I'm through trying to cast 9mm boolits!

[sig2009]

Spent close to 5 hours yesterday cleaning the lead out of by barrel after 25 rounds. And the commercial cast sized to 356.5 were equally as bad! Lee molds suck. Lyman molds suck!

[mktacop]

If you are giving up....let me know what you have to sell

Seriously, what issues do you have that are causing that much leading? What alloy, what velocity, slugged your barrel? I'm sure an answer to the problem can be found.

[462]

I don't own a 9 mm, but after facing many casting and shooting impediments and frustrations, my advise would be to take a deep breath and relax.

Once you have caught up with yourself, start from the very beginning -- always go back to the basics -- and analyze each and every step of the entire process.

It's far to premature to blame the moulds, and even if you discover that they are not what they should be, there is always a way to remedy them.

Hang in there.

I'm sure that, given all the pertinent information, the members will be able to solve the problem(s).

[RayinNH]

What alloy, air cooled or water dropped, what size are they after sizing? Measure the boolits not what is marked on the die...Ray

[williamwaco]

I have been loading for over 5 decades. 9mm for four decades.

The only problem I have ever had with the 9mm is that they are so small, I drop them on the floor and have to stop and pick them up.

In my experience, they are no harder to load than any other handgun. Most problems are caused by "over thinking" and trying to solve problems before they occur.

Trade those hard cast commercial bullets to someone you don't like.
They are too hard and too small. They are DESTINED to lead.

1 Get some good dies. Don't mix them. Use the sizer, expander, and seater from the same set.
2 Cast some good soft bullets BNH 15 or less. ( I use the Lee 124 gr Truncated Cone BNH 12-14 )
3 Size them to .357.
4 Lube them with LLA or Rooster Jacket or one of the highly recommended home made lubes recommended by members here.
5 Select a mid-range powder charge. About half way between starting and max.
6 Experiment with three or four dummy cartridges to find an over all length that will fit the magazine and feed reliably when the action is worked by hand.

Start with a clean barrel.
Shoot 5, then check for lead.
Don't wait until it looks like a sewer pipe before you start cleaning it.

For exhaustive detalis of this process with a cartridge that is notoriously hard to reload, see:

http://www.reloadingtips.com/pages/loading-40-sw.htm

The cartridge is different but every step of the process is exactly the same.

Remember:

It is not hard to load good pistol ammo.
But
It is easy to load bad pistol ammo.

[454PB]

William has the possible causes of leading covered, I want to know why it took 5 hours to remove it from your barrel.

Slugging a barrel will remove 95% of leading, then a bronze brush soaked in Hoppes will remove the rest.

If you find the leading while you're still in a shooting area, keep some very lightly loaded jacketed rounds available. They work just like slugging and will push the bulk of the leading out. You can then use a bronze brush and solvent to finish up.

[SlowSmokeN]

I am learning 9mm right now and I am so close I can taste it. If you give the proper info your mess could be fixed in no time.

[delt167502]

I had the same problem,with a glock .I tried every thing I could think of .Then a friend was at the range with me,I made the comment Iwas about to give up shooting cast. He said why don't you try using .357 dia. bullets .It worked no lead at all .I have been using ww to cast with. something that has worked to remove leading is a sml. amount of copper choreboy wraped around a brush. Make sure it is copper as steel will damage your bbl.

[Sonnypie]

If at first you don't succeed, parachuting may not be for you.

You could always go back to jacketed bullets.

[Cherokee]

sig - william gave good advice. The 9mm was not that hard for me. I use the Lee 356120TC conventional lube and the Lyman 356402. Both give me very good results with only trace leading that cleans up with normal barrel cleaning effort - brush & patch. I have fired 1000 rounds without cleaning and no accuracy problem and easy cleanup. Take a breath and try again.

[runfiverun]

look aroun some i'll bet you find 3-4 hundred posts on what didn't work and at least 3-4 thousand things to try.
of those 3-4 thousand there are probably 5-6 things [steps] in common that insures success.
and one thing all the failures have in common.
the boolits are too small.
either being cast that way or they are being made that way in the loading process.

[waksupi]

quick tip if you do have lead, put the rod in a drill so the brush spins very fast and it will clean up in a couple of minutes.

Fast way to booger up a barrel. Use the Chore Boy trick, and get it out without hurting the barrel.

[shootinxd]

Sig,don't give up just yet.Many(including Myself)have had to overcome the dreaded LEADING issue.I worked for almost 3yrs off/on for my 40cal.It can be done, I assure you of this.Youre in the right place to find the answers you seek.Take it 1 step at a time.YOU CAN DO IT,if I can.

