Still Getting Leading with 9mm

[metho]

So I've been casting for a few months now and after perfecting my 45 bullets I've since moved on to 9mm. I'm using a lee 128gr tumble lube 6 cavity truncated round nose mold. The boolits are dropping at a about 130-134gr and 3.56-3.59 in diameter. I'm sizing them with the lee 356 sizing die and lubing with alox. My 356 die was sizing the boolits to 354 and after more research found out that I needed to sand the die and open it up a bit more. I did that, I opened it up to .355 and still got leading. I opened it more to 355.5 and still got leading. Then opened it to 356 and still got leading. The leading wasn't as bad as before but it was still clearly there.

I've slugged my beretta 92 and found that the barrel is 355 so I didn't want to go any bigger than 356. The next thing I was going to try is polishing the barrel with jb bore bright because I was told that would help. If this doesn't fix the problem what should I try next? Could it be the load data? Or maybe the alloy? Or is there something more basic I'm missing here.

The alloy I'm using is 50/50 pure lead/ww. I'm loading with 4.2gr unique @ 1.095 oal.

[bowenrd]

All of my 9mm shoot cast sized to .357. FWIW

Try a different lube and next try a different powder.

[clintsfolly]

.3575 here and no leading Clint

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

.358 works in all of my 9mm and .380 ACP. All of my friends stuff too.

[metho]

.3575 here and no leading Clint

What size is your bore?

[Larry Gibson]

Add 2 % tin to the WWs, leave the Pb out. Lube with LLA as per the instructions and size in a .357 sizer.

Larry Gibson

[ku4hx]

... I didn't want to go any bigger than 356.

In trying to eliminate the cause of your leading, that may not be a realistic position.

[khmer6]

I have always read that the 92 and it's variants had really large bores. I've noticed this in mine. Same ammo would lead heavily in the 92 but a glock 17 hardly any. These were extremely hot loads...... Before I realized that cast and jacketed data weren't the same..... I loaded them a long time ago

[Iron Mike Golf]

Get a bore light as put it in the muzzle. Check real careful just forward of the chamber. You might see where the reamer was off center or chattered. Check the place where the lands ramp up and look for roughness. Look for any ridges in the bottoms of the grooves. I have two model 96s (made a year apart) that show that. I'll put up a couple of photos of what I mean.

[Iron Mike Golf]

Here's a photo of what I am talking about.



You can see the roughness on the lands at 4 and 6 o'clock. All the lands are like this. You can also see a step in the grooves at 2 and 3 o'clock. These are shaving lead.

[Case Stuffer]

Very common gfor lead to be sized 0.002 over sluged measurement and 0.003 is fine as long as it does not make the case to large to chamber. Make sure your expander is opening the case up enough to take the bullet without shaving it down in diamention.

Nine MM is a bit tricky round to load for many semis. It is a hogh pressure round and many like lowere weight boolits and the action takes a decent velocit to function. If one uses a lighter recoil spring the ammo can be loaded down to velocities which are less prong to leading.

Many years ago I had a Browning HP that leaded and I throated the barrel just infront of the chamber so I could seat .358 SWC out 0.060past the end of cases and it never leaded again. Bullets were seated out to the point they just kissed the rifleing.

[historicfirearms]

My 92 slugs at .3575, I can get a .359 sized boolit to chamber reliably, .360 is about 90%. Try reslugging your barrel and measure with a micrometer, not calipers.

[MtGun44]

"Don't want to go bigger than .356" Then you will have leading. .356 is
too small for most 9mms.

Why would you not want to go bigger????

If you actually want to solve this, size to .357 or .358.

Bill

[Recluse]

Add 2 % tin to the WWs, leave the Pb out. Lube with LLA as per the instructions and size in a .357 sizer.

Larry Gibson

"Don't want to go bigger than .356" Then you will have leading. .356 is
too small for most 9mms.

Why would you not want to go bigger????

If you actually want to solve this, size to .357 or .358.

Bill

Agree. Agree. Agree.

It took me several years to only finally develop a "winning" 9mm lead boolit and charge that gives me the results I seek.

I use WW alloy and add a bit of extra tin to pour a Lee 120TC boolit with traditional lube grooves, and water-drop. I've tried the TL boolits in 9mm and had zero luck. Zero. I size the boolit to .357 and run it through my lubesizer. The lube I use is a homemade recipe of mine, but any quality lube will work.

My best load that gives me one ragged hole at 20 yards shooting offhand is either 4.3 grains of W231 or 4.3 grains of AA#2. No leading whatsoever.

My OAL is 1.045" and it gives me no feeding issues whatsoever, and again, superb accuracy with no leading.

[metho]

"Don't want to go bigger than .356" Then you will have leading. .356 is
too small for most 9mms.

Why would you not want to go bigger????

If you actually want to solve this, size to .357 or .358.

Bill

What I meant to say is that I would t want to go bigger than 356 without knowing if it was safe to go that big.

But I did open my die up a little more, it's sizing at 357 now. Ill probably load some up this week and try them out and go even bigger if I still get leading.

[captaint]

I had to go to just a hair under .358 to get my 9mm to stop leading. That, and a good lube did the trick.
Mike And welcome to the craft..

[MtGun44]

Perfectly safe, usually required.

Bill

[NSP64]

metho, Measure a case mouth that was fired in the gun, This will tell you how big you can go. I size my taurus pt111 bullets .359 and they load and fire fine without leading.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

"What I meant to say is that I would t want to go bigger than 356 without knowing if it was safe to go that big."

Most likely, you can go as large as the firearm will still chamber a loaded round. And, don't overlook that a small expander may result in the sized brass to be actually reducing the size of your bullet, especially if it is somewhat soft. I have taken to using the Lyman M-die through expander for .38 spl for my 9 mm and .380 ACP.

If the bullet, as fired, is smaller than groove diameter, you're gonna get leading.

[DeanWinchester]

I measure case wall thickness on my brass and have found once fired Federal brass will accept an unsized boolit and, upon running it through my Lee FCD will size the boolit to .356. I get NO leading.