New here..Suggestions needed.

[red1027]

Hi,
First and foremost I would like to introduce myself. My name is Roger but people call me Red. I recently took up reloading as a hobby and currently in the process of learning how to cast my own boolits.


I know the Lyman's Cast book is suggested by most as a good source for cast boolit data but I would like some suggestions from the forum before I get my hands on one.

I recently bought some commercially cast boolits from a company by the name of Friendswood Bullet Co. out of Friendswood,Texas.

9mm 115 gr round nose (sized at .356)
I will be using this round for general plinking and shooting it out of a MPA defender 9mm luger.

Here I am thinking of using 3.6 gr of Bulleyes. SAFE? GOOD? ACCURATE?

.40 S&W 180 gr flat point ( sized at .401)
I am looking for a good target round. I will be using it in a XDm 4in .40cal.

Here I have no clue where to start.

I have the following powders available to me. Unique, Bulleyes, Winchester 231. Primers i have CCI500, WSP, Remington. Brass I have all kinds of mgf.

Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

[Linstrum]

Hi, red1027, one of the troubles with buying cast boolits is that they are sometimes sized too small to prevent leading. Some modern 9mm pistols have 0.357" or even 0.358" bores and 0.356" boolits won't seal the bore from blow-by, which is one common contributing factor in leading a bore. The way to avoid problems from being undersized is to slug your bore so you know what size boolit will work, see:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=57556

for how to do that, it is actually quite simple when you have the right tools and materials on hand. If your bore slugs at 0.357", then you need a boolit that is 0.359" or 0.360".

From my own personal experience, 9mm Parabellum, aka 9mm Luger, is one of the more difficult cartridges to load up so it works well. It is possible and a lot of us do it, you just have to know its peculiarities. The problems come from the rather high pressure the 9mm Parabellum operates at plus the fast 1 turn in 10-inches rate of twist most 9mm pistols use.

All of us here were newbies at one time, but we are learning and so will you! Good Luck!

rl 1097

[missionary5155]

Good morning red1027 and Welcome to our PB home.
Does your boolit supplier offer fatter sized boolits? I would give him a call and find out. I would want at least .001 fatter that my firearms throat area if it will chamber. Good seal at ignition is important. Think about a piston in a cylinder. You want that explosion to stay in place.
Any of those powders and primers are going to work in a proper combination with a properly fat fitted boolit. Just be sure to follow safe reloading procedures as printed in your reloading manual. You will not go wrong with the Lyman cast book. Do you have any reloading books already ?
Plus read the stickies in the different areas here at castboolits. Been around boolit casting since I was 4 (dad and his Navy buddy) and I still read stickies. Still learning.
Mike in Peru

[DHB]

Welcome red1027. If you're new to reloading some hints. On 9MM (straight wall cases) use a carbide die as you don't have to lube. Clean your brass first. Walnut media works well. As the media "uses up" add a little auto polish to freshen it up. Separate your brass by manufacturer and color (nickle plated as to straight brass), because different colors/manufactures will size differently. Brass cases are usually easier to size than nickle plated. From the book pick out a load to try. Then load up 10 with a specific brass. Pick out another load and load 10 of them. After you get some different loads loaded up, take them to the range and try for reliability, functioning, accuracy, case extraction, etc. You will probably have to disassemble some loads as they did not function properly.
There IS a lot of info here, use that info as much as you can, no sense in reinventing the wheel.
Good luck and welcome aboard.
DHB

[Bwana]

Welcome red1027. If you're new to reloading some hints. On 9MM (straight wall cases) use a carbide die as you don't have to lube. Clean your brass first. Walnut media works well. As the media "uses up" add a little auto polish to freshen it up. Separate your brass by manufacturer and color (nickle plated as to straight brass), because different colors/manufactures will size differently. Brass cases are usually easier to size than nickle plated. From the book pick out a load to try. Then load up 10 with a specific brass. Pick out another load and load 10 of them. After you get some different loads loaded up, take them to the range and try for reliability, functioning, accuracy, case extraction, etc. You will probably have to disassemble some loads as they did not function properly.
There IS a lot of info here, use that info as much as you can, no sense in reinventing the wheel.
Good luck and welcome aboard.
DHB

The 9mm is NOT a straight walled case. The carbide insert is tapered as is the case.