Recommendations for 9mm

[gwpercle]

question about the Lee 120TC. what sizes are you getting as it drops from the mold. i hope to get .358. i haven't got one yet. it will be my first 9mm mold. i will get a 2 cavity and if it works; i will up-grade

If you want a .358 size , the Lee mould probably isn't going to give it to you .
Lee moulds are sorta a crapp-shoot , my Lee 356-120-TC and 356-125-2R both drop them right at .357" , both moulds are double cavity .

Now the NOE 358-124-TC does drop boolits .358" from my 4 cavity mould . I have a gas check design on all 4 cavities and use that bullet in 38 special and 357 Magnum sized .358" .
Sized .357 I use it in 9mm Luger .
If you want a .358" boolit ...go with the NOE mould ...it will make you Happy-Happy !
Gary

[ryanmattes]

I just got the 356-120-TC and it drops at .3580-.3585. Guess I got lucky.

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[hickfu]

Its also going to depend on your alloy, My alloy is WW with 4% pewter added and my Lee 356-120-TC drops at 3595 to 360.

[fredj338]

Just about all I shoot in 9mm are coated cast, mostly range scrap with a bit of clip ww. From 124, 135 & 147gr, I used to size to 0.357" but found 0.356" shoots just as well with no case bulging issues in most brass. I like faster powder for just paper punching. I shoot mostly WST, but vv320, Ramshot Comp, Red Dot, Sport Pistol, W231, all work fine. I save the medium burners for max loads to duplicate 124gr +P SD ammo.

[fredj338]

I just got the 356-120-TC and it drops at .3580-.3585. Guess I got lucky.

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Alloy & casting temp will determine as cast size.

[Lloyd Smale]

i shot 9s even in competition for about 15 years. Owned many many of them and still have 9. If i had to pick one bullet that shinned over the years in all of them it would be the rcbs 121 grain round nose. It feeds and shoots well in everything. Be careful though because they sell a version of that mold with a shoulder that is suppose to cut a cleaner hole in paper for scoring but that bullet is a dud. Mold quality is typical rcbs. Great.

[ryanmattes]

6 sets of 20, I'll shoot em this week to find out which bullet shape and size feeds, chambers, shoots, and groups the best. Then I have to find a coating for them, so I don't have to lube them 40 at a time. I want to do bulk.

The seating die still mars the RNFP, even switching to the RF stem. If that the style that wins, I'll have to do something about it. These are good enough for testing though.

Loaded them all with 3.5 grains of titegroup. The weight was close enough between the two moulds that I just charged them all the same. The TC came out 123-124, and the RF came out 126-127.


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[Cosmic_Charlie]

Here is a 10 yard rapid fire group out of my M&P 9 2.0. Lee 358125r sized to .357. Powder coated half coww/ half pure with tin. Titegroup powder.



Overall length is short with this boolit @ 1.065". Have to be cautious with the powder charge initially. Very careful also not to over crimp. The pistol has an Apex barrel and flat faced forward set trigger so it is easy to shoot well though I was a bit flinchy yesterday.

[ryanmattes]

Here is a 10 yard rapid fire group out of my M&P 9 2.0. Lee 358125r sized to .357. Powder coated half coww/ half pure with tin. Titegroup powder.



Overall length is short with this boolit @ 1.065". Have to be cautious with the powder charge initially. Very careful also not to over crimp. The pistol has an Apex barrel and flat faced forward set trigger so it is easy to shoot well though I was a bit flinchy yesterday.

At 1.065, what charge were you using? Mine are seated even a little shorter than that, with a decent, not heavy, crimp.

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[Cosmic_Charlie]

At 1.065, what charge were you using? Mine are seated even a little shorter than that, with a decent, not heavy, crimp.

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Just can't remember the charge Ryan. I am going to have to take one apart. The reason I had a pic of the AOL was because I didn't write that down either and I want to duplicate the load now. Sloppy of me not to record the load.

I remove the barrel from the pistol and use it to set the crimp. Little by little until it chambers. I get the seating depth first by seating out a ways and giving it a good crimp. Then I drop them in the chamber and seat deeper little by little until they chamber fully.

[ryanmattes]

How short before they get unsafe, you think? Just wondering if I should worry about these I've already loaded.

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[Cosmic_Charlie]

How short before they get unsafe, you think? Just wondering if I should worry about these I've already loaded.

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No idea Ryan. I know others here are using that boolit in 9mm and seating it deep. The 9mm case is small though and things can go South quickly. Loads for cast boolits weighing 147 grs. might be a good guide though.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

At 1.065, what charge were you using? Mine are seated even a little shorter than that, with a decent, not heavy, crimp.

