9mm Luger cast sucess?

[Texas by God]

Who's has it and what are your tips/loads? I have a Star BM that that shoots pretty good with fmj factory loads but I'd like to shoot fpl boolits for small game. I tried the Lee 358-105 swc sized to .358" but no joy in funtion or accuracy. Years ago I tried the Lee 124TC TL in a Ruger P89 and a Manhurin P1 with no accuracy and bad leading. So my record is zip so far.
Help?


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[lotech]

If you'll do a search here, you'll find more information on this subject than you care to read.

I don't know anything about your gun, but use the fattest bullet that will chamber without difficulty. This is usually .358" but can be .357" or .359". An alloy of wheelweight composition will usually work fine, but it pays to experiment. Some guns, like a Beretta 92 or Sig P226 (or variation) are forgiving of nose style and will feed anything. Other guns may require a roundnose design for perfect functioning.

I use heavy bullets (145-150 grains) because they are both accurate and shoot to point of aim where bullets of 125 grains or less shoot low. Bullseye and 231 are great powders to start with but others may work just as well. Good luck-

[toallmy]

I have tried a few different molds in my 9s but still keep coming back to my lee 6 cavity 356-120 tc lube grove mold at .357,.3575 with c red . After I got so I could load them with out squeezing them down all has been wonderful .

[reddog81]

I've found 9mm to be a pretty finicky round. It's a small high pressure round so little changes can make a big difference. Some brass can cause problems so 9mm is the one handgun brass I make sure to sort and toss all the oddball headstamps aside.

Making sure the bullets are the right size makes a big difference and making sure the bullets don't get sized down when being seated also helps. Wheel weights or harder is helpful. If you're getting leading it can cause accuracy problems in a hurry.

I prefer larger bullets myself. All my 9mm shooting is pretty much 135 grain or larger. Light charges of fast or medium speed powder seems to get me my most accurate loads.

[Texas by God]

Thanks, guys. I will buy some comercials to try. I'd like to mimic the shape of the fpfmj 124 gr Hornady because it feeds great.

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[Wheelguns 1961]

According to the Hornady manual, Power pistol followed by unique are the best powders in 9mm. I use unique with good success.

[igolfat8]

I like the Lee 120 TC and 95 RNFP in my 9s. Both will shoot like lasers if you do your part. I don’t shoot wax anymore but am a firm believer in powder coat and HiTek coatings.

[Ed_Shot]

The Lee (standard lube) 120 TC or 356-125-2R are solid performers in every 9MM I've tried. My favorite is the NOE 359242 (120 gr.) Agree with .358. I used to both lube with WL 2500+ and also tumble all 9MM but now I powder coat. Use a .356 (not .354) expander plug. Use a COAL as long as possible that will plunk in your chamber. For 120~125 gr. in 9MM I like Red Dot/Promo 3.6~3.8 gr or Blue Dot 6.0~6.5 gr. or WSF 4.2~4.5 gr. HOOKEM!

[Tom W.]

I have tried a few different molds in my 9s but still keep coming back to my lee 6 cavity 356-120 tc lube grove mold at .357,.3575 with c red .
I use that mold and lube also.....


My Glocks that I had would shoot anything, as will my Ruger LC9s Pro. My CZ-75 SP-01 will not digest anything larger than .357.....
As I made a pile of rounds before I bought the CZ I still have a LOT of the fatter boolits to fire in the Ruger. I ain't gonna stay in the shed pulling boolits from loaded rounds. I now size all my new handloads to .357, and the CZ said thank you. No little lead rings on the cases that cause them to jam up the pistol.

[tazman]

Who's has it and what are your tips/loads? I have a Star BM that that shoots pretty good with fmj factory loads but I'd like to shoot fpl boolits for small game. I tried the Lee 358-105 swc sized to .358" but no joy in funtion or accuracy. Years ago I tried the Lee 124TC TL in a Ruger P89 and a Manhurin P1 with no accuracy and bad leading. So my record is zip so far.
Help?


