Overall cartridge length for 124 grain lead bullet for 9mm

[aelred]

Hello All,
I'm looking for a overall cartridge length using a 9mm 124 lead bullet. I'll start with 3.7 grains of Bullseye powder. Using a Lee mold TL-356-124-2R. Using Lyman lino type 2 hard cast lead. The bullets will be powder coated. The pistol I will use is a Beretta 9mm Type M9A1. I've checked the following manuals and had no luck: Lee, Speer, Lyman bullet cast manual and Sierra. I've also could not find any previous threads that addressed this issue directly. I also checked the Alliant powder data and had no luck either. Any info would be great
Thank you
Tom

[poppy42]

The data you are looking for is in the Lee manual

[Dusty Bannister]

[QUOTE=aelred;4818350]Hello All,
I'm looking for a overall cartridge length using a 9mm 124 lead bullet. I'll start with 3.7 grains of Bullseye powder. Using a Lee mold TL-356-124-2R. Using Lyman lino type 2 hard cast lead. The bullets will be powder coated. The pistol I will use is a Beretta 9mm Type M9A1. I've checked the following manuals and had no luck: Lee, Speer, Lyman bullet cast manual and Sierra.

With all the variables of bullet mold, alloy, size, chamber configuration, etc, you might give the following a try to get the seating right.
How to determine the cartridge OAL with a dowel or cleaning rod.

Cleaning rod/dowel method of finding cartridge OAL

This is what I use for my guns to determine the max OAL and this eliminates any question of the crimp, incorrect case prep, or other operator induced error.

This method works well on rifles and single shot pistols as well as Semi-autos. You can use a flat tipped cleaning rod, or flat tipped dowel rod. You will also need a sharp pointed pencil, a short dowel and a bullet sized but clean, of the type you are going to load.

For Rifles
Make sure the chamber is empty. Close the bolt, and be sure the firing pin is retracted into the bolt. Insert the dowel or cleaning rod and hold it against the face of the bolt. Mark the rod at the face of the muzzle. Remove rod, open bolt and remove it from the action. Insert the bullet into the breech and hold it snug into the rifling. While in that position insert the dowel or rod again, and with it firm against the nose of the bullet, mark the rod at the face of the muzzle.

The distance between the center of those two marks is the max cartridge OAL for that rifle, with that bullet sized to that diameter.

For Semi-auto pistols
Remove the barrel from the slide and make sure it is clean and free of leading or other debris in the barrel and chamber. The dowel or cleaning rod needs to be longer than the barrel. Hold the barrel, muzzle up, and place the barrel hood on a flat surface like a table top. Insert the dowel or rod from the muzzle and mark the rod exactly flush with the muzzle. Remove the rod and insert the bullet you intend to use into the chamber and lightly press and hold it in place with the short dowel. Place the assy muzzle up on the flat surface. Insert the rod/dowel into the muzzle so it rests on the nose of the bullet and again mark the rod exactly flush with the muzzle. Remove and set the barrel aside. The distance on the center of the two lines is the cartridge OAL. Seat a dummy round to this length, or slightly shorter and begin to apply the taper crimp until the dummy passes the plunk test. This is the optumim cartridge OAL length for this bullet in this gun.

You may need to adjust the seater to shorten the OAL if this does not feed from the magazine, but generally this will be a great fit. Remember, if you seat and crimp in one step, you might force a slight ridge ahead of the case mouth and that will screw up your seating.
Dusty

[Texas by God]

You can adjust your seating die using a factory 124 gr FMJ factory round, also. Be sure to remove your barrel and check your first reloaded round by seeing if it fits in the chamber the same depth as the factory round. AKA “ plunk test”. Good luck!

[tazman]

The distance from the nose to the first driving ring is .314. Add in the case length and you get 1.064. That would be if you seated the first driving ring flush with the mouth of the case.
Usually I leave up to .020 of the driving band showing in front of the case mouth, so 1.085 sounds about right.
Depending on how much freebore there is in your barrel you may be able to go a little longer or shorter. My M9 barrels can handle 1.085 with no issues.
3.7 of Bullseye will be a decent starting load. My manual calls for 4.5 grains as a max. I normally load 4.0 as a good, functional load.

My data comes from an older Lee dimension list and an Alliant manual from 2001. It listed the max with Bullseye as 4.9 with a 125 grain boolit, but since the OAL is shorter, I think 4.5 would be about tops as a max load. As I said, I normally use 4.0.

Most Beretta M9 barrels have chambers that are a little on the generous side. Also they have a little more freebore than most 9mm barrels. This is due to concerns from the military about function. They want the gun to be able to chamber anybody's 9mm ammunition. The M9 barrels are forgiving in that regard.
It doesn't seem to have a detrimental effect on their accuracy though. Mine shoot fine.

[aelred]

The data you are looking for is in the Lee manual
I checked the Lee manual Ed #2 and it did not show Bullseye powder as listed. None of the powders listed are ones that I use. Would an overall length of 1.142 be ok? I tried the length in my Beretta and it chamber and extracted ok. Thanks

[tazman]

I checked the Lee manual Ed #2 and it did not show Bullseye powder as listed. None of the powders listed are ones that I use. Would an overall length of 1.142 be ok? I tried the length in my Beretta and it chamber and extracted ok. Thanks

If it chambers and extract ok, you are good to go.

[jsanch03]

Since you’re using bullseye check out Alliant’s website and they’ll provide you a baseline for a starting COAL but like it’s been mentioned above use the length that plunks in your chamber. Personally, I use Alliant sport pistol with a cast and pc’d lee 356-120 TC sized to 356 without issues in several glocks and my buddy’s beretta. I know beretta’s tend to have a larger bore diameter but I’m assuming I’m getting the obturation needed for a complete seal of the bore.

[fredj338]

The data you are looking for is in the Lee manual

Not really. OAL is a suggestion, it will be diff with every bullet in every barrel. The OAL has to fit YOUR gun, regardless of the data point. So dummy round loaded long, seat until you get your OAL & that is the OAL for THAT BULLET in THAT BARREL, always.