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Took one apart and got 3.5 of Titegroup.

[ryanmattes]

Took one apart and got 3.5 of Titegroup.

That's the same charge I have, but seated to 1.030.

Would you worry? Or just shoot one at a time and look for signs of trouble between shots?


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[Cosmic_Charlie]

That's the same charge I have, but seated to 1.030.

Would you worry? Or just shoot one at a time and look for signs of trouble between shots?


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Factory ball ammo seems much snappier than my 3.5 of Titegroup. You should be o.k.

[ryanmattes]

Shot em this morning. Got keyholing on the .356 sized for both bullet shapes, worse for the RNFP. The .358 sized had a wider spread and worse leading, so it looks like .357 is what my pistol likes.

Below are the targets, 20 rounds each at 5 yards offhand, loaded 1 at a time for 3 rounds to make sure there weren't any problems, then a mag of 7, and then a mag of 10. I scrubbed the bore to clear any leading after each 10 rounds. I probably rushed the latter half of the mags.

There was clear leading on all of them, despite the lube. All the lube seemed to do is produce smoke. On my .45lc the lube works, but I'm casting the Keith SWC with the large, square lube groove. These have tiny lube grooves, and I don't think it's enough to stop the leading.

The TC seemed to have more overall spread, but also had more in the red. I think in both cases the problem was with the shooter, not the round. Also, it's a 3" barrel, so not exactly the most precise. With my 7.5" .45lc I was cutting the red out, and maybe shooting the 9mm second was part of the problem too. Fatigue plays a part, especially when I'm breaking and cleaning 12 times in a session.

In practical terms, the 356-120-TC gives me more room to adjust seating depth, due to the lack of a crimp groove, it casts faster, easier, and more consistently, and it feeds great in my pistol, so I think that's the one I'll move forward with for now.

I got a shipment of Hi-Tek in today, Old Gold and Copper Red, so now I'll cast a few hundred, buy a cheap convection oven, and start playing with coatings. Once I'm happy with the coating and get some consistent boolits, I'll look at tweaking the charge and seating depth to fine-tune.



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[fcvan]

I have been casting/loading/shooting 9mm since 1985, a S&W 459, but now it's a 639. Several Glocks, a Taurus 709, AR 15 carbines, and a Marlin Camp 9. All get sized to .358 as that is what my first mold dropped them at. I have shot an insane amount of 9mm in 35 years and the only time I key-holing was when I tried a .357 sizing die. Needless to say, I put it on swapping and selling after using it the 1 time.

9mm is for rolling tin cans most of the time, carried a 1911 45 for many years until my wife brought me home a Glock 22C which then became my EDC. Some years later my agency switched to G22s so It was a good fit. I bought 9mm drop in barrels for the G22 and G23, extra magazines, etc., for my Brother's and my wife's G22s and G23s A good day at the range starts with 9mm for trigger time, and then transitioning to 40 to keep the muscle memory with the heavier boolits. After that its basically pick up the brass and go home.

Somebody said 9mm is a PITA to load for but I never experienced that. I approached 9mm like I was taught by dad for .38/.357/ 41 Mag. Just starting on my own, I was pan lubing the unsized Lee 356-125 2R. Later I got a Lyman 450 and now I PC everything. As long as the plunked I knew I was good. A year or so later I got a S&W M13 in .357, but mostly shot 38s using the same boolit.

I lost count at around 750k boolits cast with that old mold I've rebuilt twice. I was only shooting 1000-1250 rounds per week, but casting on average 2000 per week. Baseball or country music and I was GTG. I had a bunch of friends from work, some reloaded, some came to my house to reload. I would trade 500 boolits for a pound of powder, 500 for 1000 primers, and the lead was free from that range at work, good times.

Sure, I have bought more molds for .380, 9mm, .357 Sig, and .38/.357 but I always seem to drag out 'old trusty' and run the PCd boolts through the .358 sizing die, it just works for me.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Discovered that both my CZ 75 barrel and the Apex one in my M&P can take my Lee 356-125R seated out 1.085" OAL. Loaded some up with 4.6 of Unique today to see if I could tighten up the groups. Was getting some scatter with theTitegroup. Casting and loading 9mm has gone fairly well. Good function, no leading and promising accuracy. These boolits are powder coated and sized to .357".

[ryanmattes]

I coated a test group of Lee 356-120-TC (drops .3590-.3595 with my alloy and process) with Hi-Tek Old Gold yesterday, sized them to .357 today. I'll load em up this week and see how they shoot probably this weekend.

Looks like a pot o' gold! Given what factory ammo costs these days, that might not be far off.

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[Cosmic_Charlie]

Nice Ryan!