What is the max you've sized 9mm to?

[prickett]

I have a S&W 9mm Pro that leads like crazy. So, I increased the size of the boolits from .357" to .358". No joy - it still leads. Is anyone sizing their 9mm's to .359"? I'm thinking I might need to, but hate to, due to the increased likeliness of failures to chamber (i.e. seating depth must be pretty deep to avoid contact with the lands).

I'm also toying around with adding copper to my alloy (which is either range lead or COWW). Would that be an possible alternative?

(I have a number of other 9mm's that could shoot my current sized .357" boolits all day long without leading)

[btroj]

I have shot many .359 bullets in mine. I did this because that was the sizer I own.

[krallstar]

My sw9f slugs out at .354.5 I have stuffed up to .358. Never had leading. I also water quench. Range scrape indoor range.

[LAGS]

Have you considered Powder Coating your boolits ?
It works well and allows you to shoot a softer lead without barrel leading issues.
But lower your chamber pressure or the FPS on your load, and try some harder, more consistant Lead.
Add Tin or Atimony, not Copper.

[Bzcraig]

Don't really have enough info to help you out. Have you slugged your barrel? Are you using a caliper or micrometer to measure? Which Boolit and powder, etc. it would be highly unusual to have a 9mm barrel be that over sized in that gun. Also, what do your boolits measure from the mold? As you have read 'fit is king' but certainly not the only criteria.

[mdi]

.358", for two 9mms. One modern striker fired, one very old (?) Tokerev...

[Scharfschuetze]

I've standardized on .358 in my Browning HP and Beretta 92F. They are the most accurate diameter in the HP while the 92F shoots the same with either .356 or .358 diameter boolits.

[tazman]

My experience isn't going to help you much. My 9mm pistols have loose chambered Beretta barrels in them and will feed almost anything. I have sized boolits up to .360 and they still feed reliably. Accuracy drops off though at .359 or higher.
I am now sizing .358 for best accuracy and perfect feeding.

[prickett]

Some additional info that people are asking:

Have I tried powder coating? Yes, these .358" ones are HI-TEK coated, but have also tried .357" PC ones.

Type of lead? Range lead mixed with a little COWW. Have 120 lbs of COWW on the way, so can try straight COWW.

Slugged barrel? No. Don't see the point. I typically just size to the size where leading stops (be it .357" for my CZ or .358" for my Taurus/Beretta).

Powder? Titewad (not Titegroup). Not in my top 10 choices, but it is available and the top 10 are not. Only at maximum recommended load do I get reliable cycling, so I hate to reduce it - but it may be necessary (until more preferable powder comes available). Max load feels like I'm shooting a .22.

Bullet? Lee 124 gr TCN.

[Jack Stanley]

I thought everybody sized them to .359" ;-)

Jack

[tazman]

I use Titewad in my 9mm with excellent results(no leading) but only use it for boolit weights of 105 grains or less. You are correct that the recoil feels anemic. However the loads chronograph just under 1200fps.

[JeffG]

I use .357 in my SD9VE but have also sized to .358 but didn't really needed it. What I was seeing was antimony wash and not leading. I did quit using Lee FCD and went to a Lee TCD instead just ensure I wasn't swaging the bullets during crimping.

[gwpercle]

Is your bullet the Lee 356-120-TC and is it a bevel base( hard to tell from catalog photo) ? What lube are you using?
In my 9mm's I have been using Lee 356-125-2R and Lee 358-105-SWC. Both cast of air cooled, 50/50 clip on wheel weights and range lead, sized .357 and lubed with beeswax/Lucas Red-N-Tacky (3 to 1 ratio). With various charges of Bullseye, Red Dot, Alcan #5 and Unique.
Experiencing no leading in a WWII P-38 ( a bit rough bore) and a Springfield Armory XDM9(brand new barrel) .
I'm thinking it may be the Tightwad is not bumping up the boolit or something of that nature.
Gary

[GabbyM]

Any fears of failure to chamber. Can be somewhat mitigated by use of a truncated cone or SWC style bullet. With a defined shoulder as a gage point. Round nosed bullets can encounter issues if your mold gets lead between the blocks creating out of round bullets. Your sized diameter will run up higher on one side and can cause failure to feed. We are of course supposed to cull these lop sided bullets out before loading. There are a few RN designs with a shoulder in 45 and 9mm. Like the H&G #35 in 45 acp. and a 9mm similar. Step is to give loader this defined point of gage. Also it's very easy to spot an over sized out of round bullet when the step gets wiped away in sizing.

[Cherokee]

The Lee 356-120 TC is flat based, at least the two molds I have. Great boolit in 9mm. You might try a harder alloy, I had to go to 3/3/95 to get rid of leading using HS6 and WST for loads @ 1.055" OAL and .356 for all my 9's.

[DLCTEX]

Slug your barrel. .001 over bore will prevent leading. Otherwise look for another cause. R

[upnorthwis]

I have the same gun. Had to PC and use larger expander to keep from swaging the boolit smaller while seating. Also, did not size boolit after PC. Used as is.

[GabbyM]

upnorthwis brought up a good point. The 122 grain TC bullets seat deeper than a RN bullet. Any 9mm die set I had included a 9mm expander to short to open the case up deep enough. Some brass is thicker than others and more or less troublesome. I bought a Lyman M die and it reaches just the right depth. No surprise as the popular old favorite Lyman 120 TC #356402 seats to the same depth.

[prickett]

I have the same gun. Had to PC and use larger expander to keep from swaging the boolit smaller while seating. Also, did not size boolit after PC. Used as is.

What expander did you use? I'm using the Lee powder thru the die where the expander was changed from the 9mm expander to a .38 super expander. What size did you size to?

[NuJudge]

I have one 9mm Beretta barrel that will not accept a cartridge assembled with a .359" bullet. All of the barrels slug to have groove diameters that are almost .358".

[MaryB]

I use the Lee 120-tc as cast, .358 but HiPoints have sewer barrels. Mine slugs .358 so powder coated they work well. Some HiPoints have slugged .360 or more.

[upnorthwis]

Having a lathe, I made my own expander @ .356 dia. The dia. in the Dillon 550B was .353 that was too small. Also as noted I don't size the boolits after PC. If any sizing is required, it gets taken care of in the Taper Crimp Die.

[klementzos]

I too had iuuse with my cast lead bullets. I tried a number of thing but nothing worked until I switched to a unique. Problem went away. I was using bullseye, 700x, titgroup, as they are most cost effective. My bullet were sized to 358, used m type expander, double lubed with alox. Try a slow burn powder like unique and see what happens. Not sure why but it solved my leading/tumbling issues in all my 9s.

[prickett]

I too had iuuse with my cast lead bullets. I tried a number of thing but nothing worked until I switched to a unique. Problem went away. I was using bullseye, 700x, titgroup, as they are most cost effective. My bullet were sized to 358, used m type expander, double lubed with alox. Try a slow burn powder like unique and see what happens. Not sure why but it solved my leading/tumbling issues in all my 9s.

Now if only other powders were available to experiment with :-(

Thanks for the suggestion. That is near the top of my list of things to alter - once I can actually buy power again!