Mihec 10mm - 200gr WFN / .40s&w - 180gr HP, 4-cavity, Brass

[Ole]

What are you guys using for powder charges with blue dot with the heavy version of this bullet?

I made some for a friend to test in ballistics gel (using Lyman CB#4 load data for the RCBS 200gr) and was disappointed with the velocities attained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWK551Nd9og

9.6 of blue dot yielded barely over 1000fps and it's listed as a "max load" for that bullet. Lyman data said it was supposed to be over 1150 and 26k PSI for pressure. The primer swipes say that this powder charge is too low.

I'd appreciate hearing what powder charge you guys are using with the bullet that are using blue dot for propellent.

[abqcaster]

What are you guys using for powder charges with blue dot with the heavy version of this bullet?

I made some for a friend to test in ballistics gel (using Lyman CB#4 load data for the RCBS 200gr) and was disappointed with the velocities attained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWK551Nd9og

9.6 of blue dot yielded barely over 1000fps and it's listed as a "max load" for that bullet. Lyman data said it was supposed to be over 1150 and 26k PSI for pressure. The primer swipes say that this powder charge is too low.

I'd appreciate hearing what powder charge you guys are using with the bullet that are using blue dot for propellent.

What are you shooting it in? Loading data are for a specific barrel length/type. Lyman's data comes from 4" and 5" barres in .40S&W and 10mm respectively, and its from a universal receiver not a hand gun. All of those things affect velocity too. Shoot, I've seen handgun where a 10" or 7.75" bbl was used to bump the numbers, but who the heck uses those in real life???

Just because a max load doesn't show pressure signs doesn't mean it's not at max pressure. The recipe might become non-linear after that.

[b2948kevin]

Wow, you guys have been busy in here! I go away for a couple months and there's 10 more pages of discussion!

Congrats on the new family addition, Oreo! I sympathize and am only a year or two ahead of you.

I am still casting and shooting these boolits in my .40 Sig 226. No plans for hunting with these at the moment though. I am not nearly as cool as Citious! Good Luck on the Kudu! I purchased a G20 to do some 10mm work recently, so updates ahead on that.

[MTtimberline]

What load are you using in the Sig?

[smokesahoy]

I don't know what my problem is. I'm loading for a glock and initially I was loading long for performance but I was going like 5 at a time. Got the load I liked and couldn't stuff the mags full. I'm at work thinking about it so I can't roll up some dummies to test but at what OAL did you stop having to force the heads? I don't really want to go much shorter than 1.125, and I like the bullet more than I like the gun, wish I had a dealer that I could go check magazine function in and buy based on that. I was going to go the tangfolio route but their uppers just got to pricey to do the 10 40 conversion. So based on that I would like to poll the people on this buy and ask, what OAL are you able to load to without undue force applied to loading a high cap mag and what gun are you using? (This isn't a spring issue either it's a orientation of the round in the glock mag having issues with the wfn)

[Oreo]

1.125" was the threshold for me. From pg1:

So I made up some dummy rounds real quick just to test loading and feeding reliability in my G20. I loaded right at SAAMI spec 1.260" for 10mm and I was only able to get 14/15 into the mag. They all fed fine cycling the slide.

Recovering the ejected rounds, the thin rim of the shsllow hp held up fine and showed no signs of deformation in spite of my very soft alloy. The very tip of the rim showed abrasion from riding the front wall of the magazine.

I'm thinking this boolit is best loaded to 1.250" for best reliability. That's not to shabby considering during the design phase we knew we were bumping right up against the maximum meplate size for the G20. Looks to me like we nailed it right on the money.

I'll test 40sw in the G23 later today.

They work good in a G23.

I just finished making 15 dummy rounds to test in 40s&w. They were 1.122" - 1.125", and loaded / cycled flawlessly in both 13 and 15 (g22) round mags.

Keep in mind, there's no need to load especially long with this boolit. Its a relatively short-for-weight boolit so there's plenty of case capacity even at 1.115". The 200gr boolit is the same length as the 180gr Speer gdhp, and the 190gr is 0.030" shorter still. That's an abundance of case capacity for any sane load.

[b2948kevin]

I posted some information on page 15 and 16 of this thread that may be useful. I am not getting pressure signs, and I could probably push these a little harder, but below are the specs.

Specs:
Mold - MP 402-190 (the smaller of the 2 in this thread)
Lead - BHN ~12-15 Wheel Weight alloy (but it runs a little hard)
Bullet - Air cooled Deep Hollow Points, run about 182-183gr
Cartridge: 40S&W, 1.120 OAL
Powder: 4.7gr Titegroup
Velocity: Avg 995fps (a little slow)
Gun: Sig P226 Stainless Elite

[Arrow]

I am cast the 200 grain with small hollow point. I am sizing to .402 and loading over longshot powder. I haven't had much time to work up loads. I am using 9.0 grain longshot and seated to 1.250". It is leading the barrel. My barrel slugs at .401. Does anyone have a good load for longshot? My real question is that they are not feeding into my kkm barrel. They feed most of the way but some get hung up where the brass had been bulged from the bullet. The brass had been ran through a lee bulge buster due so it's not that bulge. What are y'all doing for smooth feeding of these or any cast bullets in a glock 20 or 29?

[Oreo]

It sounds like your chamber is a bit tight. Have you tried loading any other lead boolits in this kkm barrel?

[Arrow]

No I have not. They are sizes .402 though, would a different cast bullet at .402 make a difference?

