9MM Cast Bullets

[RobBob]

Hey guys, new to the forum. I've been loading 115 and 125 gr. 9mm cast bullets for about 20 years now with pretty good luck with most of my pistols. The bullets are sized to .356" I use 4.5 grs. of Unique with both bullet weights. I recently bought a Glock 19 9mm pistol and bought a new Lone Wolf barrel so I could shoot lead bullets and both of the loads above are tumbling. I bought the gun and the new barrel so I could shoot lead bullets as much as I want and I'm really bummed with the bullets tumbling. I believe the Lone Wolf barrel has a 1 in 16" twist. From some of the manuals that I've read I think I can safely use a little more powder with these bullets and maybe they will stablize with a little more velocity. What do you guys think?
Thanks.

[Piedmont]

Lots of folks on this board run lead through standard Glock barrels without problems. Glock also says not to shoot handloads. Why are you violating that edict?

The 1/16 twist is much better than a 1/10" for lead. Your problem is not that they need to go faster to stabilize but instead that they are too small. I have a tight nine that shoots .357 cast best. The others get .358" and I hear stories of 9s that need larger.

You will need to cast yourself, probably, to match the variables to your gun.

[lead-1]

Slug that barrel and start there like Piedmont says. You may be having trouble because the boolits are too small in diameter. A non-sized/as cast or at least a fatter boolit may be all you need with the powder charge you are using.

Also, only change one part of the equasion at a time, slug the barrel first.

[NuJudge]

Find out what your groove diameter is first.

Are you getting Leading? Have you recovered any bullets, and what do the rifling marks look like?

In addition to needing closer attention to full diameter bullets, higher pressure cartridges benefit from harder bullets. I cast bullets a lot harder than commercial casters.

[Oyeboten]

Good reminders!


I have been looking for a Mold for Casting Boolits for some of my old 9 MM Pistols, and I forgot to measure my Bores with this in mind.

[9.3X62AL]

The aftermarket barrels like your Lone Wolf product generally run closer to minimum specs, like .355" grooves. Strange, that.

Get a slugging done on both the throat and grooves, and NEVER trust a commercial bullet to be at the size indicated. If you didn't measure a sampling of them, then you don't know what you have.

Welcome to the site--welcome to the hobby--and get some good measuring tools. The 9mm is a hand-rifle more than a pistol, owing to its high op pressures. If you treat it like a cast boolit rifle, things will go well for you.

[MtGun44]

Check out the sticky on setting up a new 9mm:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=121737

Many find that .356 is too small for good results.

Bill

[Angus]

I shoot the Lee 150gr RN design sized .357 in my P89 with 3.2gr of Titegroup and get boring accuracy with really pathetic recoil. Titegroup shooting the 124gr TLTC makes for a lead mine in my barrel and bullets hitting sideways at 10 paces. 9mm is tricky to say the least.

[got_lead?]

Angus:

You have stolen my pet load!! +1 on the 3.2 titegroup, I have yet to see a pistol that won't shoot well with this load. I get 1" groups at 25 yards from several of my 9's with this load behind a 125 cast round nose. With the proper lube, there is no leadding whatsoever. It is a pretty light load, chronographing at 970 fps. I love the accuracy of this load, and a pound of powder last a long time.

RobBob, I can't understand why 4.5 grains of unique would not stabilize in a 1/16 twist with a 120 grain boolit, I think something's fishy here. Are you lubricating the boolits? How do you know they're tumbling? Sorry for the dumb questions, but your load should work great out of that barrel. I don't think you can go too slow, I'm shooting that boolit out of a snubby .38, and it stabilized at 600 fps.

And BTW, more 9mm's bores measure .357 or .358 than .356. This surprised me, I size at .357 now.

[RobBob]

Thanks for the advice guys. got lead? I get my 115 and 125gr. lrn. bullets from a guy in Ohio because I don't cast my own bullets at this time. These bullets have a blue lube on them by the way. I'm a big fan of 9mm guns and I have about 11 pistols and 2 carbines in 9mm and they all shoot these bullets pretty well. I have a Glock 17 with an Olympic Arms barrel and it shoots these bullets very well. As far as the tumbling issue, they are going into the cardboard target side ways. Thanks.

[GabbyM]

Most 38 revolvers are around 1-18 twist and they stabilize 180 grain bullets at low velocity.

You can buy oversized cast 9mm bullets from a few makers. Here's one.
http://www.reloadersauction.com/ILLINOIS-BULLET,name,100916,user_id,shop

If you are actually tumbling at .356" you'll need a .358" bullet to fill the groves. A full power laod in 9mm will bump up all but the hardest of boolits. You could give that a try. Howver if a load liek 5.0 grains of Unique or 4.1 gr WW231 won't bump it up I'd give up. Shoot them in your ohter 9's.

[Sapper771]

I agree with the others, slug your barrel. I have found that most LW barrels stay close to 0.355", but you may have a rare one. If your going to buy your bullets, you may need to order them in a larger diameter, or just buy 38spl bullets that are similar to 9mm bullet profiles and weights (RN, TC, RNFP, etc). After that, I would recommend making several dummy rounds and pulling the bullets to see if your cases are swaging your bullet down in diameter. Lyman M dies are great for expanding the cases. Check the bore condition of the LW barrel. Mine was a bit rough, not bad though. I used some bore paste to smooth it a little better. I have read that the LW barrels' bores arent cut the greatest, which can effect cast bullet performance. I am still looking for an alternative aftermarket barrel. Like stated above, lots of folks use their factory barrels without any problems at all. I am slowly starting to experiment with it myself.

[garym1a2]

My stormlake 9mm glock 22 works well on .356. Yet it keyholez on my brothers xdm 5.25