptight about my teasing. I really did think it was funny.

[Al_Bundy]

Using Cast bullets for my 9 has been an experience. I started with 357 (good-OK) and Lee Liquid Alox, then I decided because I was having such good luck with my 45's being powder coated that I would give the 9's a try. I am using the TL356-124-2R, and that is when the fight started. My groups are horrible, so I am tweaking things one at a time; OAL, grains of powder etc. I have not made too much progress but I am getting in a lot of shooting time in. I just did a new batch 1000+ of powder coated ones and going to resume experimenting again. This is so much fun.

looking forward to updates i have the same mold and same accuracy issues. i mean its not total garbage accuracy but its nothing accurate compared to my 45 pc bullets. I'll try sizing to 358 and move the coal up to 1.15, im currently at 1.10.

[Dvdmacdaddy]

I’ve been working on reloading cast 9mm for my PPQs for a few months. First hurdle my 2 cavity lee TL356-124 mold was out of round, it was given to me so no biggie.

Next did a chamber cast which shows a very short throat and barrel diameter of .3565.

Next, ordered the 6 cavity 356-125-2r ES powder coated them and sized some .357 and some .358. To get the .357s to plunk the OAL has to be 1.11, to get the .358s to plunk OAL has to be 1.05. This puts quite a bit of bullet in the case, so I pulled the dummy rounds none of them were getting swaged down by the case. The .357s had some leading, the .358s none.

I then ordered Hi-Tek coating as I got tired of using pliers to transfer each bullet after coating to baking tray. With the Hi-Tek coating I can seat a few tho further out than before. Still haven’t found a powder/charge weight I like. And really don’t like seating the bullet that deep.

I have now ordered a NOE 358-155-TC, it arrived Saturday. I casted and Hi-Tek coated 300 boolits today, now to see if I like this bullet any better. As I am really after a good PF load for IDPA.

I use a Lyman #2 alloy, Lee push through sizers, a Lee Loadmaster with an M Die, seat and crimp separately using a Lee taper crimp (applying a very light kiss of crimp).

I have also been in contact with DougGuy here about throating my barrel.

Currently using 147gr Plated, OAL 1.156, 3.4gr Titegroup for my competition load and that supply is dwindling fast. I really don’t want to buy more bullets.

[PbHurler]

I also use the Lyman expander (#7341801) that Walks & Petander referenced. Cured my issues with 9mm's

Good luck