124 Grain RNL load and seating depth?

[dsarnoff]

I am not new to reloading, just 9mm. I have a CZ 75B and have quickly discovered that with the 124 grain RNL bullet the "normal" seating depth of 1.15 inches is far too long forcing the bullet into the lands. Appears that 1.060 works out quite well and will easily drop in and drop from the barrels chamber.

My question is this, with the short coal I am going to start with a light charge of 3.9 grains of WW 231 and slowly work up. Does all of this sound logical?

[armoredman]

First, the CZ has the "short chamber", in which there is a very small, but ntoicable differance from most other 9mm. Normally, you would never ever notice this, and even in reloading you are highly unlikely, but with some prifle bullets, or boolits, you will run into it.
Having said that, I just started using the Lee TL124 356 boolit, (got 151 of them drying thier sizing lube in the garage right now!), and it works extremely well for me under 4.2gr AA#2, at 1.095 OAL in my CZ PO1.
Have fun!

[hedgehorn]

armoredman, I am using the same Lee mold with my 75b and seating to 1.11 and it seems to feed very well and accuracy is great. I have a heck of a time keeping the boolits from getting wrinkles in the nose while casting. I think I threw 25% back in the pot last time I cast them. I guess I need to move a little faster or something to keep the mold hotter.

[WyrTwister]

armoredman, I am using the same Lee mold with my 75b and seating to 1.11 and it seems to feed very well and accuracy is great. I have a heck of a time keeping the boolits from getting wrinkles in the nose while casting. I think I threw 25% back in the pot last time I cast them. I guess I need to move a little faster or something to keep the mold hotter.


Try turning the melting pot hotter , I run mine at 100% . Drop the bullets in a 5 gallon bucket of water .

If it seems too hot , taking too long for the bullets to cool enough to drop , use 2 molds and alternate between them .

God bless
Wyr

[hedgehorn]

I have a Lyman Minnie mag pot and its on high all the time :D in other words there is no adjustment. I have cast quite a few larger bullets and once I get the mold hot all is well. I can only think of one thing that I did differently and this could be the problem. When I started casting the 356 boolits I had the pot fuller than I have had it in the past. Maybe the extra alloy was sucking the heat out? I cast quite a few before I started dropping satisfactory boolits, Might have had something to do with the amount of lead I had in the pot. Thanks for the suggestions though. I don't have a thermometer to tell what the temp is and this is my first furnace so I don't have anything to compare it with.

[WyrTwister]

I have a Lyman Minnie mag pot and its on high all the time :D in other words there is no adjustment. I have cast quite a few larger bullets and once I get the mold hot all is well. I can only think of one thing that I did differently and this could be the problem. When I started casting the 356 boolits I had the pot fuller than I have had it in the past. Maybe the extra alloy was sucking the heat out? I cast quite a few before I started dropping satisfactory boolits, Might have had something to do with the amount of lead I had in the pot. Thanks for the suggestions though. I don't have a thermometer to tell what the temp is and this is my first furnace so I don't have anything to compare it with.


This is just a gess , but once the " batch " of metal all gets melted and up to temperature , I bet more metal in the pot is an advantage ?

I melt the alloy in an electric " Fry Daddy " that my wife got at a garage sal . I modified it to 100% hot , 100% of the time . If the alloy stays in it long enough , it gets very hot , hotter than my Lee electric pot . ( I only use the " Fry Daddy " outside on the concrete patio , incase it did burn up . )

I ladel metal from it to the Lee pot . With the Lee pot full , it cast some very hot , forsty bullets , untill the temp in the pot comes down .

God bless
Wyr

[armoredman]

I run my 10 pound Lee production pot just under the "8" marker, and get decent results with that mould, using wheel weight alloy. I do get many rejects, but hey, I enjoy casting, so I toss 'em back and keep going, good steady rhythym.

[lv2tinker]

"My question is this, with the short coal I am going to start with a light charge of 3.9 grains of WW 231 and slowly work up. Does all of this sound logical?"

Yes, you are on the right track. Start low and work up. I started with 3.6 gr WW 231 and worked up to 4.0 gr where it started to lead the barrel even with a BHN of 21. Worked up a load using 4.3 gr WSF, 1041 fps (COAL 1.050) with the same boolit your using with very-very light leading at the chamber and no primer pressure signs. The medium burning powders (#40 – 48 on the www.reloadbench.com/popup/burn-2.html Burn Rate Chart) seem to work best for 9mm lead loads, although some people have been successful in using faster powders without leading.
Someone on the forum has said: Shoot hard lead FAST with a SLOW burning powder and =no leading.
Shoot soft lead SLOW with a FAST burning powder and =no leading.
Haven’t tried this yet but will give it a try someday.

Cheers