Lee 105gr SWC .358" in 9mm?

[MikeSSS]

Been casting 105 gr, .358", SWC's from a Lee six cavity mold for a while.

They shoot very well in .38 spl and in a Ruger LCP .380 (shoot em unsized in the LCP). The LCP has fired 108 of these 105 SWC's perfectly!

OK, tired these little SWC's in a Beretta 92 FS and a Sig 226, both had functioning problems. The boolits were loaded so there was very little of the boolit front shoulder in front of the case mouth. The malfunctions were very consistent, the case mouth was stuck on the top of the chamber and the case head edge was about half way up the breech face. Note: these were loaded very light so the cases would just fall to the right of the gun. Perhaps the slide was short cycling but a few shots cycled in both guns. They did shoot very well for point and click shooting at self defense distances and the cases sure were easy to find.

Anybody get these boolits to work well in a 9mm? If so, how.

Just finished casting some Lyman 120 gr truncated cone boolits and will load some up tomorrow morning and shoot them for comparison. (Cast for a while and not many boolits to show for it from this two cavity mold.)

I did talk to a local pistol guru, his opinion was that nobody he knows shoots SWC's in a 9mm.

Maybe it takes a bullet looking boolit to make a 9mm work. (pun intended)

Any ideas here?

[putteral]

I load them to the crimp line and they feed perfectly in my KP95 and PT 111 Mill Pro. I do size them to .356. Great bullet for the .380 like you said, my PPK/S loves them too.

[Lloyd Smale]

loaded to the proper crimp lenght they ran like butter in my sti 1911 9mm

[DanOH]

Yep, listen to these guys.
Had the same issues with a KelTec p11. I was trying to make it look like a scaled down version of a 45acp loaded with a swc seated just below the shoulder. Same malfunctions you describe.
Seated to the crimp grooves it functions fine and is very pleasant to shoot.
Nice bullet...wish I had a 6 banger mold for it.

[DanM]

They run great in my MkI BHP, but it is a '61 vintage. Fatter boolits improve accuracy in that one. When folks show up with newer 9x19 pistols, these rounds sometimes hang in the chamber causing a failure to return to battery. Round must sometimes be pushed out with a dowel. I am sizing to .358" for the BHP....

[Cloudpeak]

They shoot OK

Cloudpeak

[MikeSSS]

I'll try loading them to the crimp groove.

Thanks guys.

Great group with that CZ compact!

[TAWILDCATT]

GENERALY you need to have the bullet strike the top of chamber to tilt it in line.there are not many autos that will feed empties,and thats what the gun sees if the bullet is short.

[Humbo]

A little OT, which top punch do you guys use for the Lee 105 SWC? I've tried Lyman #43, but it's not ideal. I own both RCBS and SAECO sizers, so I could use a tip for both. Thanks.

[Recluse]

I shoot that same boolit out of a Taurus 92, Beretta 92 and SigSauer 226 with no problems. As others have said, seat to the crimp line. I also size mine at .356. When I size those at .357, my feeding gets iffy. .357 with RN boolits works okay.

A little OT, which top punch do you guys use for the Lee 105 SWC? I've tried Lyman #43, but it's not ideal. I own both RCBS and SAECO sizers, so I could use tip for both. Thanks.

If the boolit is a flat nose (ie, WC, SWC), I use a flat punch. Otherwise, I buy large, deep top punches and use epoxy to make my own custom top punches specific to the boolits I'm sizing.

[Humbo]

Recluse, thanks. I'm going to try that.

[Cloudpeak]

I've shot the thousands of rounds of the 105 SWC Lees in a M&P, CZ Compact, CW9 Kahr and my STI Trojan.

They fed 100% in the M&P, Kahr (but shoots low) and Trojan after I switched to the Springfield 9mm mags. I had occasional FTF in the CZ with this bullet and I think it was due to the magazine's mag lip profile. The mags would loose control of the round on occasion. The CZ feed 124 gr RN Lee's 100%.

The main thing I like about this bullet? It's accurate and my lead last waaay longer than it does when I'm shooting my 45's

Cloudpeak

[Willbird]

Some of the guys are using them in 380. I sent some to a bud in KY and his P3At loves them.

[MikeSSS]

Tried some more 105's in the Beretta 92 yesterday. These were seated out farther, the case mouth at the back of the first crimp groove, they still had the same problem but to a lesser degree. The problem is probably too light a charge.

Also tried some 120 gr truncated cone boolits from a Lyman mold. Same charge but it's relatively higher because the boolits are heavier. These ran perfectly and threw the cases a bit farther.

I use 105 SWC's in a Ruger LCP and they work perfectly. Round count is 171, 42 were factory ammo the rest were 105's. Everything runs perfectly in that little gun.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Mike, could you be a little more specific as to what feeding problems you are having? Failure to feed (round not going into chamber), failure to eject, stovepipes, etc. Also, what load are you using? Would help us give you some good ideas.
It does sound to me your charge may be light and the slide is not coming fully back. You don't want case to "just fall to the right of the gun", it should toss them at least a few feet.

[rayzer]

humbo. i use a lyman #402 top punch with the Lee 105 SWC. works good for me.

[zardoz]

I've been working with this boolit, and the 9mm the last few months. I've arrived at a nice shooting "high energy" level that I feel comfortable with.

The load is 6.2 grains of Power Pistol, in Federal cases. Overall length ends at 1.035" to 1.040". Boolits were sized to 0.356", and lubed with LLA.

They are chronographing at 1302 ft/s average, which comes in at 395 ft/lbs. This is out of a Ruger KP89DC.

These have fed without a hitch in both the Ruger, and a Kel-Tec P11. I did have some issues myself with feeding, until I arrived at the above OAL.

I am attaching some photos of the fired cases, because I was looking for overpressure signs, and they seem OK. Also attaching a picture of the rounds to show where they seat.

Please note that this is the upper limit of what I would personally want to use.
It kicks pretty good in both pistols.

[Whistler]

Forgive me for waking an old thread, but I've been experimenting with the same bullet in 9mm the last few weeks.

My Norinco 1911 seems to have a shallow chamber, because I have to seat the boolit very deep (OAL 1,035") to not get ugly marks on the boolit from when it hits the feed ramp. This severely limits the internal case volume, restricting me from getting any real velocity on the projectiles.

I've heard of reaming the chamber and polishing the ramp to allow better feeding and longer OAL with SWC bullets. Anyone tried it?

What velocity have you guys had when you've reached good accuracy?

I've tried both air cooled and water quenched WW with both Lee Liquid Alox and Felix lube that a friend applied with sizing to .358. The ones he sized and lubed worked very well, basically no leading, though I had tons of it when using water quenched boolits and LLA (in any combination).

[MtGun44]

No need for WQ and LLA is marginal for 9mm at best.

I have excellent results in multiple 9mm with this boolit in AC WWt, sized to .357 and
lubed with NRA formula 50-50 lube.

Bill

[Centaur 1]

Whistler, I'm glad that you found this thread. I bought a Ruger LCP a couple of months ago for concealed carry and I need to buy a mold so that I can load for it. I know that I should probably just buy a round nose mold, but the swc just looks cooler. The only thing that the bullet would be used for is paper punching because I use Corbon DPX rounds when I'm carrying the gun. The cost of .380 ammo is killing me and I need to get moving on casting for this round. I already bought loading dies and I've resized several thousand cases already. If anyone has any experience with this bullet in the .380, I'd like to hear more about it.