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I haven't been able to get the 105 swc to work reliably either although some on this site have. The TL series for the 9mm can be problematic. In some pistols, they don't grip the rifling well enough to properly stabilize the boolit.
I have my best success with truncated cone or round nose as far as feeding and accuracy in 9mm goes. I also find that all my 9mm handguns(9 of them) prefer near max loads with the exception of my S&W 929.
My bore sizes range from .355 in my Springfields to .357 in the Beretta barreled Taurus pt92 and some in between. The pt92 will shoot .357 well without leading and the others will chamber a boolit that size, so that is the size I use. None of the guns lead the barrels with my loads.
My biggest problem has been making sure the rifling in the barrels is sufficiently tall enough to grip the boolits well. The factory Taurus barrels did not do so, hence they received Beretta barrels. The Taurus barrels would shoot jacketed well and cast poorly. None of the other pistols had this issue.
You may want to take a look at the rifling in your Star and make sure there is plenty of rifling there to work with. If so, any good boolit design should work reasonably well.
The Lee 120 tc has been mentioned and does well. The NOE 358-135-FN is one of my all time favorites and runs great in everything. The NOE 155 TC ELCO also works well if you have a hankering for a heavy boolit. That one also comes as a hollow point that will weight 147 grains making load data easy to find. All these designs use a standard lube groove. You can use a lubsizer or just tumble lube them. I do it both ways depending on my mood and both methods work for me.
There is a sticky in the handguns forum about loading for 9mm that gives a lot of good information. I based much of the development of my loads on that article.
Here is a link to the thread. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121607-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

[sukivel]

I shoot the Lee .358 124 grain RF, sized to .357, in my Austrian friend and he loves them...


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[RED BEAR]

i had a star bkm a while back i lowered the angle of the feed ramp a bit and it would feed anything mine just loved the old 130 grain hydro shok ( before federal bought them. it was a semi wad cutter. any round nose from 90 grains to 140 grains. really very accurate gun. wish i still had it . i see them very cheap these days maybe time to get another.

[Texas by God]

Thank you all. I should buy some more of these pistols, too. My youngest daughter all but claimed this one today after putting 8 rounds in 8 clays on the berm at 20 feet......

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[gnostic]

The easy way is to go with the Lee, 120 grain TC bullet sized to .358 with Titegroup and enough taper crimp to get to spec. I've loaded buckets of them for my USPSA rig with range pick-up brass and seldom have a feeding issue, even without the use of a case gauge. Loading with titegroup will save you some money and it works very well.
I've picked up a five gallon bucket of 9mm brass that I pick the best cases from to load. I've tried BLL and got leading so I size with an RCBS and super moly with out leading the barrel and they shoot great.

[Motor]

When I started casting for the 9mm I also found it to be very finicky. I found 15BHN alloy and .358" boolit diameter worked most of the time. That held true except for the Lee 102gr which needed "hard cast" and very light loads to prevent excessive leading in 4" barrels.

Then I started powder coating and all that changed. I now shoot 12BHN and even size the 102s .3565" (That's what size my .356" die makes them) and I can shoot them with any loads I care too. Same holds true for my other 9mm moulds.

If there was ever a cartridge that benefits from powder coating it's the 9mm. ;)

Motor

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Thank you all. I should buy some more of these pistols, too.

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Good advice! Like anything, the supply will dry up, the price will go up, and there will never be any more made as Star is kaput.
I own two, plus a frame. I got mine when the first wave washed ashore and decided that they are very close to the ideal 9mm pistol.
All steel, compact size, the durable basic Browning design. At present, the price is right. :D

[Thumbcocker]

In Lee molds I have had best results with the 125 rnfp over 5.0 of Power Pistol. Sized .358. The 120 tc is a reliable feeder but the extra bearing surface of the 125 rnfp makes a difference in my guns. The mold I use for 9mm now is the NOE 130 rnfp. It is just a hair easier to get right on seating depth than the Lee 125 rnfp and shoots equally well. Also sized .358 and loaded over 5.0 of power pistol. IME crimp is VERY important on 9mm. There is a thin line between just right and too much. Too much is bad. The 9mm is a quirky little sucker but once you get it right it is not hard to equal or better J word accuracy. It is kind of like setting up for the .30 carbine Blackhawk. A bit of a PITA but generally worth the effort.

[JBinMN]

I use the Lee molds. 120 TC & 124 TC in regular lube groove(<I pan lube these) & 120 TC, 124 TC as well as 124 2R, in TL. (<These are tumble lubed in 45/45/10)

I had to do some tweaking in regard to BHN, sizing & speed, but I do not have much, if any leading now & no keyholing at all. Nice part is that the powder amounts are relatively the same due to the similarities in boolit weights.

