Best dies for 9mm

[robbyPGP2014]

I use a steel 9mm Lyman set that was my Dad's , that is actually tapered ,I think. You will have to lub cases but they do a really good job for cast.

[Phlier]

Can you please explain how to adjust to the die to get rid of the bulge in the seated cartridge?

You can't. You're literally shoving a boolit that is 0.003 over size for this caliber into the brass. That's a large increase in diameter over factory ammo, and it *is* going to bulge the case. If you *do* end up getting rid of the bulge, then you have sized the boolit down in the process; that's the *only* way you can get rid of the bulge, by sizing the boolit down to .3555 caliber. Anything larger, and the laws of physics say that it *has* to bulge. Embrace the bulge... you *need* it. You must run cast boolits that are .001 to .002 over your barrel diameter in order for them to function correctly, and they *are* going to bulge your case.

Now if you're running 0.356 boolits, then you will probably have minimal case bulge. But if you're running .357 or .358 (which is what I'm loading), your case is going to bulge.

[Phlier]

Thanks for all your help and information. I will try it out. Thanks Don

One last thing... It is fairly common for this particular Lee mold to throw undersized boolits. I'm able to get mine to throw .359, but in order to do so, I have to use Lyman #2 alloy. The more tin in your alloy, the larger the boolit your mold will cast.

[dimaprok]

Hey Bashby, any chance you've gotten an opportunity to shoot your first cast boolits yet? If so, how'd it go?

This past weekend, Target had a sale on Hamilton Beach 6 slice toaster ovens. Regularly 130 bucks, on sale for 80. I went ahead and picked one up, and I cannot imagine an oven that is more suited to powder coating boolits. It's really a sweet deal. It comes with a perfectly sized "air fryer" mesh basket, that'll hold 20 pounds (nearly 1,100 rounds) of my 9mm boolits. It comes with a non-stick "catch pan" that is really nice, too... You just set the mesh basket on the catch pan, dump your boolits out of the container that you used to coat 'em, then just shake the mesh basket a bit over the catch pan, pop 'em in the oven, and you're set.

It appears to be PID controlled, too, as the indicated temperature was always within 5 degrees of my IR thermometer I used to verify the oven's temp.

So if you're in the market for a toaster oven for boolit PC'ing, I can't recommend it highly enough. Here's a link to the actual product, and it looks like it's still on sale for 80 bucks. https://www.target.com/p/hamilton-be...n/-/A-54639402

This is such a good oven that I think I'll actually start a thread about it.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings... let us know how things are working out for you when you get a chance.

Nice oven for sure but I wouldn't waste it on powder coating. Picked up very similar oven in thrift store with digital controls and all that for $9.99 and the mesh baskets for few dollars, I have whole collection they are from deep fryers that people donate and they are by far the best mesh containers I've seen for baking bullets.

[dimaprok]

My slug size changing was bugging me, so I slugged it again and Im coming up with .3555". I guess I read the mic wrong. Now Im torn on the resizer I should get, .357 or .358.

I know it's too late but I would recommend 357 rather than 358 sizing die, my bullets always end up being .001 over because they turn out hard / semi-hard and as someone said, opening up to 358 is not hard and same time you end up with more polished die anyway if needed. I am actually thinking of going back sizing with 356 as that would put me at 357, at 358 they bulge pretty good and factory crimp die has to work harder to smooth it out.

[dimaprok]

I got my resizers today. Sized the 150 or so PCed boolits I have to .358. Made a dummy round with a light crimp on a 1.002" OAL and it did not plunk. I could push the bullet down into the throat with my thumb with moderate pressure. Sized one down to .357 and same thing except it took very little pressure to push the bullet into the throat. Do I need to send my barrel to Dougguy to open the throat up a bit? This is a factory Glock barrel, the one they say you cant shoot cast boolits through. Maybe I should consider another barrel instead of putting money into this one.

I bet you you need a bit more crimp to solve your problem, I was having same issues, also even though everyone will tell you need the bullet to plunk, I found that a light push to full seat is just fine, just think about the slide slamming that round in to the chamber, it does pretty good job. I personally have not had any problems once I adjusted the crimp but also running through Lee factory crimp die. Regarding that 358 105gr bullet, you'll be surprised how many people shoot and find it accurate if you search the forums. I personally loaded and expected to jam but surprisingly it shot just fine, in fact my Ruger 9mm carbine shot everything from 100gr to 165gr without any issues.

[dimaprok]

You can't. You're literally shoving a boolit that is 0.003 over size for this caliber into the brass. That's a large increase in diameter over factory ammo, and it *is* going to bulge the case. If you *do* end up getting rid of the bulge, then you have sized the boolit down in the process; that's the *only* way you can get rid of the bulge, by sizing the boolit down to .3555 caliber. Anything larger, and the laws of physics say that it *has* to bulge. Embrace the bulge... you *need* it. You must run cast boolits that are .001 to .002 over your barrel diameter in order for them to function correctly, and they *are* going to bulge your case.

Now if you're running 0.356 boolits, then you will probably have minimal case bulge. But if you're running .357 or .358 (which is what I'm loading), your case is going to bulge.

