Anyone having luck with cast in S&W Shield?

[Don Purcell]

Good bye.

[LabGuy]

I can't help much, my Shield is a 40 S&W. I have been using a 185ish grain MiHec with Blue Dot.

[dubber123]

If you have mixed brass, I'd look there first. 9mm brass is all over the map for thickness, length, hardness, pretty much every variable there is. I have had my best 9mm luck using matched brass, and I look for the thinnest there is, to allow a fatter boolit without swaging it down during seating;

No help with the load, my Shield is a .40

[bullpen7979]

130 grain Mi HEC hollow point for 9 millimeter. Powder coated. Driven by various propellants. I like be 86 power pistol has way too much flash for me. I can say you just punched a 45 caliber hole in my ego. I'd be satisfied with 2 inch group at 10 yards off hand

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[bullpen7979]

I will be following This Thread to get better results with cast out of my shield myself

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[Jayhawkhuntclub]

The 9mm in general is a difficult cartridge to get to perform accurately, in my experience. And that goes for rifles, 1911s and plastic guns. As for the Shield, mine shoots between 2 and 3" groups at 20 yards from a rest. Occasionally I'll get a sub 2" or over 3", but not often. Like you said, it's not a "target pistol." Just keep experimenting. Good luck!

[ioon44]

Like you I have reloaded for decades and the 9 mm is the worst to get right, some of my friends shoot cast out of there S&W Shield's.

Some of the issues they found were, bores measured .357" to .358" so they has to run .359" bullets and some of the bores were very rough and took a lot of lapping. They shoot mainly 130 gr cast with Hi-Tek coating and currently using CFE pistol powder.

You need to check you loaded ammo to make sure your dies are not swagging the bullets down below bore da.

[Tackleberry41]

I had luck w cast in my shield, but needs to be throated. My ancient browning HP copy swallows the same loads with ease.

It was an odd thing, I got more velocity w a cast 147gr out of the shield than I did with the longer barreled high power.

[8mmFan]

I only cast for practice rounds in my Shield. For these I go for minute of center mass, but I get better than that. I am using the Lee six cavity tumble lube 124 grain round nose mold and Lee Liquid Alox, in mixed, unsorted cases, on a Lee Loadmaster with Lee Carbide dies. I do run them through the Lee Factory Crimp die on the last stage of the press. I also run them through the resizer first. It's a really mixed batch of lead; I just melt whatever's next in line.

Head shots on a silhouette target at 25 yards are no problem, nor is it a problem to run 7+1 through the pistol as fast as I can pull the trigger at a target 5 yards away.

I haven't noticed any leading issues. But at the end of shooting with the shield I do run a couple of jacketed bullets down the pipe in hopes of scraping out any lead.

For powder I'm using an out of production Vithavouri powder, N3SH. About 4.7 grains. I have a ton that I bought at closeout prices a couple years back at Recob's.

8mmFan

[Jal5]

Lee 358125 RF Works fine in mine. Tumble lubed too in BLK. Sized 358.

[Javater]

If u guys slugged out .358 from shield, it would be same as PT111 G2. From A lot of research i have found the following.
1. 9mm dies will swag down your bullets down. If u are using Lee die set buy a PM EXPAN PLG 38 S&W not 38SP. that will help against swagging the bullet down to .355 from .358
2. you can use Range scrap and powder coat with lower load and get good results. at .356-.358 soft lead will expand with lower load. I was recommended lead hardness of 11 to 14.

all these suggestions are from members of this forum and not mine. Soon i will be making boolits for PT111 G2 and Shield since they are same slugged to .358

[Jal5]

That 38 S&W expander sure helps preventing the boolits getting swaged

[edctexas]

I have an M&P shield in 9mm and don't have any trouble reloading for it. I espc powder coat and size at 0.359. You need to be careful with the boolit having any build up of PC on the nose. I had a batch of 50 which would not go into battery. They shot fine in my H&K P30. I now put a hat on the nose during espc to prevent the build up. The other tip previously given is to be careful that the case is opened enough so it does not swage down the boolit dia in seating. That goes for nearly all of my 9mm pistols. The WWII lugers are different with 0.355 bores.

Ed C

[MT Gianni]

Not a shield shooter but I shrunk groups in my nines by religiously sorting brass by mfg and weight. + - 3 gr variance is my max 2 gr is better. You may need to vary loads per case brand but a chrono can tell you when you are at the same velocity as your other brands, stop there. Get a really good lube, there are plenty out there. Make sure that you are not reducing bullet diameter when you crimp. Do not try to substitute jacketed speeds for accuracy loads. You can run cast at J word speeds if everything is right but IME, it will not be as accurate on paper. Sometimes that's OK. Alloy makes a difference as does bullet diameter. You may need a larger expander button than comes on a factory die.
If casting for a 38 is a College 101 class, the nine is a 403 class.

[sandman228]

my shield likes a 125 gr round nose bullet from the lee mold powder coated sized at .356 and loaded over 4.4 gr of unique shooting offhand at 10 yards . I own 4 different 9mm pistols an m&p 9 full size ,an m&p 9 compact , an m&p 9 shield ,and a springfield xd9 sub compact and unfortunately all the s&w's are picky and each like there own bullet style /load. the springfield isn't picky though it likes pretty much anything I run through it

[ironhead7544]

I like the 160 gr RN made for the 38 Super and Unique powder. It seems the longer bullet takes the rifling better.

This has worked well in numerous pistols, carbines and SMGs.

[Javater]

What is the diameter of the 38 S&W expander plug? I'll just order what I need from N.O.E. as the Lee site only listed 38 S&W Special.

itis
http://leeprecision.com/pm-expan-plg-38-s-w.html

not same as 38 Special.

It is 38 Short and Large Colt pistol. My typo 38 S&L

[DougGuy]

Also bullets are sized .357 - .358.

Can you push the boolits into the cylinder throats from the front with finger pressure? If they won't go then the throats are sizing down the boolits as they are fired, because they will exit the front of the cylinder at throat diameter. If you have uneven throats, the tighter ones will shoot to a different point of impact than a loose throat because pressure is higher for the tighter ones.

Shooting five shot groups at 15-20 yards generally yields 3-4 shots in around two inches with 1 or 2 shots way out maybe 4 to 5 inches.

What you are describing is typical behavior for a cylinder with uneven throats.

[exile]

Would seating and crimping in two separate steps eliminate any of these issues? I ask because I am having some of these issues myself. Thanks.

exile

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

OK, so this is the second thread in which I've read that sorting headstamps for 9mm makes a big difference.

Do you need to go through load development for each brand? Or do you just sort them after loading?