Heavy, subsonic 9mm loads

[Angus]

I like the thoughts of subsonic heavies better than supersonic lightweights. I just bought a Lee 358-150-1R six banger from grafs since my 2 cavity TL356-124-TC is falling apart, and am anxious to see how it behaves coming out of my P89. I have Unique, Red Dot, and Blue dot to play with currently. What would a preferred starting load be with these? Does anyone load this or a similar boolit in 9mm, and is there a better powder for the task?

I am picking up a 6 banger because I hate taking so long to cast up enough boolits to keep me loading for my 9mm. I would hate having to get bogged down lube/sizing each one, so I am planning to tumble them in LLA or JPW and is necessary using the Lee Factory Crimp Die to post-size if the cases are too bulged to chamber happily. Does this sound alright?

[fecmech]

I have the discontinued Lee 356-150-2R and shot it quite a bit in the 9's that I have owned. I used 5.6 of Blue Dot for 1010 fps out of my Highpower and it was fairly accurate. The powder that I've found to work very well with all bullet wts in the 9MM is Hogdon Longshot and with the 150 I used 4.6grs for 1000 fps.

[Edubya]

I like the thoughts of subsonic heavies better than supersonic lightweights. I just bought a Lee 358-150-1R six banger from grafs since my 2 cavity TL356-124-TC is falling apart, and am anxious to see how it behaves coming out of my P89. I have Unique, Red Dot, and Blue dot to play with currently. What would a preferred starting load be with these? Does anyone load this or a similar boolit in 9mm, and is there a better powder for the task?

I am picking up a 6 banger because I hate taking so long to cast up enough boolits to keep me loading for my 9mm. I would hate having to get bogged down lube/sizing each one, so I am planning to tumble them in LLA or JPW and is necessary using the Lee Factory Crimp Die to post-size if the cases are too bulged to chamber happily. Does this sound alright?

Angus, it sounds like you have a lot of anxieties. Slow down and enjoy life a lot more, we don't have a lot of it, you know.
Dedicate a day to casting, not meaning a whole day, but if you cast for four or five hours, you will have plenty of pills to supply you for a while. If you want to go faster, without the time, you will have to get a lot of expensive equipment. You will be able to do your quality control better if you will slow down.
That's why us old farts move slowly, it's not because we can't physically go faster, experience has taught us that we're better off doing it slower.
EW

[robertbank]

3.2 grains of Unique will give you a soft shooting load I suspect. I use that load to make power factor for IDPA using 147 gr boolits. I load them on the short side. One problem you might run into is getting the boolits to stabilize. The 9MM barrels are usually 1 in 10 twist whichis plenty fast for the larger boolits.

2.3 gr of 231 will get you to the same place. Next month I will be working on Universal using the 147 gr boolit and will post results here.

Take Care

Bob

[Angus]

So I got my mold, and WOW is it nice dropping 6 boolits every pour. They drop a bit too big to seat right (they shave lead regardless of how belled the case is). I slobbered them with some mule snot and loaded up the prescribed 3.2gr of Unique and went to the range. It cycled the action perfectly, and there is more recoil in a 22 mag revolver. The brass piled up about one foot to the right of me. There was absolutely no leading either. I have a .357 Lee sizer on the way. Once that shows up, mm mm mmm.

[August]

It seems as though there is nothing that Unique cannot do.

[robertbank]

I've posted this elsewhere but my Lyman mould as it turns out drops my boolits 154 gr. Boolits seem to be stabilizing OK. Little recoil and still makes power factor for IDPA and IPSC. I think the recoil factor involves not experiencing the torque of the 125 gr boolits running around 1100 fps.

Take Care

Bob

[thebridge]

no one has posted here for a little while....it seems our heavy, soft sub-s load secret is safe once again. so if you read the posts above- please ignore them

[kawalekm]

OK, I'll add my load. It's Lyman's 358477 which in my alloy casts out at 151-152 grains. I load this into 9mm with 6.0 grains of Blue Dot.

[plinker]

I have the discontinued Lee 356-150-2R and shot it quite a bit in the 9's that I have owned. I used 5.6 of Blue Dot for 1010 fps out of my Highpower and it was fairly accurate. The powder that I've found to work very well with all bullet wts in the 9MM is Hogdon Longshot and with the 150 I used 4.6grs for 1000 fps.

I wonder why they discontinued that mold? I would love to have one, I think that would be just what I am looking for for IPSC Production. Otherwise I will be going with the flat point Lyman 147gr mold. I am really interested in trying some heavy boolit 9mm loads.

[Intel6]

I load the Lee 158 RNFP bullet in my 9mm's. It is a great shape because of the flat nose lakes seating easy and they shoot nice.

Neal in AZ

[rmund]

Does anyone have any starting loads for red dot, blue dot, unique or longshot with a 180gr lead bullet?

[GrizzLeeBear]

180 gr. bullet in a 9mm?! There would be no room for powder and the case would bulge so badly that it probably woudn't chamber. Even if you did get some powder in it, I suspect the velocity would be so low that the boolit would not stabalize if it even gets out of the barrel. Just guessing, someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Artful]

The heaviest projectiles I know was a special run for Navy SEAL's use with 170 Sierra Silhouette J-word bullets but that was stopped by slides cracking on the S&W Mk 22 Mod 0's with slide locks. I think it was loaded up my either Sonic's or Knight's armament - with 158/160 grain you don't have much room for powder anyway if loaded to fit in most magazines.

[subsonic]

The heaviest projectiles I know was a special run for Navy SEAL's use with 170 Sierra Silhouette J-word bullets but that was stopped by slides cracking on the S&W Mk 22 Mod 0's with slide locks. I think it was loaded up my either Sonic's or Knight's armament - with 158/160 grain you don't have much room for powder anyway if loaded to fit in most magazines.

I must have the same book as you, Artful

In it, they mention the Sierra 170gr FMJ going 975fps @ 40,000psi(!!!) from the Berretta M9. They say this bullet was both re-sized to .354" and also swaged to form a boat-tail base to allow deep seating in the 9mm case. They also are adamant about not trying to duplicate this pressure level - but soon follow with a load of 4.5gr of Unique @ 780fps behind this re-worked bullet.

[Artful]

Al Paulson's I think it was - I'm happy with 158 as upper limit - 147's are fine too.

[Valerko]

I'm really glad search function is working this great and I was able to find this thread.
I was looking for heavier bullets for my CZ 75 and was looking at Lee .358 150g mold .
I guess next step is getting it and tring new bullets in my gun.

[Gremlin460]

I just purchased my first lee 6 cav 124gn RN mould, after playing with it for a few hours I have 1.2K of boolits, I cast using 3 clipon ww and 2 stickon ww muffin ratio. They weigh in at 132.8gn near across all 1.2k.
For paper punching they should be fine?
Thinking of running 5.2-5.6gn Alliance PP for these 9mm shiny things.
anythoughts?
Mike.

[robertbank]

4.1 gr of 231/HP38 is my go to load for IDPA/IPSC using 125 gr boolits. Very accurate in all my 9MM guns.

Take Care

Bob

[scattershot]

I have been playing with Berry's plated 150 gr RN bullets over 4.0 Red Dot. Around 950 fps, and seems to function well. I'm not sure I'd go any higher than that, but that load works great in my pistols.