Ruger 9mm 1911 cast boolit diameter ?

[Divil]

Hello,

Sometime this year I may add a Ruger 9mm 1911 to my inventory. I know my Kimber 9mm 1911 likes .356 boolits. I have only run fmj or plated in my Auto Ordnance 9mm. I also have plenty of .358 sized 9mm chubby boolits for my Beretta 92fs Compact, M9 and Smith 439 on hand.

I am wondering if any other members have a 9mm Ruger 1911 and what diameter boolits you are feeding it with success?

Thanks,
Divil

[DougGuy]

Have the barrel throated and seat .358" as long as you want to, COA only limited by the magazine.

[leadhead]

I shoot .358 dia. bullets in all my 9's with no problems.

[gwpercle]

Have the barrel throated and seat .358" as long as you want to, COA only limited by the magazine.

Do this and you will be much happier ... most pistols have little or no throat and that's the rub !
I like to size all my 9mm's .357" ... have been successful in 5 different modern 9mm pistols and one 1944 WWII surplus Walther P-38 .
And .357" boolits are just a little easier to get in that Darned Stinking tapered case without deforming it !
I hate reloading 9mm Luger ... they are Little Stinker's !

I save .358" sizing for my 38 special / 357 magnum.
Good Luck
Gary

[Panman213]

I run a Lee TC bullet, powder coated and sized to .356 with very good results. I tried .357 and .358 and they all functioned but the .356 was the accuracy winner. This is in a Ruger commander 1911.

[Wheelguns 1961]

I have settled on .357” for my 9mm SR1911 target model. It would chamber .358”, but they seemed to leave a little lead behind. The .357” bullets shoot very accurately.

[Slugster]

I would go 1 or 2 thou over slugged diameter. Load several and give them the plunk test.

[Divil]

Thanks for the replies gents.

If I do get a Ruger 9mm 1911, I will try both the .356 and .358 9mm boolits in my inventory.

The .358 Boolit in question is an Arsenal Copy of a Lyman 358242 that throws .359 boolits, sized to .358, hardball alloy, lubed with Thompson Red Angel. I find Remington once fired cases don’t swage this chubby boolit down when seating and they still pass my cartridge gauge. My Beretta’s, Smith 439, 3913 and former Browning eat these with no keyholes, good accuracy and no leading.

In the past, all the Colt and Kimber 9mm 1911’s I have owned, had tighter rifling and truly like .356 sized boolits. I need to acquire another Lyman 356402 and cast a bunch of them. Size them to .356 using Lyman Orange Magic. My present Kimber Pro Carry II will eat them like candy.

Eventually once I am done tuning my GI looking Auto Ordnance to perfect reliability I will try cast boolits in it too. However, I have to install and set a higher quality extractor first. Second my gunsmith will install a Harrison trigger (the factory works but all my 1911’s eventually get the Harrison trigger out of personal preference) and a heavier hammer spring. I got light firing pin strikes on my handloads out of the box. Factory ammo always went off but the primer indents were on the ragged edge of deep enough for reliable ignition. I replaced the firing pin and fp spring and the ignition on my handloads improved but I want certainty so a heavier hammer spring is next.

The Ruger would be a informal match pistol. Something I would use to shoot steel targets at a local gun club.

[Bigslug]

I sampled a good number of 9mm's to answer the "optimum diameter" question. Two were from Ruger - an old P-85 and a new PC Carbine. There may have also been a Ruger 9mm Commander involved in the bore slugging party, but the memory is faint and the data stored elsewhere.

Of the guns sampled, only a Springfield 1911 went as small as a .355" groove diameter. All the rest were in the .356" range with a bore diameter of roughly .347". As I recall, the fattest was a Hungarian Hi Power clone, but it was still in that range.

I'm running the NOE/Ranch Dog 135 grain tumble-luber unsized out of the mold at .357" and it's working very well for me. Assuming that Ruger doesn't vary their bore specs significantly across models, my PC Carbine LOVES the combo - the bore basically looking unfired after shooting them. I doubt very much your 1911 would have complaints.