G'Luck! with whatever ya decide to try out!
:)

[tazman]

I use the Lee molds. 120 TC & 124 TC in regular lube groove(<I pan lube these) & 120 TC, 124 TC as well as 124 2R, in TL. (<These are tumble lubed in 45/45/10)

I had to do some tweaking in regard to BHN, sizing & speed, but I do not have much, if any leading now & no keyholing at all. Nice part is that the powder amounts are relatively the same due to the similarities in boolit weights.

G'Luck! with whatever ya decide to try out!
:)

Anytime I am using a number of boolits of close weight for a handgun such as what you mention, I develop a powder charge for the heaviest boolit and then use it for all of them. It works for me since I am too lazy to work up individual loads for every boolit weight I might have. On occasion, I may have 4-6 boolit designs in the 120-125 grain area with somewhat similar nose profiles.
For jacketed, I will work up a load for each weight since I only have one bullet weight in each weight category.

[Char-Gar]

I have an old NEI 3 cavity mould for a more or less downscaled version of the H&G 200 grain 45 SWC. It is plain based and casts out at 124 grains. I load these over either Unique or AA5 to a velocity of 1,100 fps. They are sized .357 and sometimes .358. Note: AA5 was developed for use in the 9mm round.

I get nice round groups full equal in accuracy to factory ammo. I have fired this through several American and Euro 9mms. They even do great in my Chicom Uzi clone.

This NEI mould is out of print but I would expect any similiar mould would do as good.

Addendum: Experience has taught me that 9mm cases vary quite a bit in length and internal volumn. I sort my cases by headstamp and then by length.

[Texas by God]

Great advice guys, thank you. I don't like endless experimentation so I will heed your advice. I'll start by sorting brass and buying some bullets to see what it likes. And I'll check the rifling depth, Taz.

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[popper]

Accurate 130gr rnfp with 4gr WST, 357 for all the XDs I've tried. PCd and HT WW. 60 rnds in 9 ring at 10 yd single handed from XDs. Fast follow shots.

[Petrol & Powder]

My biggest problem with cast bullets in 9mm is that my guns are all over the place. What works in one gun will not work in another.
I can load for a particular pistol and get good results but I run into problems when I attempt to make a common cartridge for more than one gun.

[tazman]

True.
I have some of that going on. The differences between my Beretta barrels and my Springfield barrels is rather dramatic. Some of the ammunition that runs flawlessly through the Beretta barrels will not chamber or feed in my Range Officer. I have to be careful what I bring to the range.
I haven't had any leading problems from the smaller diameter ammunition yet but I don't shoot a lot of it in the Beretta barrels.
I am finding that .357 seems to work in both barrel sizes. .358 works great in the Beretta barrels but will not work in the Springfields.

[winelover]

Been loading for 9mm for over forty years. Was the second caliber, I began reloading for. Never had any issues with cast. Currently, own five pistols from five different well respected manufactures plus a carbine. All of my reloaded ammo will feed and function interchangeably, in any of the six. Never had to have any barrels throated or replaced with aftermarkets.

I size my all bullets to .358 diameter and have gone as high as .359 diameter, but the cases tend to begin to bulge. Never used a case gauge for 9mm.............just do the simple plunk test. I set my seating dies to mimic factory COAL's for each cast bullet that is comparable to the factory profile. Then, I make dummy rounds and manually cycle them through the action, checking for changes in COAL. As long as the length doesn't change, they are good to go. To date, never slugged a barrel.......never found the need.

Don't own any Glocks. The closest thing, to a 1911 style pistol, is my Browning HP. All the others are DAO, polymer framed semi's.

All I use is air cooled WW alloy or close proximity, there of. Gas checks will solve a lot of leading issues, especially when pushing your alloy. I found this to be the case when I get some minimal leading in the carbine. Lab Rader is showing that my slowest load is running in the neighborhood of 1450 fps, when using standard (115-125 grain) weight bullets. Slower, when I move up to 147 grainers.

