Glock 19 titegroup loads

[Bluetickhound]

I am working up some loads to try in my Glock 19 and wanted to get some advice after spending quite a few days here (and other places..) looking for specific info. What i've read about TG (and the necessity of being very careful using it) kind of have me a bit spooked as a new guy to reloading.

Here's what i have ready:

15 rounds Hornady XTP 115g JHP each on top of

4.2g Titegroup 1.125 OAL
4.5g Titegroup 1.135 OAL
4.8g Titegroup 1.130 OAL

The 4.5 i'm not really too worried about as it is the recommended starting load.
The 4.2 I'm somewhat concerned about, but the 4.8 has me really thinking of breaking out the 'ole bullet puller and breaking them down and starting over. I know 4.8 is max load (all my charges were/are measured on a Lee precise scale. Right now, I measure every single charge. Maybe that will change as I get more confident and comfortable (whatever that means..) but the 4.2 charge has me concerned after reading the thread on SEE... Is SEE confined strictly to slow burning powders or would a fast powder lome TG be a candidate to "kaboom" on me?

[Hammerhead]

Why are you changing OAL's at the same time you are changing charge weights?

[Bluetickhound]

Just looking for what will work best in my 19. As I said, I'm just loading 15 rounds each of these... Depending on results I'll load more. The max OAL listed in my manual is like 1.16 but the 1.135 seems line the max that will fit in my magazines... I field stripped the pistol and test fit the rounds in and they chamber correctly... I did notice that my factory Critical Duty measures in at around 1.09...

[Hammerhead]

Only change one factor at a time, otherwise you won't know what is making an improvement or causing a problem.

Your Glock 19 will probably tolerate a wide variety of OAL's, so pick one and stick with it while you're working up that load.

If you use a shorter OAL than what is listed in the data, that will cause the pressures to be higher than what the data predicts. Bullet seating depth is critical in the tiny 9mm case, especially when using super fast powders like Titegroup.

I like to make up several dummy rounds (no primer, no powder) with the components I'm going to use. Then I cycle them into the gun from the magazine by pulling the slide back hard and fast and letting it fly forward. That simulates the firing cycle and will tell you if a round is going to feed or not, and measure them after they have been cycled a few time to see if the bullets are being set back into the case from the impact with the feed ramp.

[Bluetickhound]

I actually did cycle the rounds I've made through the pistol and didn't have any hiccups... They were fully live so maybe that wasn't too terribly smart on my part... The XTP's I loaded just seemed to be just barely seated in the case at 1.16 so I poked around here to see what others were using for an OAL and quite honestly, just pulled the three I am using as an aggregate... I have seen folks ranging from 1.10 to 1.14 and if not just being arbitrary in my decision I am kind of taking an unscientific approach here... I have pretty much decided to pull the 4.8's out of concern that being on the high end is not a good place to be with TG... I have seen several folks who dip as low as 3.8g but that is too far off of what the manual says for my liking. Being new to this i want to stay within established parameters....

[Bluetickhound]

Ok... Took my stuff to the range at lunch and the 4.5g outperformed (accuracy wise, I don't yet have a chronograph) the 4.2 by a good margin. I'm still going to break down the 4.8 as i'm happy with the 4.5. I'll do one or two more 15 round test batches to confirm before going all out...

[BCRider]

When I was messing around with a variety of 9mm loads to find one that met the 130PF needed for IPSC I found that varying the OAL by even .010 made a good 50 fps velocity difference.

In my case I had to mess around with the OAL a little because the CZ's seem to have a short taper throat and don't like some bullet nose shapes if the OAL is even of a normal size. I found that I could go as long as 1.110 with the Berry bullets I was using. But really in the end I settled on 1.100 just to be sure they'd fit. That's pretty darn short compared to a good amount of other ammo. But the gun needed this to avoid wedging the bullet into the rifling and not quite making it reliably into battrey.

The point is that you need to standardize on one OAL and work with it before you shift gears. If you get a load which is close to what you want then you can leave the charge the same and work with the OAL in small increments to fine tune the final velocity.

