Sizing LEE 356-125-2R For Various 9mm Luger pistols?

[DonMountain]

I just purchased a LEE 356-125-2R mold and cast a bunch of them up. My purpose is to use them in various 9mm Luger handguns, most of which date all the way back before WW-II and on up to the Viet Nam war. I know that I am supposed to slug all of these handguns, and then load individually sized bullets for each one and load for each one also. But I don't really want to start out with all of that effort. So, my question is, what sizing die should I start out with just to get some shooting projectiles that will most likely work in most of these old handguns? I have been shooting jacketed bullets that measure 0.355" and some kind of purchased red coated bullets that measure 0.356", all with fair accuracy.

[Grmps]

One size fits all in a cast is not the best idea. Technically you can go up to .003 over bore diameter, but you might have chambering problems. I'd try .357 and if you have problems, go from there.

[tazman]

Personally, I would choose .357 then make a couple of dummy rounds and see how many of the guns they would freely chamber in.
I don't own any older 9mm handguns. .357 works in everything I do own. .358 works in everything except my 1911 Range Officer pistol. It will chamber, but will build up a ring of lead at the end of the chamber and eventually refuse to let a round go into battery. At .357 this doesn't happen.
My Beretta 92fs and my Taurus PT92 with the Beretta barrels will accept and shoot boolits up to .360 without problems. .357 is pretty much the minimum diameter for them when using cast.
If you powder coat, you have some leeway with your diameter as far as leading is concerned.

[John McCorkle]

May be a good idea to shake and bake powder coat too...it won't eliminate the need for good sizing but it does give more tolerance against leading

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[Rcmaveric]

I have 5 different 9mm pistols. What I did was to slug them and compare all there bores. I chose to size to the biggest and went with .357 inches. Then I measured the chambers of them all used the shortets COL. Next was the crimp I started with uncrimped bullet and tried it all the guns then slowly increased the crimp amount till the round chambered in all the fire arms. Then I mad a dummy.

Now to reload. I back the Lee seat and Crimp die off so it only seats the bullet. Then adjust the stem to the dummy. I seat all my bullets. Then I put the dummy back in and back off the seating stem out of the die. Put the ram up and adjust the die in until the crimp ring contacts the round without adjusting seating depth. Then I crimp them all. My rounds function in 4.0 in all the guns with no leading issues.

I used to have random leading problems until I stated seating and crimping in different steps.

[Jniedbalski]

I load 4 9mm with as cast from the lee mold no need for sizing. And so far they all shoot good no leading

[popper]

357 to start, you can open up the die if needed. PC works great and is easy.

[DonMountain]

I load 4 9mm with as cast from the lee mold no need for sizing. And so far they all shoot good no leading

So, how do you lubricate them? I checked several of the bullets as-cast and they do come out of the mold at 0.357" plus or minus a little. But I have always put all of my as-cast bullets through my RCBS LAM-II to make them perfectly round and lubricate them.

[Jniedbalski]

I use lla lee liquid alox tumble lube or white label lube which I like a little better. Just put in a maragarine container and put in a very little amount of lube and shake or swirl. These bullets shoot just fine out to 25 yards non sized. I tried sizing them but they don’t shoot any better. If you shoot 50 or more yards or have a super accurate gun it might help a small amount but not much. just try it c if you can tell any difference with sizing or not.

[TaylorS]

I have 3 9s that I’ve tried working with before life does what it does I took what was so posed to be the fininkyest of the 3 and slugged it and was at .355-.3555 so I sized at 356 and the ones that went down range functioned fine the ones that didn’t...... well life did and haven’t been back to the bench yet but chambering was never a issue on any of the 3


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[bstone5]

I size to. .357 and use the same bullets in 9 mm guns and 38 Special guns.
All are powder coated to keep lead out of the barrels. Have shot thousands of the powder coated bullets sized to .357 without any problems.

[gwpercle]

.357 worked for 4 different 9 mm's . New 9mm's tend to have short throats , or no throats.
I had to seat that boolit deeper for two of them because the nose ogive ran into the rifling before it would fully chamber. Be sure and plunk test all the guns .
I went to using Lee's 120 gr. truncated cone boolit , it was easier to seat boolits that would chamber in all 4 pistols.
The pistol that would feed and chamber anything was a WWII Walther P38 , it had a generous throat that would chamber rounds the other 3 would choke on.
Gary

[pworley1]

I shoot that bullet at .358 in all my 9mm pistols.

[fredj338]

One size fits all in a cast is not the best idea. Technically you can go up to .003 over bore diameter, but you might have chambering problems. I'd try .357 and if you have problems, go from there.

I have too many diff guns in the same caliber to be juggling diff sized bullets. So I size all mine to 0.357". Works in my match grade 1911 or stock glock or whatever.
I used to lube/size in my Star, but today it's pretty much all coated & sized in Lee pas thru sizing dies. I do NOT miss the smoke.

[john from md]

Buy some Cerrosafe from Brownells and make a cast of each chamber and lead. This is the only way to tell what cast bullet diameter is best for each gun.