Heavy 9 x18 Mak boolit

[spfd1903]

I acquired a .366 diameter, 124 grain mold, four cavity. Anyone have experience with loads for this weight of boolit for a Bulgarian Makarov? Thanks

[W.R.Buchanan]

A 124 gr boolit would give some much needed punch to that round. Bulgarian Maks are some of the better guns. I have a Russian Mak and 2 CZ82's. My biggest boolit is a Lee 100 gr and I would love some heavier boolits for those guns.

As far as load data goes I'd back the powder charge off about 10-15% off 100 gr jacketed bullet loads and go from there. Your main concern will be providing enough uumph to run the slide. Just start low enough to be safe and work up until the gun runs right.

Not too much power available here due to the blowback action,,, and trying to make it a 9mm is a bad idea.

You're looking more for reliable function than anything else. Any accuracy inside 3" at 20 yards would be considered a gift. Just don't try to make the gun something it is not.

They are great guns for what they are,,, which is a personal protection weapon. The larger 124gr boolits will give you more impact than any 85-100 gr bullets would and thus be better as long as they feed reliably.

I have a very expensive Seaco 2 cav. mould that the guy had HP'd by Erik . The resulting boolits weigh exactly 85 gr and have a big hole in the nose. They are simply too light to do any major damage. Your 124's should be much more efficient.

Randy

[tejano]

As you probably know, Rimrock bullets makes a 116 gr. FN for the Mak. I have yet to try it, but a shooter on another forum reported using that bullet at .965 " OAL with Unique starting at 3.5 gr. and ending at 3.8 gr. That might give you place to start your load development.

[spfd1903]

Thanks gentlemen. I had ordered a .366, 100 grain FN mold from LBT. When I weighed the first four boolits they were 124 grain. Emailed Mr. Smith about the discrepancy. He said he made a mistake in the length, but asked me to try them first, and if not happy, he would replace the mold. Thanks tejano for the info on Unique. I am going to try several loads and see how this boolit performs. Have loaded several hundred of the Lee 100 grain RN, and got great 10 yard groups with Power Pistol.

[spfd1903]

Loaded some rounds with Power Pistol, Unique, and Acc no. 5. Used new Starline brass and LBT soft lube. The Acc no. 5 shot the smallest group at 30 ft. This is a round nosed flat point boolit compared to the Lee round nose. I am going to fire both into a soaked phone book Pac and compare the penetration.