Seth_AZ
09-05-2012, 11:21 PM
Hi all. I recently created a thread to report on my efforts to lap out a Lyman 120gr TC bullet that was casting .356" bullets to shoot in my Beretta M9A1, which has a .357" bore.
I tried a few of these last night at a steel shoot, and found that they didn't feed properly most of the time. They kept hanging up on the feed ramp. Today I loaded up a bunch more, with two powder charges, but seated the bullets significantly deeper (1.04" instead of 1.07"). I went out to the range and tested them.
They fed much better, but there were still a number of feed ramp hangups. Not nearly as many as I had with the original length. I could still seat these bullets .015" or so deeper before the ogive starts to drop below the case mouth. There's a good chance that would make the feeding problem go away.
I think it's a moot point, however, since the bullets shot like POOOOOP! I want to say between 15-20% of the bullets were keyholing at 10 yards. The group sizes were terrible to say the least.
This was with two different loads, first 4.2gr Universal Clays, and the second load 4.5gr Universal Clays.
In my other thread I mentioned that this gun's bore slugs out at around .357", and I was going to size these bullets to .357", since the mold was actually dropping them at .356" and it was a lot of work for me to lap it out to get to .357", so trying for .358" was kind of a non-starter. With my original alloy I did seem to be getting good sizer contact on both driving bands at .357", but these bullets I shot today were cast from alloy after I'd fluxed it a number of times with sulfur to see if I had zinc in it, and these bullets cast slightly smaller, with the forward driving band no longer showing consistently good sizer contact.
Is a difference of .001" on the diameter really going to make otherwise decent bullets keyhole at 10 yards like this? I am doubtful. I'm thinking I've got a mold this gun just isn't going to like.
I was reading in this thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=161100&highlight=beretta) some guys shooting different model Berettas with some bullet designs different than what I have, and they claim to be getting good results.
Anyone have any comments? I am to the point where if a gas-checked design would give me really good results in this pistol it would be worth the 2 cents per round to use them. I want to shoot these every week at my club's Tuesday Night Steel practical pistol event.
In my speculations I'm kind of leaning toward a 140-147gr. gas-checked round flatnose design. Has anyone tried a bullet like this in the Beretta M9/M9A1/92FS and seen success? How about a gas-checked 124 grainer?
I tried a few of these last night at a steel shoot, and found that they didn't feed properly most of the time. They kept hanging up on the feed ramp. Today I loaded up a bunch more, with two powder charges, but seated the bullets significantly deeper (1.04" instead of 1.07"). I went out to the range and tested them.
They fed much better, but there were still a number of feed ramp hangups. Not nearly as many as I had with the original length. I could still seat these bullets .015" or so deeper before the ogive starts to drop below the case mouth. There's a good chance that would make the feeding problem go away.
I think it's a moot point, however, since the bullets shot like POOOOOP! I want to say between 15-20% of the bullets were keyholing at 10 yards. The group sizes were terrible to say the least.
This was with two different loads, first 4.2gr Universal Clays, and the second load 4.5gr Universal Clays.
In my other thread I mentioned that this gun's bore slugs out at around .357", and I was going to size these bullets to .357", since the mold was actually dropping them at .356" and it was a lot of work for me to lap it out to get to .357", so trying for .358" was kind of a non-starter. With my original alloy I did seem to be getting good sizer contact on both driving bands at .357", but these bullets I shot today were cast from alloy after I'd fluxed it a number of times with sulfur to see if I had zinc in it, and these bullets cast slightly smaller, with the forward driving band no longer showing consistently good sizer contact.
Is a difference of .001" on the diameter really going to make otherwise decent bullets keyhole at 10 yards like this? I am doubtful. I'm thinking I've got a mold this gun just isn't going to like.
I was reading in this thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=161100&highlight=beretta) some guys shooting different model Berettas with some bullet designs different than what I have, and they claim to be getting good results.
Anyone have any comments? I am to the point where if a gas-checked design would give me really good results in this pistol it would be worth the 2 cents per round to use them. I want to shoot these every week at my club's Tuesday Night Steel practical pistol event.
In my speculations I'm kind of leaning toward a 140-147gr. gas-checked round flatnose design. Has anyone tried a bullet like this in the Beretta M9/M9A1/92FS and seen success? How about a gas-checked 124 grainer?