Why is this not leading?

[Thompsoncustom]

Let me start off by saying I'm grateful that I'm not having any problems with this bullet leading but it shocks me that things are going so well. So the bullet is the Lyman #358429 173gr SWC that I have been loading in 9mm which seats the bullet really deep as I have been loading with a OAL of 1.100.

Now the reason I am surprised that I'm not having problem with leading is a pulled bullet measures .332 at the base which is extremely under sized from the case sizing it down. Right before the lube groove measure .346 and everything after the lube groove is .357. Now I shot 40 bullets the other day with no leading, all water dropped and shot 70 bullets air-cooled today and again barrel was perfect. I'm not complaining as I'm happy with the bullet but I guess I always thought that if the base was under sized that there would be horrible leading and I'm not getting any. So what exactly causes leading? is it the whole bullet being undersized?

So specs on what I'm shooting

OAL: 1.100
Bullet length: .745
Bullet weight: 173gr
Case length: .754
Charge: 2.4gr unique

Quickloads velocity output(no chrono)
FPS:743
LBS:212
propellant burnt: 95%
IPSC factor: 128.6
Max chamber pressure: 27k

[canyon-ghost]

The entire bullet would have to be undersized, you guessed right. The forward driving bands are still being pushed out to the rifling by the compression of the lead. Considering how deep you're seating it and how heavy it is, I'm not surprised. If it works, great!

[2 dogs]

If you recover a bullet and measure it, I believe you will find that the pressure from the rear is bumping up your bullet to where it needs to be.

[williamwaco]

If you recover a bullet and measure it, I believe you will find that the pressure from the rear is bumping up your bullet to where it needs to be.

That would be a really valuable piece of information. I hope you can recover one.



.

[Cherokee]

I am surprised you are able to use that bullet in the 9mm case....

[Wolfer]

Once I took a piece of 4" PVC pipe, duct taped the end up good, propped it up on my baler tongue at about a 30 deg angle, filled it with water then lined up on it a fired my 45 colt down the pipe. The boolit went the 10' length and was laying on the ground at the end of the pipe unmared.

Since I was only about 4' from the end of the pipe I was surprised when a 4" stream of water came at me like a firehose. I had a small dry strip down the middle of my back.

However I did have a good boolit to look at, measure, etc

[canyon-ghost]

Lol, that sounds like something I'd have done! Guess it worked, though.

[Mk42gunner]

I have never tried that boolit in the 9mm, (and probably won't), but one reason might be the low velocity.

Robert

[geargnasher]

It didn't lead because the forward bands didn't leak. The base may or may not have bumped-up to groove size, but it really doesn't need to if the front two bands can still seal.

Gear

[Thompsoncustom]

Thanks everyone, I was just kind of wondering what was going on and I was thinking it had to be because of the front bands but it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion.

[Char-Gar]

I continue to be amazed at what some folks try to do with handloading. It would be hard to find a bigger mismatch than that Keith bullet and the 9mm case. Any they wonder why they have issues when they do this stuff.

[2 dogs]

Wolfer, I wanna drink Beer with you bro!

[Thumbcocker]

Iirc Elmer mentioned using this boolit in 9mm in Sixguns. Don't know that he recommended it just mentioned that it had been done.

[Thompsoncustom]

ya when I started playing around with this bullet I thought that it probably wasn't going to be easy, but it was the exact opposite the bullet runs great in the 9mm and if air-dropped it doesn't even bulge the case. Haven't done a lot of testing with it at this point but I've run it with 2.4gr of unique and it seems pretty accurate and cycle the slide with the stock 16lb recoil spring in my CZ 75b and with 2.9gr of power pistol it works about the same just with some smoke.

The round has very little recoil compared to most I think with the 125 range PF I loaded up some 102gr, 125gr, and 173gr all in that range and I plan on testing them with week end to see how they compare.

[Echo]

Once I took a piece of 4" PVC pipe, duct taped the end up good, propped it up on my baler tongue at about a 30 deg angle, filled it with water then lined up on it a fired my 45 colt down the pipe. The boolit went the 10' length and was laying on the ground at the end of the pipe unmared.

Since I was only about 4' from the end of the pipe I was surprised when a 4" stream of water came at me like a firehose. I had a small dry strip down the middle of my back.

However I did have a good boolit to look at, measure, etc

A big LOL! I guess we can declare 'Unintended Consequences' a result of this effort!

[Thompsoncustom]

well 7 milk jugs didn't slow it down so gonna have to think of a different way to catch it. Any recommendations on how to slow the bullet down better without deforming it? I have plenty of wood but I'm pretty sure that would mess up the measurements, I'm not sure I have anything that can hold enough water to stop a heavy SWC.

[MtGun44]

About 30" of wet phone books or newspapers should catch it, you may
get deformation, depending on hardness and vel.

Bill

[2 dogs]

I think you would only need to be able to measure the rear end of the bullet so a deformed nose might not matter, but Im still curious to know if I guessed right. If you find out, please PM me. I would appreciate it.

[**oneshot**]

No lead, accurate shooting----- why question anything?

Wolf if your still reading this thread, Try that 45 trick in double stacked 5 gallon pails. You won't miss any spots that way.

[Wolfer]

The next time I wanted to measure a boolit I filled a plastic barrel that I was going to cut in half for a sand trap with water, backed up about 20 yds and gave it six rounds. They were slightly deformed on the nose but all measured correctly on the base.
None exited the barrel.

[MikeS]

Now I don't feel so bad! I had loaded some 158gr SWC boolits in 9mm (only loaded about a dozen) as they were the only .358" boolits I had, and I was anxious to load some. I also loaded them using 38 Special dies, I only resized the neck area as I didn't want to mess up the brass, as the 9mm is a tapered case. I now have proper 9mm dies, and the Lee 105gr boolit to load in them. Before I got the dies I was curious how they would look, considering that the 9 is tapered, and I was getting carbide dies. Most dies have a fairly short carbide insert, but the 9mm carbide die has an insert that's either the full length of the cartridge, or darned close to it!

When I loaded the 158gr boolits I used a SAECO #12 and a Lee TL mould, both make a 158gr boolit, but the Lee mould makes a much shorter boolit. I guess the fairly large lube groove in the #12 takes up a lot of space, so for the weight to be the same it has to be a longer boolit. Loading them in a small case like the 9mm made the TL design the better choice for this application. In the future I think I'll stick to using the 105gr boolit, but it was an interesting experiment loading the heavier boolits. I haven't shot the 158gr loads yet, but I did shoot the 105gr loads, and in my gun (a Tanfoglio GT41) I had zero leading! Shooting a 170gr 41 cal boolit in the original 41AE barrel for that gun also left me with zero leading, so that shows (at least to me) that having a boolit that properly fits the barrel they'll be shot out of really makes a difference when it comes to leading!