Or you can fine tune the OAL so that the bullet sits closer to the ramping of the rifling. It's pretty commonly accepted in rifle use that a bullet that is either very close or just in contact with the start of the rifling will tend to bite in more centered or truer in some manner and shoot better. It's quite possible that most of your findings with the 4.5gn load are related to the bullet being closer to seating against the rifling than it is related to the amount of powder. You can test this by making up a dummy test round where you push the bullet in to various OAL's and then chamber check it in the barrel. If nothing else it'll prove if you need to worry about the bullet sticking out TOO far. Although in an extreme case it might chamber but won't cycle correctly.

I would not worry about the 4.8gns either. If you look at the Hodgdon reloading data manual that is online this might be a max load but the pressure isn't all that much higher over the start load. There's only 1000CUP difference between max and min. So I'm thinking that this range of loading has more to do with setting the recoil energy to work within the narrow range of acceptable power for the slide to cycle correctly in most 9mm guns. Obvoiusly you don't want to go with more powder than listed but I would not worry about the pressure. Especially if you're not loading to a shorter "CZ" required OAL. In my case where I need to worry about the OAL not being too long I'd not want to load 4.8gns just due to the small case volume producing too high a pressure compared to the 1.125 length specified. There's no doubt that 9mm is fussy in that way.

[Bluetickhound]

Thanks BC... I was so concerned about the charge I didn't really consider the OAL as much as maybe i should... I think i'm going to stick with the 4.5 charge as a baseline and fiddle with the OAL to see if I can tighten up my groups a bit more. What I have is grouping at under 2" at 10 yards but I didn't use any sort of rest (sandbags, etc) today. I did clean up on 9mm brass though!! A guy shooting next to me noticed I was picking mine up and told me I could have his too. I made off with over 200 cases!

[pmer]

I have a G19 too and just loaded some bulk W-W FMJ 115 grain bullets with 4.8 Titegroup at 1.140". WSP primers. They fit in the chamber at a much longer length but I matched the length and taper crimp diameter to some factory ammo.

I don't think SEE is an issue with TG in the Glock but a double charge might do it.

I've been a wheel guy for a while but the G19 is fun. Mine is a gen 4 with 3, 15 round magazines. I've read about brass ejecting to the face and head but it drops them 2-3 feet to my right.

[Bluetickhound]

I have a G19 too and just loaded some bulk W-W FMJ 115 grain bullets with 4.8 Titegroup at 1.140". WSP primers. They fit in the chamber at a much longer length but I matched the length and taper crimp diameter to some factory ammo.

I don't think SEE is an issue with TG in the Glock but a double charge might do it.

I've been a wheel guy for a while but the G19 is fun. Mine is a gen 4 with 3, 15 round magazines. I've read about brass ejecting to the face and head but it drops them 2-3 feet to my right.

I am using the Hornady XTP's and from what I can see anything over 1.14 wouldn't be seated deeply enough for my comfort... After investigating the SEE phenomenon I believe it's only an issue with slower burning powders (which definitely lets TG out...). I have had a few shells eject and smack me on the cabeza but most fly either over my head completely or diagonally to the right... What I'm learning (other than the obvious) is that I really need to invest in a chrono...

[Hammerhead]

I would recommend buying a good load book or two like the Lyman manual before you do anymore guess work.
As good as the advice is here, don't rely on internet forums.

[Bluetickhound]

I have the Lyman, Lee and Hornady manuals and in the end stayed well within the parameters laid iut by all three but seeing what others are successfully (and UNsuccessfully..) using is interesting to me also. I'm fairly conservative by nature and have no intention of shooting "hot" loads. I spent too much money on my firearms to destroy them with some overstuffed cartridge...

[Bluetickhound]

My "guesswork" stems from non homogeneous info contained in the three manuals I have and the fact that there is a range one can work within. Apparently TG has a reputation for being unforgiving of even slight discrepancies (especially on the high side) and me being new to this I wanted to see what others with more experience had to say... And you are absolutely correct... Anyone, new, old or anywhere in between who reloads without consulting a manual is literally playing with fire....