Winelover

[glockfan]

all i know is that, the first boolit i designed for my glocks and cz's(146 grs) ,is very,very accurate; resized to .357 over 3.5 grs of VV320 at 1.070 coal ,it's definitely on par,or better than the commercial jacketed zeros i was using. but here's the thing; since the ogive-meplat is fatter than the J-bullets ,i must load to a shorter coal( 1.070) than what i expected (normally 1.130 coal)
.doesn't matter,accuracy is what count. then i designed another ,but lighter one , a 130grainer. this one has a slimer profile, then i can load to my regular coal. accuracy is also very good. both boolits are groovless for hi tek,and i'm very pleased with the results i'm getting, no leading at all.

my molds are cut by tom at accurate molds. the 146 is 35-146M and the 130 grainer is 35-130M.i'm using 100% coww

[mattw]

Out of all the stuff I have loaded over 30 years, I have found 9mm to the a huge PITA! I have the Lee 105 working well in a couple of guns, 147's just work across the board but I do not like to shoot 147's for random range plinking and practice. I have the Arsenal 124-TC and it is working well in everything except my 1911's. This past weekend I scrubbed the lead out of the 1911's again and have them ready for another test. The diameter is correct at .358, my crimp is just enough to make a solid round and my alloy is 93/3/3 with 2700+ lube. The leading comes from the 105 and the 124. The 124 has a beautiful bearing surface and I did not expect to have issues with it, the 105 on the other hand I expected problems. I have been trying to use BE and I think I am going to slow the powder down, not sure what yet. I may do some PC, but I do not want to make PC the answer as it takes longer for me than conventional sizing. A member here sent me some Lee 124-TC conventional lube groove bullets that were PC'ed, they did shoot very well in the 9mm 1911's.

[Sailormilan2]

I've used the old Lyman 356402 for years, and never had much luck with it. Currently I'm using the Saeco 383(PB & one groove), which is heavier and longer. Accurate 35-135Q would be a very close match(BB & two grooves). Sized .357 for 1911 9mms & 38 Supers, and .358 for the HP.
Informal accuracy testing seems to have it doing better than the Lyman bullet. At this point I've been doing more function testing than accuracy testing, since it is a long bullet.

Has anyone tried the H&G 275 style bullet in their 9mms? That's basically the H&G 068 45 acp bullet shrunk down to 9mm size. NOE is having a sale on their 35 caliber molds, and their version of that one is on sale.

[Tackleberry41]

I have the same Star BM, you have to mod the feed ramp for anything other than FMJ. Shoot cast in mine, the Lee 124gr, AFTER it was leemented to actually spit out .356 bullets. The lyman 147gr works well in everything. And I size down a 158gr NOE for 9mm.

One thing you need is proper expanders. I got garbage results at first, NOE expanders fixed them. Pistol dies are set up for jacketed. The case will swage them down seating, then they shoot like garbage. And no factory crimp dies.

[mattw]

I expand with an M die then seat and finally crimp in a third step. This has served me well for years with 45acp, 40S&W, 10mm. I really do not like the little tapered 9mm round, I will figure out my issue but will not enjoy the process.

[pacomdiver]

Ed shot,
i am trying the 125g lee in a 6 cavity mold and they are dropping fat (.360 at base and .356 almost all the way up to the nose),i sized them to .355 before powder coating and them .357 after PC and i cant seat them deep enough to chamber in my glock 17 (with aftermarket barrel) due to the fat nose, i tried the 124g TL in some of my other 9s and they shot like ****, has anyone else had the same problem? im thinking of trying the 120 TC

[Ed_Shot]

Ed shot,
i am trying the 125g lee in a 6 cavity mold and they are dropping fat (.360 at base and .356 almost all the way up to the nose),i sized them to .355 before powder coating and them .357 after PC and i cant seat them deep enough to chamber in my glock 17 (with aftermarket barrel) due to the fat nose, i tried the 124g TL in some of my other 9s and they shot like ****, has anyone else had the same problem? im thinking of trying the 120 TC

When you say "can't load them deep enough", what is your load and what is your COAL with the 356-125-2R?

[tazman]

I have had the same issue with the 125 RF from Lee. It is just too fat at the nose to chamber easily in most guns. If I load it short, it won't feed properly.
The 124 TL has a reputation for shooting poorly in 9mm for a lot of people. Not everyone but enough to make it a boolit I don't care to try.
The 120 tc is nearly universally claimed as a great boolit by everyone. It works well for me in all my pistols. I prefer a different boolit though.
My favorite is the NOE 358-135-FN. I shoot it as a plain base flat nose or as a 129 grain hollow point. It feeds in every 9mm pistol I own(9 currently), and gives great accuracy.
This boolit works tumble lubed or sized in a lube-sizer equally well.
It drops at .358 from my mold using range scrap. In some pistols(Beretta) I shoot it unsized. In others, I size to .357 and it feeds fine. The slightly undersized nose area helps with this. The nose will enter the throat even if it is tight. There is enough solid driving bands on the boolit to grip rifling well. I load it so the front driving band is slightly exposed(about a thick fingernail) and have no trouble with it.

