9 mm Loading

Probably a beat to death horse. I didn't think I would ever try to cast for 9 mm due to buying in bulk but Hey, I like to cast. I've been loading some 9mm on the Turret press I have just for something to do in the winter months but usually Speer gold dots. I have slugged my barrel at 3.556 and just ordered a cheap Lee mold to do some banger bullets. Never gave it much thought until I got to thinking my powder through sizing die from Lee probably won't expand to .357 to not shave lead when seating the bullet. I could be wrong but does anyone else load 9 with Lee dies? I do have a universal expander I used on a 30-30 with cast but don't like the way it flares the mouth open. Don't have an extra station for it on the Turret anyway.

There is a thread in the classics and stickies form ' setting up boollits in a new 9mm' that will fix you right up . Hint the changing out of the lee powder through inset in my lee dies from a 38 special to a 38 Smith/ Wesson really helped . Take a look at the lee .356-120 TC 6 cavity mold with standard lube groves . Have fun

I load with Lee dies in 9mm and have had no problems, but I water drop my boolits to harden them a little bit. My alloy is rang scrap so the boolits are not super hard. This has worked for me for years and thousands of rounds.
I have loaded boolits this way up to .359 without issues. Mostly, I use .357.

A neat trick to make your lee neck flare die a fantastic piece of equipment for your 30-30 is to order a NOE expander plug to replace the one from lee ,, just let me know when you want me to stop helping you spend money .:razz:

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Originally Posted by toallmy

There is a thread in the classics and stickies form ' setting up boollits in a new 9mm' that will fix you right up . Hint the changing out of the lee powder through inset in my lee dies from a 38 special to a 38 Smith/ Wesson really helped . Take a look at the lee .356-120 TC 6 cavity mold with standard lube groves . Have fun

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The 38SW powder through plug is a game changer.
If you have the lee FCD you can adjust it so that the carbide ring won’t compress the cartridge yet still crimp.

I use the Lee dies just fine. My bullets are only about 8 BHN. Inuse the powder trough die to expand the mouth and charge the case.

Best advice is to make a dummy round with the proper seating depth your guns can chamber. And just enough crimp to ensure chambering. After you make some dummies you can easily and quickly set up your dies to duplicate the seating and crimp. Also seat and crimp at separate stages.

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I too use Lee dies for 9mm reloading, and I shoot a lot of my cast 125 RNFP Lee bullets, sized to .357" and .358"+. One thing about flaring a semi-automatic cartridge, you can put as much flare in he case mouth as you need to set a bullet straight in it. "Too much" flare will be removed when the cartridge is "deflared" with a taper crimp die (some call it crimping). You can even use a flare large enough to scrape the ID of your seating die, no problems. Most semi-auto brass is cheap and easily found so "case life" is nothing to worry about (I can pick up way more 9mm brass than I bring to the range). Use your Universal Flaring tool to put as much taper as you need to get shootable ammo now, and worry about case life later...

I shoot cast/coated lead in all my 9mm, sized to 0.357" & loaded on an older set of RCBS dies. No issues what so ever, even if running +P levels. An 'M' style flare/powder thru is the way to go for best results imo.

If the expander plug in the Lee sizer is 356 you should be good to go, else get the NOE expander. Hope you get a RNFP mould, those RN only are a PITA to load straight. Actually I xpand and flare in separate steps as I don't trim pistol cases. 2nd step is short and sometimes get into the 3rd step and ruin the case.

Never had a problem seating and sizing the Lee 125g RN bullets. Now those little 105g Lee RN bullets are a whole nother beast.

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I do load 9mm Luger with cast boolits and with Lee Dies but on a single stage press. I bought a NOE mould , #358-124-TC-GC (after trying Lee's 120 gr. TC mould) and along with the mould ordered a expander plug to go with it...the expander plug is used in the Lee Universal expander body and acts like a M-Die. The little NOE expander completely eliminates shaved lead and cocked boolits.
Since you already have the Lee body....try the NOE expander ...SWEET !
Gary

Just got home and checked my turret set up. Dies are not Lee but rcbs. Only Lee is short charging bar. Experimented with a piece of 9 mm and flared fine to hold a 357 bullet I molded and sized to .358. Small bulge in case but I think sizing to .357 or.358 with a shorter bullet will work ok. Mold coming tomorrow so curious if I will need to resize to seat and crimp. Won't know until I load one and see if it passes plunk test in Smith Shield. Be nice to run several at the steel plates and see how they shoot. Might have a winter hobby that doesn't cost so much. I did buy the round nose due to lots of reviews showing flat nose hard to cycle through the Shield. Only a 2 cavity so if not I'm not out much. Wanted to try before buying the 6 cavity and another set of handles. Next 9 coming is HKVP9. Will probably powdercoat for it.

