158 grain LRN 9MM Loads

[onelight]

If somebody has a copy of Sixguns by Keith handy, he talks about this is vague terms, relating how some of his chronies had loaded the hollowpoint version of his SWC in 9mm.

One infers that this is the 358429, which, hollowpointed, works out to about 160 grains. Load specs were mentioned.

I experimented with the 358429 they weighed 168 grains in 9mm many years ago it functioned and shot reasonably well in a beretta 92
But it was more out of curiosity than any real purpose I could not see any advantage over more traditional weight bullets like 124 gr . I was never very comfortable putting that much bullet in that little case . I worked with both bullseye and Unique if I remember right.

[JimB..]

In this months American Rifleman Fiocchi is advertising 158 gr FMJ 9MM ammo at 940 fps.

Didn’t see the ad, but probably Fiocchi 9APE which is a great suppressed round. They only make it seasonally, I understand that the bullets are made in Italy then loaded in the US, but point is that it is not always available.

[Bigslug]

I experimented with the 358429 they weighed 168 grains in 9mm many years ago it functioned and shot reasonably well in a beretta 92
But it was more out of curiosity than any real purpose I could not see any advantage over more traditional weight bullets like 124 gr . I was never very comfortable putting that much bullet in that little case . I worked with both bullseye and Unique if I remember right.

I'm in the camp of "I don't know but I've been told" on this one, but a couple things occurred to me on the topic:

1. The 358429, being designed for big powder charges in a .38 Special case, moves a lot of its weight forward into the nose outside of the case. That might make it a better choice than a lot of other 158 grainers that were designed for the longer .357 case, and put more metal in the shank out of necessity.

2. The long nose of that bullet might possibly mimic the profile of military FMJ.

3. With the nose scooped out by a hollow point mold, the nominally 173 grain 358429 drops to about 160 grains. The net effect of loading this in the 9mm is that in 1955, they had something that duplicated the .38 Special "FBI Load" 15-20 years before the "FBI Load" was really a thing.

[GBertolet]

I had used the Lyman 358311 158 gr RN in my 1911 9mm for USPSA shooting. It shot quite well, but I had some of the issues mentioned earlier to resolve. The bullet has a long bearing surface, so it had to be seated fairly deep, which conflicted with the tapered case. My solution was to invert the bullet in the Lyman sizer, and use a top punch to put a bevel on the base. I used a #460 top punch, which had the correct profile for what I wanted. It was enough to work. I was fortunate my barrel had a generous throat, so I could leave them seated a little long, and still would chamber. I sized to .357. Lyman in one of their older manuals, has load data for the 9mm, with the 358311 bullet. Of course it hasn't any of the newer powders listed.

[edwin41]

hello ,

i shot some 1000 subsonic reloads through my glock G34 , and these were storebought 140 gr ALSA PRO fmj j-word boolits .
the load i was using was 3.2 gr of Lovex d032 powder.

the interesting part for me was the overall length of the cartridge .
in the reload guide from lovex the overall lenght of the more common bullet weights is from 28,2 to 29 ,9 millimeter.
the overall lenght for the heavy boolits are listed at 26,5 mm .

so , the heavy boolits are longer than the lighter ones , and will be seated much deeper in the casing , leaving little room for the powder.

i started out by removing the barrel and seated the boolits as far out as the chambering would allow , but then the cartridges wouldn t
fit in the magazine no more , so i backed up a little to 29,5 mm .
this gave poor results with the listed 3.2 gr of d032 powder and the pistol wouldnt cycle the action.
i did increase the powdercharge a little , but de results were not there.

it all started to work when i seated the boolit deeper , to the overall lenght of the listed 26,5 mm.
the reload guide gives me a minimum charge of 3.1 gr and a max charge of 3.2 gr d 032 powder for a subsonic load.
at 3.1 gr the pistol does not cycle reliably , but i never had a problem with the 3.2 gr of powder.

as printed in the guide from lovex :
SUBSONIC , overall lenght 26,5 millimeter
powder lovex d032 , j-word 140 gr minimum 3.1 gr 918 fps
maximum 3.2 gr 984 fps pressure 2310 bar / 33500 psi

i also did the same powdercharge and oal with alliant bullseye powder , and it felt no different than the lovex d032.
for the .38 spec i also use both the powders in the same amount with in my opinion the same performance.

i recently found me a nice brass bulletmould , with gives me a roundnose 147 gr boolit .
i casted some and got these coated with the hitek coating , wich seems to me to be the best coating in the market today.
i havent mastered the process completjy i think , but its defenitly not the product or the back up from the maker , i just need some more
experience with this coating.
anyway , i loaded a batch of 35 of these boolits for testing , 3.2 gr of d032 powder , oal 26,5 mm
will report the results , but the gunclubs are closed over here as the new virus is hitting hard , and its advised to stay away from groups of people right now.

[root]

I haven't loaded the 158's but I do use the 150 38 bullet mold for my 9mm subguns and cans.

I just size them in the 450 and like others mention load them to fit the mag and barrel and go with 157 data backed down a bit.


I use the M10 and UZI as bench marks if it runs in those then it will run in the glocks and M11/9

Never seen any pressure signs and with the UZI and M10 the empties land right at my feet only coming out of the breech about 2 to 3 inches.