[Ed_Shot]

Ed shot,
i am trying the 125g lee in a 6 cavity mold and they are dropping fat (.360 at base and .356 almost all the way up to the nose),i sized them to .355 before powder coating and them .357 after PC and i cant seat them deep enough to chamber in my glock 17 (with aftermarket barrel) due to the fat nose, i tried the 124g TL in some of my other 9s and they shot like ****, has anyone else had the same problem? im thinking of trying the 120 TC

Just so we are on the same page.... which Lee 125 gr. boolit are we talking about here?

[Moleman-]

I've had good luck with a 6-cavity Lee 124gr RN-TL in S&W 5946, Beretta 92, numerous 9mm carbines. I use alox and dust them with mica with a starting load charge of unique. Most of the time I don't run them though the sizer.

If you pull a bullet out of a loaded round what does it measure v/s your bore measurement. Not all 9mm's are .355" which is another issue.

[MT Gianni]

Dump the Lee TL molds, get a Lyman 356242 or 356402 and use a good conventional lube. Try for 1000 fps and go up from there until groups suffer. NOE 135 gr works too.
If you really want accuracy from a 9, segregate brass by headstamp and weight, and trim to the same length. you would do it for a 45, why is a 9 worse?

[Ed_Shot]

Dump the Lee TL molds, get a Lyman 356242 or 356402 and use a good conventional lube. Try for 1000 fps and go up from there until groups suffer. NOE 135 gr works too.
If you really want accuracy from a 9, segregate brass by headstamp and weight, and trim to the same length. you would do it for a 45, why is a 9 worse?

+1.... all I use any more is the NOE 359242 (120 gr) his clone of Lyman's 356242. I segregate 9MM brass by headstamp but I gave up on trimming. I do measure every 9MM case and discard (maybe 30%) those .748" or shorter and .752" or longer. I do not know folks work with 9MM brass that varies form .756" to .740". in length. Among myself, brothers and sons-in-law I load for a CZ 75B, BHP, Sig P320, Ruger LC9s, 3 Glocks with LW 9MM barrels, a HP 995TS, and Blackhawk convertable and they all work perfectly with boolits sized .358" with COAL's spec'd in the Lyman 4th Ed. For me that means I seat a 120~125 gr 9MM boolit to a depth of .260"~.265" inside the case. I've found that if my CZ likes a load it works great in all others. Totally agree with working up from 1000 fps. I commonly find the sweet spot @ 1075 fps depending on the components.

[pacomdiver]

Ed Shot,
the 356-125-2R

[P Flados]

9 mm can be very frustrating. Do not let that put you off. The solution is simple. There 10 easy steps to the 9mm.


Step 1: Try what you have and what you think might work. Take notes. You might get lucky.

Step 2: If step 1 did not work, tell us exactly what you did.

Step 3: Sort through the 50 suggestions, pick one.

Step 4: Try it and hope you get lucky.

Step 5: If it did not work, tell us exactly what you did and what happened.

Step 6: Sort through the 40 suggestions. Pick a new suggestion.

Step 7: Try it and hope you get lucky.

Step 8: If it did not work, go back to step 5.

Step 9: After you get something that works, assume you are an expert and provide suggestions when some else shares their problems.

Step 10: After a bunch of newbies ignore your suggestions, come to understand that the 9mm is too finicky to ever be simple and work the same way for anybody else.

[Shingle]

I use the NOE 124gr. tcgchp for everything these days from all glock 9mm and carbines. Whrn seated over 4.7gr.CFE Pistol it is a screamer or 5.2gr.BA-7.5 for a plesent shooter. I love this mold because you get three different style boolits from one mold.

[Texas by God]

I appreciate you, P Flados. I needed that laugh!