Yeah I know! I was quoting MDI "If there are bulges on the cartridge or it doesn't plunk correctly, find out why and fix it. Mostly just a die adjustment will suffice..." I misunderstood and got the notion that you can fix the bulge with a die adjustment, but I see now that's not what he meant. Now regarding reaming throat, I wanted to do that but being carbine barrel I figured it would cost me with shipping both way close to $100 bucks and this is why I looked at other options. One options was to buy the reamer and do it myself. Depending on the reamer it might actually be even cheaper. Another option was to just find a bullet like you described where the nose and bearing surface actually work with short/non existent throat and I chose to do 2nd. Currently I am using Lee TC 120gr and seems to work just fine. I am considering also jumping on group buy for Miha's 135gr and getting 8 cavity aluminum or 6 cav brass. The bullet shape looks like it would work well.

[Phlier]

Yeah I know! I was quoting MDI "If there are bulges on the cartridge or it doesn't plunk correctly, find out why and fix it. Mostly just a die adjustment will suffice..." I misunderstood and got the notion that you can fix the bulge with a die adjustment, but I see now that's not what he meant. Now regarding reaming throat, I wanted to do that but being carbine barrel I figured it would cost me with shipping both way close to $100 bucks and this is why I looked at other options. One options was to buy the reamer and do it myself. Depending on the reamer it might actually be even cheaper. Another option was to just find a bullet like you described where the nose and bearing surface actually work with short/non existent throat and I chose to do 2nd. Currently I am using Lee TC 120gr and seems to work just fine. I am considering also jumping on group buy for Miha's 135gr and getting 8 cavity aluminum or 6 cav brass. The bullet shape looks like it would work well.

Ah, I see what you mean now. Once again, me skimming through the posts too fast results in poor understanding on my part... you were pretty much saying the same thing as I was. /blush.

Yup, I've asked Mrs. Claus for the MiHec 8 cavity for Christmas, but I did see her shopping for coal lumps earlier this week. : /

[Lloyd Smale]

I use one of these https://leeprecision.com/undersize-sizing-die-9mm.html Im a big fan of small base rifle dies for ars. Allways believed reliability trumps brass life any day. This is the small base die of pistol rounds. By the way I did an experiment with them last summer and loaded the same 20 rounds of brass 12 times using them and still no splits. So if brass life suffers it sure isn't much.

[ioon44]

I recommend the new Hornady dies for 9 mm or any other calibers.

[charlie b]

I'm another Lee fan. I've had RCBS and Lyman and I find no difference in my ability to reload bullets. I like the FCD especially for semi autos (taper crimp), but, I also use one for my .308 when shooting cast (gets rid of the case flare nicely). I even like Lee presses. My Loadmaster has worked great for more than 10 years as long as it is adjusted properly. Yep, I'd love a Dillon 650 but I don't want to spend that kind of money.

And, in over 30 years of buying Lee stuff I've never had an item that was made wrong. I will say I don't like their press mounted 'safety primer' setup. It is the only product of theirs that did not do what I needed it to do.

I guess I have been lucky with 9mm. I had a S&W 659 and now an HK VP9 and they run reloads just fine. I don't cast for it since I find bulk plated bullets cheap enough and I don't shoot it that much.

[Phlier]

I'm another Lee fan. I've had RCBS and Lyman and I find no difference in my ability to reload bullets. I like the FCD especially for semi autos (taper crimp), but, I also use one for my .308 when shooting cast (gets rid of the case flare nicely). I even like Lee presses. My Loadmaster has worked great for more than 10 years as long as it is adjusted properly. Yep, I'd love a Dillon 650 but I don't want to spend that kind of money.

And, in over 30 years of buying Lee stuff I've never had an item that was made wrong. I will say I don't like their press mounted 'safety primer' setup. It is the only product of theirs that did not do what I needed it to do.

I have a Dillon 550, a Dillon 1050, and a Lee Classic Turret Press, along with a wide assortment of Dillon, RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, and Lee dies. And I completely agree. Although I'm not a big fan of Lee's de-capping pin setup. But other than that one small quibble, I love all of my Lee stuff... including the very Rube Goldberg-ess Safety Prime System. I use it on the Classic Turret press without issue. And I'd much rather load up the Safety Prime System with primers than sit and hunt and peck primers with a Dillon tube! Yeah, I know there are options for that.. I've tried Frankford Arsenal's vibra-prime (unsuccessfully), and am unwilling to spend the hundreds of additional dollars (in addition to the Dillon presses themselves) for a Dillon or Double Alpha primer tube loader. Ridiculous.

I guess I have been lucky with 9mm. I had a S&W 659 and now an HK VP9 and they run reloads just fine. I don't cast for it since I find bulk plated bullets cheap enough and I don't shoot it that much.

IMO, it isn't hard to get 9mm copper jacketed reloads to work in 9mm; it's the casting part that makes it challenging.

[dimaprok]

I use one of these https://leeprecision.com/undersize-sizing-die-9mm.html Im a big fan of small base rifle dies for ars. Allways believed reliability trumps brass life any day. This is the small base die of pistol rounds. By the way I did an experiment with them last summer and loaded the same 20 rounds of brass 12 times using them and still no splits. So if brass life suffers it sure isn't much.

Have you compared factory 9mm and one sized with normal lee die? The 1st one is straight and 2nd one looks a bit like hourglass. IMO it's being downsized too much already and when you insert fat bullet it amplifies this affect. I measured factory base and resized base and they same, that's not an issue. If you're having issues with base you want to run them through bulge buster die but I personally never had that problem, but most common problem with reliability is not the base but with the case mouth 1) The bell is not removed enough by not applying enough crimp or 2) bullet sticking out too far and hitting the rifling. I've experienced both of these problems and corrected. I am going to experiment with partial case sizing by raising the die.

[drac0nic]

Never realized this. Going to have to size a few cases up and see what they look like now. It may be there but it's subtle in a loaded round.