[Captain_Howdy]

hey Arrow you may need to size shorter...it kinda sounds to me like your bullet may be hanging up on the front shoulder of the forward driving band. I have had to do this with almost all of my lead bullets. I never use lengths given in reloading manuals for lead bullets unless it is for a given round like Lyman will describe bullets from Lyman moulds in the Lyman load manual...but that is different. I cant remember what length mine are but I can measure them tomorrow and then write it down.

ETA: I loaded mine to 1.125 I think...they work fine in the gun but loaded in a 22 round glock mag they are too long and will not allow the mag to be loaded to capacity.

1.250 is entirely too long for this bullet I think.

[Oreo]

Arrow is talking about chambering problems not mag problems. Seating shorter will not help if the problem is a tight chamber / boolit sized too big. Seating shorter does help if your mag is binding.

Arrow, with barrel removed from gun hand chamber a round. It should drop in with a positive "plunk" as the case mouth hits the bottom of the chamber. If instead it feels & sounds more like the round is encountering resistance or being squeezed at the bottom of the chamber then pull the round back out and examine for rub marks. If there are rub marks on the exposed portion of the front driving band then your barrel throat may be the issue. If the rub marks are on the case mouth then the chamber may be the issue. In either case sizing a bit smaller might help as long as you don't have to size so small that the boolit doesn't fit the barrel. Some companies will ream a chamber for a fee.

[Arrow]

I measured the diameter of my carry loads which are nosler 135 jhp. They were about .420" or so. Then measured these cast bullets loaded and they were .425-.426". The nosler a are .400" and my cast are .402" so the loaded cast bullets should measure .422" which would work fine. Where is the extra .003-.004" coming from? Are the bullets expanding when being seated?

[Oreo]

Not likely. Getting swaged down a thou or so is the usual problem during seating.

[bld451]

Are they sticking before they break over, or are they stuck at an angle? If you are too big in diameter, you will have difficulty extracting them and they will almost lock up, but not quite. If they get stuck as they are feeding "up" into the chamber, length (too much) might be the culprit as sometimes the boolit will hit the top of the chamber as the case hits the feedramp. At that point if it can't "break over" and get aligned with the chamber to feed in, it will lock everything up.

[Arrow]

It is getting into the chamber fine but they casings are too bulged to fit all the way in. If I take the barrel out and drop a round in the chamber, some don't go all the way in because they are too fat. Any ideas what to do? I just don't understand how my cast bullets are .002" bigger in diameter than jacketed bullets but loaded rounds are .005-.006" bigger in diameter. They would be fine if they were only .002" bigger than my jacket bullet handloads.

[Oreo]

How are you measuring them and how are you crimping them? Maybe try a little more taper crimp. Maybe what you have now is not fully removing the case mouth expansion.

[Captain_Howdy]

Arrow is talking about chambering problems not mag problems. Seating shorter will not help if the problem is a tight chamber / boolit sized too big. Seating shorter does help if your mag is binding.

Arrow, with barrel removed from gun hand chamber a round. It should drop in with a positive "plunk" as the case mouth hits the bottom of the chamber. If instead it feels & sounds more like the round is encountering resistance or being squeezed at the bottom of the chamber then pull the round back out and examine for rub marks. If there are rub marks on the exposed portion of the front driving band then your barrel throat may be the issue. If the rub marks are on the case mouth then the chamber may be the issue. In either case sizing a bit smaller might help as long as you don't have to size so small that the boolit doesn't fit the barrel. Some companies will ream a chamber for a fee.

I was talking about chambering problems, you misread my post. I did mention mag issues, but if the bullet is seated too long the forward driving band will protrude into the leade in the chamber and cause the cartridge to not seat. If you slug the bore and you make the bullet diameter equal to or greater than your resulting bore diameter it will always hang up if the forward part of the bullet engages the leade into the lands. You wont get this with a jacketed bullet because a jacketed bullet is always or mostly always a smaller diameter than your actual bore size. You need to size the bullet just short enough to prevent this from happening.

Arrow, make a dummy round. Size your bullet accordingly but seat the bullet to make your overall cartridge length say 1.125 or 1.120. Try that and see if it works. If not try sizing it down to 1.110 at the shortest. Just try it with a dummy round and see if it works. I have helped people out with so called chamber issues before...so far everyone I have helped with cast bullets has had seating issues and not chamber issues.

[Captain_Howdy]

It is getting into the chamber fine but they casings are too bulged to fit all the way in. If I take the barrel out and drop a round in the chamber, some don't go all the way in because they are too fat. Any ideas what to do? I just don't understand how my cast bullets are .002" bigger in diameter than jacketed bullets but loaded rounds are .005-.006" bigger in diameter. They would be fine if they were only .002" bigger than my jacket bullet handloads.

I size mine to .401. I used to not size them and they would run at .403--sometimes but not always... if it is .002 bigger bullet then it can easily make the case mouth .004 bigger. I have measured this and experienced it on multiple occasions...I am too tired to explain the math behind it though. I have run mine through 3 different barrels with no problems...after I reduced my initial seating depth. The 40 and 10mm both have plenty of powder room. .010-.020 wont make much difference in capacity I would just rework any loads with the new dimensions.

[Arrow]

Capt howdy thank you for all your help about seating depth but I am shooting these in 10mm not .40 sw so 1.125" will be way too short. Also the bullets are not hitting the throat before being fully chambered, the bulge in the brass where the billet is is just too fat. I understand that maybe this means my chamber is too tight but there are lots I others using this bullet in kkm barrels, why would I have this problem?