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[43PU]

My Go to load is the Lee 120 TC non tumble lubed over 3.8 grn of bullseye. I coat and the. Size to .358 for all of my 9mms (over 20 9mms in my collection) I don’t have the OAL on me but on my rifles I can hit a 4 inch plate at 100 yards every shot with a 2.5MOA Lucid red dot function is 100% and VERY clean.. I have shot 2k of those loads in my Ruger PC9 over this past month and a half and I have yet to clean it and it still looks good

I Highly recommend the Lee 120 TC powder coated with HF red sized to .358 over 3.8 grn of bullseye in mixed brass and any SPP you may have( I don’t use federal primers)

[tazman]

My Go to load is the Lee 120 TC non tumble lubed over 3.8 grn of bullseye. I coat and the. Size to .358 for all of my 9mms (over 20 9mms in my collection) I don’t have the OAL on me but on my rifles I can hit a 4 inch plate at 100 yards every shot with a 2.5MOA Lucid red dot function is 100% and VERY clean.. I have shot 2k of those loads in my Ruger PC9 over this past month and a half and I have yet to clean it and it still looks good

I Highly recommend the Lee 120 TC powder coated with HF red sized to .358 over 3.8 grn of bullseye in mixed brass and any SPP you may have( I don’t use federal primers)

My current pet load is very nearly identical.
4.0 grains of either Bullseye or Titegroup with a Lyman 356402 120 grain tc boolit.
Only difference is I shoot them as cast since they drop right at .357 for me. I either tumble lube or run them through my lubrisizer at .357.
I haven't shot them in a rifle since I don't currently have one but they work well in my handguns.
My other favorite is an NOE 358-135-fn. It gets sized to .358 and used in all 9mm guns and in 38 special as well.

[toallmy]

My favorite is the lee 356- 120 tc at .3575 with c-red over 3.8 red dot . It just works for me and hits what I point it at unless I mess it up + it keeps my wife happy shooting them to.

[fecmech]

Two other posters in this thread mentioned expanders, IMO in the 9mm they are critical due to the tapered case! I have always used Lyman "M" dies in all my loading, just what I happened to start out with. Evidently the NOE are similar. When I started loading for the 9 I expected all kinds of problems from my reading but it didn't happen. I've loaded for 5 different 9's including a Khar with polygonal rifling and had no problems and accuracy in the 3" range @25 yds. The bullet I used the most was the Lee 120TC.

[tazman]

I didn't mention expanders because I haven't had an issue with boolits getting squeezed down in the case.
I don't use exceptionally hard boolits. They are range scrap that is water dropped from the mold when casting. None of the boolit styles I use go far enough into the case to be a problem.
I just use the standard expander that comes with the Lee die set.

[fecmech]

I don't use exceptionally hard boolits. They are range scrap that is water dropped from the mold when casting.
I'd say that would put them in the 15-18 BHN range, somewhere between Lyman #2 and lino. I can see why the tapered case is not a problem for you.

[tazman]

I don't have a hardness tester. They are just hard enough that I can't scratch them with my fingernail after about three days. I always expected they would be around 12-14 BHN. I really don't have any idea except that they work for me.

[pacomdiver]

got a rcbs 9-115 mold to try,
cast a few with 12 BHN alloy, sized them to 356 then powder coated them and resized them to 357 and loaded them with 5.5 gr unique and tried them in 2 of my pistols, a tanfoglio p90 and a glock 17, neither of the pistols liked them, they didnt group very good at 10 yards but the AR 9mm rifle with open sights liked them and even hit the 50 yard steel 12" target every time. has anyone had good results with this mold?

im also getting a lee 120 TC and gonna try that since ive seen guys have had good luck with it

[Petander]

Two other posters in this thread mentioned expanders, IMO in the 9mm they are critical due to the tapered case!

Make it three other posters now.

I shoot Lee 158 RF, sized 357 and as you can see, the stock Lee 9mm powder through expander is too short for that long bullet. Vihtavuori 3N37,slightly compressed, 950 fps.

Expanders are very important. I use many,they make life easier.

231098

[P Flados]

Why not make it 4.

I fought leading of PC coated boolits for a while.

Eventually I got my self some tooling and made myself up some custom expanders. After several tries, I got one that would expand big enough and deep enough. At the fact I realized that the force required to seat boolits for my 9's had gone from "much more than typical" to "about the same as a 38 Special".

This was the single change that I feel finished off my struggles.