[DukeInFlorida]

1) DO NOT SPIN a bronze brush in a rifled barrel
2) There are three factors to success with cast boolits
A) Diameter
B) Hardness
C) Lube Selection
If any of those are wrong, you will get leading. If two or more are wrong you will get a LOT of leading. My guess is that you had at least two of those wrong.
3) For my 9mm bullets, I use a 50-50 alloy (50% wheel weights, and 50% pure lead. Soft enough to properly seal the bore when the pressure hits the back of the bullet. I cast those and air cool them. Water dropping would make them too hard, my opinion.
4) I size mine to .357. Of all of the sizing I have tried, that one work the best on all of my guns.
5) I use a good semi-hard lube. Previous tests with tumble lubing 9mm bullets didn't go well. I ditched the tumble lube style molds in favor of grease groove style molds, and use my own modified version of Felix's lube (I add some synthetic stuff to it). Commercially, White Label's Carnauba Red would be my recommendation for you.
6) Relax. It's supposed to be an enjoyable hobby.

[ku4hx]

Spent close to 5 hours yesterday cleaning the lead out of by barrel after 25 rounds. And the commercial cast sized to 356.5 were equally as bad! Lee molds suck. Lyman molds suck!

I've cast and loaded thousand of 9mm since the mid '70s and had only very minor problems that were fairly easy to fix. But I'll have to say, I've had sever problems in the past with other things that I couldn't fix no matter what I did. Things that other people considered no-brainers.

So I understand your frustration and can certainly commiserate with you.

[milprileb]

Its not the molds but it probably is some of what others have advised.. maybe all of it.

9mm is the one caliber that I have had a long trek with. Slug the bore and then you will know
what sizer die to get. I had to go to .358 for my cast bullets for sizing.

You will have to work alloy hardness issues and find the alloy that works in your pistol. You need to use a high quality lube on your bullets (chase cheaper and other lubes later after you sort out your difficulties).

The rewards for a tenacious approach are there but you got to suffer through and not give up.

Methodically go through all the suggestions and eliminate all causes of leading.

I have had lube failed me with certain loads and gotten lead in barrel. Switched lube and all was fine.

Your barrel wants a specific recipe for 9mm: lube, alloy, sizing, powder, powder charge, seating depth: you gotta find the combination that works.

I find one or more of those can spoil things for my pistol. 9mm is very unforgiving. Just about any combination of those factors will work in 45acp.

[Boolseye]

Yeah, it can be frustrating (BTW, Shooter's Choice is 100x more powerful than Hoppe's for serious leading), but the 9mm is doable. Everything we need to know is either on this forum or within us. I size some of my 9mm to .356 and shoot the dreaded TL356-124TC (unsized), both of which are practically verboten on this forum–but I love it here and have learned a million things from all of the great members. Best of luck to you.

[EMC45]

I use the 120gr. Lee TC mold exclusively. I size to .358 for my BHP. I shot plenty of cast and jacketed through my Beretta M92 and got horrendus leading and very poor accuracy. I started casting and sizing accordingly and now I get zero leading and great accuracy in my BHP. I use ACWW BTW.

[jonk]

quick tip if you do have lead, put the rod in a drill so the brush spins very fast and it will clean up in a couple of minutes.

I am learning 9mm right now and I am so close I can taste it. If you give the proper info your mess could be fixed in no time.

What horrible advice. Good advice for someone who wants to really wear down their rifling I suppose, lapping the sides of it so it no longer has a nice crisp edge... and all feathered on one side. No thanks.

Now on to the issue. The 9mm is a fairly fast round for plain base bullets, and fairly high pressure. I was having the same issues you were, and switched my powder charge. By experimenting, I found that 3.2 gr of bullseye with a 124 gr RN will JUST cycle the action on all of my 9mms. This is well under the max load and well under most start loads. However, the lower pressure and velocity eliminated my leading, and shoots pretty well to boot.

Of course make sure your bullet is appropriately sized, well lubed, etc. After that start with 2 gr of bullseye and work up until you get a load that just cycles the gun.

I did the same with a 158 gr semi wadcutter in the 9mm. 2.5 gr of bullseye just cycles the action with this huge pill, and it shoots great in terms of accuracy; in fact it's mostly all I shoot out of my 9s these days.

[pdawg_shooter]

I had to fix 2 flats on my pickup last week. Guess I will just stop driving!