VASCAR2
Member
A Friend and I used to cast hard lead bullets for various cartridges. He bought a 9 mm mold for a 121 grain truncated cone bullet but sized them .355”. Those bullets key holed out my 39-2 and his new Glock 17 Gen 1. I told him to resize the next batch to .357” and he thought I was crazy. He sized the next batch .357” and they shot great. We used wheel weights, added tin from 50/50 solder and dropped our cast bullets into water. These bullets were hard, didn’t lead our barrels and proved very accurate in any 9 mm we tested.
I bought some Xtreme plated 9 mm 115 grain round nose a few years ago. I used too much crimp for the soft lead core which ruined the accuracy of that batch of reloads. I learned my lesson loading Xtreme bullets and used a light taper crimp from then on and those reloads shot decent.
My point is loading for 9 mm requires the cartridge to seat (head space) on the case mouth. The cartridges need to have enough crimp to keep the bullet from deep seating during it’s ride in the magazine into the chamber. I have seen numerous 9 mm bullets that came new undersized which affects accuracy. I’ve got batches of FMJ bullets that size .352 or less.
Not all 9 mm brass is comparable in quality. Back in the 80’s W-W 9 mm brass would rarely hold bullets after being sized. I guess the brass was just soft. It didn’t matter how much crimp you tried to use the W-W brass wouldn’t grip the bullet. We normally discarded the W-W 9 mm brass.
In my experience JHP bullets produce some of the best accuracy in the 9 mm. There is always something to learn when reloading even though we might have loaded ammo for decades.
I bought some Xtreme plated 9 mm 115 grain round nose a few years ago. I used too much crimp for the soft lead core which ruined the accuracy of that batch of reloads. I learned my lesson loading Xtreme bullets and used a light taper crimp from then on and those reloads shot decent.
My point is loading for 9 mm requires the cartridge to seat (head space) on the case mouth. The cartridges need to have enough crimp to keep the bullet from deep seating during it’s ride in the magazine into the chamber. I have seen numerous 9 mm bullets that came new undersized which affects accuracy. I’ve got batches of FMJ bullets that size .352 or less.
Not all 9 mm brass is comparable in quality. Back in the 80’s W-W 9 mm brass would rarely hold bullets after being sized. I guess the brass was just soft. It didn’t matter how much crimp you tried to use the W-W brass wouldn’t grip the bullet. We normally discarded the W-W 9 mm brass.
In my experience JHP bullets produce some of the best accuracy in the 9 mm. There is always something to learn when reloading even though we might have loaded ammo for decades.