The other changes that I think made a difference were:


Getting my "as sized" boolits bigger (now 0.359")
Sorting brass (I now only load Fed, Blazer and Speer).
Seating and flare removal as separate steps

[waco]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?121737-Setting-up-for-boolits-in-a-new-9mm

[Cast_outlaw]

If you still have that p89 pm me I have loads that work well in mine they are powerful though with a 158gr gc semi wadcutter and blue dot I’ll give you more details in a pm if you want my dad developed this load for Silhouette shooting and has proven very effective even on large targets

[Walks]

I've never understood the problem folks have loading for 9mm Luger.
I've been casting and loading for it since I was 8yrs old (1962).
Used the LYMAN #356402 or #356242 cast of straight Linotype and sized .356 over 4.2grs of BULLSEYE.
That's now listed as a MAX load.

Can't take credit for that LOAD with those 2 bullets. My DAD worked them out about the time I was born.
He ran one load or the other in more different WAR Surplus Pistols then I could count. If one load didn't work, then the other would.

Guess I'm luckier then most. All the testing was done before I started loading the 9.

They even work in guns not available to my DAD; H&K USP, GLOCK, RUGER P85/9 And Various Sigs.

And that #356402 in a Red 9, He could bounce an empty soda can out past 75yrds.

[tazman]

I don't understand it either. Apparently I must have appeased the reloading gods or something because I never had the problems most complain about with the 9mm.
The fun part is, I am not doing anything special to get my success. I use the same techniques that give me success in 38 special and 45acp.

[sureYnot]

I don't understand it either. Apparently I must have appeased the reloading gods or something because I never had the problems most complain about with the 9mm.
The fun part is, I am not doing anything special to get my success. I use the same techniques that give me success in 38 special and 45acp.You two used up all the good luck. None left for the rest of us. That's why everybody else has to work so hard at it. Lol. "Nothing worth doing is ever easy."

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

[Walks]

No, I didn't get all the luck. I've spent 2yrs trying to find a light load with the #375248 with some powder other then the discontinued SR4759.

[sghart3578]

For me it is a Dardas 124 gr LRN at .356" loaded over 5.5 gr of A #5. Accurate in a HiPoint carbine, Walther P99, Ruger P85, my brother's Glock, you name it.

Life was good for me when it came to 9mm loads. Then the clouds rolled in. I got word that Mr. Dardas is out of business. And yesterday I loaded up the last 120 bullets from my last Dardas box.

It never stops I guess.


Steve in N CA

[pjames32]

NOE 358-128 (H&G) style casts about 131gr with my mixture. About 12.5BHN then water dropped. Tried .358, but had a couple guns that did not like it so I settled on .357+ with a sizer I opened up just a little bit. I use AA #5 in the 5.0gr range with sorted brass and have good accuracy from most of my guns and little leading. Use my load with caution!

[skeet1]

I also have a Star model BM that I load for and have been using the Lee 356-125 2R. This is their round nose with regular lube groove. I chose this bullet as it simulates the regular ball type bullet and feeds in almost everything. I have been loading this bullet sized to .357" and powered by 3.5 gr. of the relatively new IMR Target powder. This seems to shoot good in the three 9MM handguns that I own.


Ken

[pacomdiver]

skeet,
how short do you have to load them to feed? , i had mine so short and the fat nose kept hitting the rifling, i gave up and went to another bullet

[skeet1]

pacomdiver
My over all length is 1.105" and like I said they feed and shoot in all 3 of my 9MM's.

Ken

[pacomdiver]

dont know how you did it. i sized mine to 355 initially , then after i powder coated them and resized them to 357, i had to get mine down to 1.05 to even get them to chamber. i was getting rifling marks on the dummy rounds till i hit 1.05

[skeet1]

pacomdiver,
I guess I don't know how I did it either but it just seams to work well. I was wondering what kind of 9MM handgun you are shooting? Is it a make that has almost no lead to where the chamber ends and rifling start? Also how thick is the powder coating, is that causing you chambering problems? I just size and lube in a lubrisizer at .357". I wonder if because of the powder coating on the nose portion of the bullet making them larger that they no longer will chamber? If you want I would send you some of my bullets to compare.

Ken

[pacomdiver]

tried them in a glock 17 and a bta90 tanfoglio, since it didnt work in those, i didnt even bother with the 9mm ar and high point carbine

like i said in a previous post, i size them to 355 initially, then ASBBDT powder coat them, so its a thin even coat, then after they hardened a few days, i sized them to 357 and loaded them. i even got a RCBC 115 9mm mold, but they shot like ****, so last week i just got a lee 120 TC to try but my dillon 550 powder measure mount broke in the middle of the test run so i havent tried them yet.