Found my cure for accuracy problems in my 9mm!!!!

[tazman]

I have been working with a new Taurus pt92 afs 9mm for 3 months now trying to get it to shoot like I thought it should. I was beginning to think it was all just me not being able to shoot a semi auto pistol. Nothing I tried seemed to work really well. Most of my groups were larger at 10 yards than what most people report the gun is capable of a 25 yards.
Early this week I noticed a couple of thing that got me thinking. The rifling lands in my factory barrel are narrow and not very tall. I then noticed a picture on the internet of the rifling in a Beretta 92 barrel showing the rifling being much taller and wider as well. Long story short, I purchased a new Beretta 92 barrel and lug. They arrived today.
They were a drop in fit that was tighter in my pistol than the original barrel. The action is very snug when in battery now. No looseness and very little movement at the front of the barrel.
I fired it at the range this afternoon. Instantly it produced groups less than half the size of my best previous results.
I fired both factory new and reloads through it and it performed beyond my expectations.
My group sizes were about 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches at 10 yard which is only slightly larger than my revolvers produce.
All boolits fed well except for the Lee 105 swc which I had problems with before.
I shot over 170 rounds through the pistol this afternoon and the only malfunctions were with the 105 swc.
I used Lee 356-95-rf, Lee 356-120-tc, Lee 356-125-rn, Lee 358-150-rn, Lee 358-125=rf.
Seems my problem was a bad barrel.

[Wally]

I have a 99AF...I find I must size to .358" to get good accuracy, however the barrel leads up quickly and badly. Did you notice any difference in barrel leading between the original & the replacement?

[Dschuttig]

You found out what every owner of the recent walther p-1/38 imports have found out the hard way. Nearly every old 9mm I have needs greater than .356, newer guns like my new p-99 work great with .356, but not the old. P-1 slugs out at .358

[tazman]

I have a 99AF...I find I must size to .358" to get good accuracy, however the barrel leads up quickly and badly. Did you notice any difference in barrel leading between the original & the replacement?

I was sizing to .357 for the original barrel. I used the same loads in the new barrel. There was no leading in the barrel after 150 cast boolits.
The boolits were lubed with either 50-50 lube in a Lyman sizer or tumble lubed with LLA. Didn't matter which for accuracy.
I have not had time to slug the barrel yet so I don't know it's dimensions. It may or may not require some tweaking.
As well as it shot tonight I may not worry about changing the boolit diameter.

[tazman]

You found out what every owner of the recent walther p-1/38 imports have found out the hard way. Nearly every old 9mm I have needs greater than .356, newer guns like my new p-99 work great with .356, but not the old. P-1 slugs out at .358

I have been shooting .357 diameter boolits in the pistol since I purchased it. It is a 2012 manufacture date. .356 boolitd shot like **** in the original barrel even though it slugged at .3553.

[Walter Laich]

shame it cost you a new barrel to fix this. But at least it's working now

[Doc Highwall]

Tazman, make sure that you have all the old lube cleaned out of your barrel before shooting a bullet with a different lube as it will affect your accuracy until the barrel is coated with only one lube.

I have seen many times where a person has bought different brands of 22's that have different kinds of lube and sit down at a bench and fire 10 shot groups without cleaning the barrel or at least shooting enough rounds through the barrel to condition it for the lube on the bullet that they are shooting. I try to explain to them that the barrel still has lube residue from the first 10 rounds is still in the barrel along with the bullet lube from the second 10 rounds when they are shooting the third brand of ammo.

[tazman]

Tazman, make sure that you have all the old lube cleaned out of your barrel before shooting a bullet with a different lube as it will affect your accuracy until the barrel is coated with only one lube.

I have seen many times where a person has bought different brands of 22's that have different kinds of lube and sit down at a bench and fire 10 shot groups without cleaning the barrel or at least shooting enough rounds through the barrel to condition it for the lube on the bullet that they are shooting. I try to explain to them that the barrel still has lube residue from the first 10 rounds is still in the barrel along with the bullet lube from the second 10 rounds when they are shooting the third brand of ammo.

I have never given this a thought up until last week when I had an impact point shift of 2 inches at 10 yards apparently die to lube. I wouldn't have thought it would matter, at least not noticeably.
In the case of the 9mm yesterday, nothing made a difference to the impact point. The new barrel ate everything and the impact point never changed.

Walter- I agree. I should not have needed a new barrel to fix the issue, but it did and it does work now.

[MtGun44]

The problem was a TAURUS barrel.

Bill

[tazman]

The problem was a TAURUS barrel.

Bill

Yes it was. However, I own 2 other pistols with Taurus barrels that shoot well beyond my capabilities even from a rest.
I shot the new barrel again today and confirmed the improved results. It shoots as well or better than I do now.

I hung a laser sight on it today just for grins. It improved my shooting at a distance. My eyes could now focus on just the target and I could actually see where the thing was aimed instead of everything being fuzzy. Might not work so well outdoors in the sun.
I will continue to practice both with and without the laser to prepare in case something were to go wrong at a bad time.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive got or at least had one of the tauras pt92 stainless guns. I gave it to my step son. He thought it was just beautiful with its high polish finish that looked like nickle. Thing is mine shot cast better then my 92 berretta does hands down with about any load. the berretta shot jacketed a bit better then the taurus

[tazman]

Just out of curiosity, what diameter cast boolits do you use in your Taurus?