You should pull your bullet and see if it got sized down. That is what I was doing until I started using the NOE inserts.

I finally broke down and spent the money on a lyman M die it ended my shaving and wrinkled case issue have never regretted it.

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Originally Posted by Wheelguns 1961

You should pull your bullet and see if it got sized down. That is what I was doing until I started using the NOE inserts.

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+1 same story here.

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Originally Posted by Wheelguns 1961

You should pull your bullet and see if it got sized down. That is what I was doing until I started using the NOE inserts.

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+1 here.

NOE expanders are an easy way to find out about the best size. I recently got a Lyman 38 M die for my big,fat (.358), long 163 grainers in 9mm, it expands deep enough and the flare is still easy to adjust. The bullet in the pic has been pulled,I seat them deeper.

Attachment 230797

I guess I just like having a solid,dedicated setup for a load,keeping my NOE/Lee free for other use.

I use a noe htc mold thats drops .357 if i recall and i size .357. I have lee dies that give me a generous mouth bell and i havent had an issue with leading using coww alloy powdercoated.

My Lee Powder Through "Expander" die has worked just fine for me.

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"Never gave it much thought until I got to thinking my powder through sizing die from Lee probably won't expand to .357 to not shave lead when seating the bullet."

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How did you arrive at this thought? Have you tried the Lee die set? Did "somebody" tell you it wouldn't work? Many times reloaders can be mislead by someone else's problems way before they encounter a problem with their own reloading, "Joe Reloader said so, so it will prolly be the same for me...". I believe this is part of why there are so many anti-Lee reloaders out there, they heard a "Who Said" mention a problem and believe they will have the same problem...

When in doubt,measure.

Lee 9mm,Redding 9mm and Lyman 38. All different. All good. I use them all for different bullets. NOE is great,too,while at it,get a few +/-001 sizes. I shoot cast 356-358 in different 9mm guns,one expander won't work. I usually don't know what works until I try. NOE plugs cost a couple of bucks each and make life easier. See how long my subsonic 163 grain bullet is? Can't use Lee. I use Lyman for it-and a Lee 38 insert,too,the stock Lee plug pictured here is designed for J-bullets,my fat cast gets swaged with that.

Attachment 230805

I'm not a Lee basher. Several molds. Three Lee presses and countless dies. I'm not going by what Joe blow said. I had to go with CBS cowboy dies in my 45 because a 454 seater and expander just wouldn't work. Same for my 45-70. Lee is cheaper on a lot of things and I got into this because Lee was inexpensive to try it out. I'm going from my own experience on the larger bullets. I was mistaken and thought my 9mm was Lee but are RCBS. The Lee is a charge bar for my turret on the 9 mm. I'm familiar with Al's expanders and have one or two. Also like his sizing bushings and have 3 of his molds. No one is bashing Lee or trying to discourage anyone from using them. I pretty much buy all Lee for straight wall but still prefer Redding for bottle neck but also use Lee in some of them. Don't be so quick to judge.

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Originally Posted by wendyj

I'm not a Lee basher. Several molds. Three Lee presses and countless dies. I'm not going by what Joe blow said. I had to go with CBS cowboy dies in my 45 because a 454 seater and expander just wouldn't work. Same for my 45-70. Lee is cheaper on a lot of things and I got into this because Lee was inexpensive to try it out. I'm going from my own experience on the larger bullets. I was mistaken and thought my 9mm was Lee but are RCBS. The Lee is a charge bar for my turret on the 9 mm. I'm familiar with Al's expanders and have one or two. Also like his sizing bushings and have 3 of his molds. No one is bashing Lee or trying to discourage anyone from using them. I pretty much buy all Lee for straight wall but still prefer Redding for bottle neck but also use Lee in some of them. Don't be so quick to judge.

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Yep, but remember RCBS Cowboy dies are designed (especially the dies you mention) for larger lead bullets. I have a set for my 45 Colt reloads. I understand the difference between Lee and some other dies (kinda like comparing Craftsman or Proto tools to Snap-on) and my post was in no way meant to bring up the Lee Hater BS. A Lee expander (flaring) die has always worked for me, and while I have a mixed bag of die sets (Lee, Herters, Pacific, Lyman, Redding, and RCBS) none seems to work any better than the feller behind the press handle...

I'm not going to argue on that as I do have several dies for several calibers. My only question was since most of my molds throw so much larger I figured this one to do the same. For a cheap Lee 2 cavity it makes nice bullets I found out this morning. Only thing is I will have to powdercoat to get larger than my bore size. Bullets cast at 3.555 with ww and 2% tin. First small bullet I've casted. Quite a learning curve before I figured it out. Sprue hole really small. Likes hot lead and slow stream and no wait on getting bullets out. No offense taken on post. Happy Thanksgiving.