9mm Lee Loader

[copperhead51]

Hi. I'm reasonably efficent on my single stage Lee press; however, I'm wanting to learn the Lee loader. I'm using a 125 gr cast bullet. I'm using two 0.3 cc's of Unique (5.2 gr). The speed is okay ( I guess). It averages about 1040fps. However, the first round won't chamber,, nor will the ones after that. The slide has to be forced shut. This is on two guns so it must be my reloads. I know the brass is being reformed since it is driven in with a hammer. The bullets are cast at 0.3583" and I size them to 0.3558". I did not exceed OAL. Any ideas?

[thx997303]

Hmm, that doesn't sound right.

What guns are you using?

Thing is, I frequently load boolits sized .360" in my XD9 and never have any chambering issues. They are the 125 gr Lee Round nose.

Are you taper crimping just enough to remove the bell on the case mouth?

And what exactly is your OAL? I load my 9mm to 1.1" OAL or they wont chamber properly.

And you're only getting 1040 fps with 5.2 gr of Unique? HMMM, have you slugged your bore? .3558" sounds small for most 9mm barrels I have seen. I get an easy 1150 fps with 4 gr of Unique.

[Centaur 1]

Something is keeping the action from closing fully which means that the cartridge is oversized in one way or another. Since you say that the action can be forced closed I don't think that the case length is too long, but it should be checked anyway. Have you extracted a round after forcing the action closed? My guess is that you'll see rifling marks on the bullet. I load those same bullets and I was amazed at how much of the bullet engages the rifling. Drop a bullet in the chamber and tap it forward so that the rifling starts to leave a groove, then drive it back out from the muzzle. You'll see that the rifling marks actually go further up towards the tip than expected, I bet that you just need to seat the bullet deeper.

[mdi]

The chamber is a hole. The cartridge is a peg. The hole must be larger than the peg for the peg to go into the hole. Measure the reloaded round (diameters at mouth and behind boolit, and the OAL.), and compare with the cartridge deminsions in your manual. The reload is too big somewhere. For a gage take the barrel out of your gun and the reloads should drop in and fall out freely.

[copperhead51]

Thanks a lot guys. I did as you suggested and removed my barrel. I dopped my round into it. Quite a bit was sticking out! I did as thx997303 suggested and loaded a few rounds to an OAL of 1.1". Worked like a charm!

[Dannix]

Yeah, you got to remember that maximum OAL is dependent not only on, say, magazine length, but also on bullet type. The maximum length you were using before may have been OK for shooting pointy round nose bulllets, but not so once you went to something 'squarer' like a HP or FN.

Do slug your bore if you haven't already.
https://beartoothbullets.com/bulletselect/slug.htm
(you could probably find appropriate weights local too. Just make sure they are pure lead.)