Finally success with Hi Tek in 9mm

[WT101]

Guys, I had been having the most awful time with leading in the barrel of my Sig 9mm with cast bullets that I had Hi-Tek coated myself. Bullets were passing the acetone and smash tests. I could not for the life of me figure it out and then I stumbled across the whole 9mm-case-swaging-bullets-down explanation. I had my EUREKA! moment. I posted a question about it in the Reloading Equipment section last week.

Sure enough, my bullets were getting swaged WAY down at the base and this appears to have been accounting for most or nearly all of the leading I was experiencing. I have a Lee Universal Expanding Die and NOE plugs on the way, but while waiting on those, I just backed my decapping/resizing die out a few turns where it wasn't resizing as drastically, loaded some rounds and VOILA!!! Fired 100 today without a sign of lead or Hi Tek left in the barrel.

Thank you to those who commented last week on my question and for this forum in general. Lots of knowledge here. Hope this post helps someone in the future.

[slide]

I know it was aggravating but you have gained knowledge that you can put in your portfolio. ( I hope I spelled that right!)

[Ausglock]

Good job....well done..

[ioon44]

I also have been backing off my sizer die to stop swagging.
I have a new Walther PPQ SF and the barrel slugged at .3570" so I have been feeding it Hi-Tek coated (2 coats of Gold 1035) bullets unsized at .360", after pulling a loaded bullet it still measures .359". This load leaved the barrel really clean and is very accurate.

One thing to watch is the neck tension so as not to get any bullet set back.

[Jhopson]

Glad to hear you got the problem fixed. Hitek is a great coating to shoot with, but there can be some learning curves along the way.


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[Petander]

[Jniedbalski]

I have a lee 9mm die. By backing out the resizing and decapping die you can keep the case from being sized down farther down toward the base? I have never done that. I got the lee universal expander and noe’s expanders and my bases on my soft cast bullets are fine. I might have to give it a try.

[WT101]

I have a lee 9mm die. By backing out the resizing and decapping die you can keep the case from being sized down farther down toward the base? I have never done that. I got the lee universal expander and noe’s expanders and my bases on my soft cast bullets are fine. I might have to give it a try.

Yes, you should be able to adjust the depth of the resizing die, thus increasing or decreasing the amount of the case that is resized. There is a potential downside to this, though...if you’re using once-fired range brass of unknown origin, you may get some brass that was shot in a gun with a really loose chamber and if you’re not completely full-length resizing, you may have issues with reloaded rounds not chambering in your gun if it has a tight chamber. A Lyman case gauge will fail a lot of rounds done like this but the Lyman case gauge is very tight specs from what I have found. Much tighter than most production 9mm chambers.

I also bought the Lee universal expander die and the NOE plugs and if I’m reloading match ammo I use that setup so I can be absolutely certain I won’t have any rounds stop the gun.

[Jniedbalski]

Sounds like the way I have been doing it will be the best because I have a lot of range brass

[tomme boy]

If you have the Lee powder die get a 38 S&W expander. Then you will not have to worry about the brass getting sized enough from backing it out. It really helps just about all 9mm gun to be able to shoot cast. Luckily I had one gun that I had to do this to. But the 9mm guns I have now I don't have to use the 38 expander.

My AR9 really likes 0.356" bullets and my Glock likes 0.357" I tried the regular 9mm expander one day and did not have to use the 38 anymore. So, I just size all my bullets to 0.357" now. The AR9 will eat anything I throw at it. This save me from having to make ammo for each one.