barry's plated 9mm bullets

[rp85]

hello;

just got a s&w 5906 from cdnn. reloaded some 124gr h/p barry's plated bullets to an oal of 1.140". the pistol would not cycle. removed the barrel and adjusted the oal with a dumbie round. ended up with a length of 1.042". anyone on this site shoot a 5906 with 124 gr barry's plated bullets??? your oal??? thanks for any input.

rp

 

[rp85]

hello;

just got a s&w 5906 from cdnn. reloaded some 124gr h/p barry's plated bullets to an oal of 1.140". the pistol would not cycle. removed the barrel and adjusted the oal with a dumbie round. ended up with a length of 1.042". anyone on this site shoot a 5906 with 124 gr barry's plated bullets??? your oal??? thanks for any input.

rp

 

[Bruce51]

I don't have a 5906 but I load Berrys bullets to a AOL of 1.120" Maybe you could provide some more information regarding the load you are using. Is this a failure to feed issue or a failure to cycle problem. If you post more info you will gets lot of advice. Bruce

 

[rp85]

thanks for the reply. good point.

the slide would not close. "bumping" the back of the slide would not make the slide close. pulling the slide back to clear the round was diffcult.

load was 4.0 gr of hp38, fed. primers.

fired some of the barry plated bullets reloads today at the oal of 1.040". very flat primers.
hope this helps.

thanks.

rp

 

[Bruce51]

Ok I'm going to ask some very basic questions. I don't know anything about your reloading knowledge so bear with me.

Have you loaded 9MM before? Are you resizing your cases fully? The resize die should touch the shell holder and then be turned 1/4 to 1/2 turn further.
Did you check the bullet size with your caliper. They should be .355" if the are .357" you have the wrong bullet for 9MM.

Remove the barrel from your gun and drop in a factory 9MM cartridge. Now try it with your reload. Can you see a difference? What is stopping your reload from chambering?

That's all I have for the information you have provided. When you check these areas if you haven't found your answer you can repost. Good luck.

Btw the deeper you seat the bullet the higher the pressure so be careful. Bruce

 

[rp85]

been reloading the 9mm for @1year. dies are set as they should be, 1/4 turn after they touch shell holder.

the reloads that caused the problem in the s&w worked fine in my ruger p89. different gun, different chambers.

used a sig to set oal but sold the pistol last week. the barry 124 hp shape is a little odd. long stright sides and a slight tapper to the hollow point.

the rear of the sig barrel was flat, on the s&w barrel is not flat but has a "lip?". now setting the oal flush with the rear this lip, 1.040".

at 1.140", the problem length, the back of the case is @1/16" from being flush with the "lip" on the rear of the s&w barrel.

using a smoked bulllet to determine max. length of case and bullet, that measurment is 1.085".

hope i'm things more clear.

thanks for the input.

rp

 

[Sgt Preston]

Sgt Preston here. I also use 124 grain Berry's copper plated bullets. Mine however are flat point to produce clean round holes in paper targets. Im sure the 124 grain hollow point has a slightly different shape. I load mine to 1.090 & they feed flawlessly in my S&W 539 & my Springfield 1911 x 9mm. So I think your 1.085 is probably a good number. One last thing to make your range trips more fun & less frustrating, buy a "finished case gage". I drop every round into my gage after I finish loading & before I put them in the plastic bullet boxes. It will detect any bulged case or insufficient crimp issues. Hope this helps. Sgt Preston USMC LLA

 

[Bruce51]

The good thing about this forum is you can help someone and learn a few things in the process.

Your reload problem has lead me to believe your gun has a tight throat.Just as a test of my own guns and ammo I performed the following evaluation.
I took the barrels out of four 9MM pistols. A Kahr PM9, A Colt 1911,Beretta 92 and a S&W 639. Into each barrel from the chamber I placed bullets only to observe where they would stop. The bullets were a 124FMJ, 124FP and a 147JHP. The FP and JHP are Ranier plated bullets. All bullets dropped into the Kahr stopped with the base even with the end of the chamber. So no further checking was necessary with that barrel. I did measure the distance from the bullet bases to the end of the chambers for comparison on the other barrels.It was not scientific but gave me an idea of the maximum OAL for each barrel


The Colt was interesting as I found my 124FP needs to be loaded shorter than 1.120" Just to 1.110". That is what I mean about learning things when you are trying to help others.The loads have always worked ok but now I know they are too long for that gun. All the other factory and reloads drop in nicely so there is no problem.

I think you already know that the Berrys bullet may be the wrong shape for your gun. The bullet is jamming into the rifling causing the problem. Another barrel may be the solution or maybe a smith can relieve the throat enough for smooth function at a longer AOL. Thanks for posting an interesting problem. I suggest you try a similar test in your gun with different bullet shapes and dummy cartridges. Bruce

 

[rp85]

point of interest, to me at least. my problem started with a s&w model 5906, but i also have a 5903. took a measurment on the 5903 barrel. max. length with the barry's bullet in 5903 barrel is 1.087". max length in the 5906 is 1.085".

will shoot tomorrow with a case/bullet at 1.065". still worry if the seating depth will cause high pressure.

thanks for the input.

rp

 

[JoeHatley]

oal of 1.140".

Way too long. I load mine to 1.090" for my 952 and 639.

Good Luck...

Joe

 

[rp85]

hello;

thanks for the input. fired bullets at 1.065" with the 124gr. barry's plated bullets. they shot great!!!! no problems at all. very accurate.

lesson learned, if you change bullets check to make sure the loaded bullet/case will if fact cycle in your pistol.

rp

 

[SuperMan]

The Berry's plated HP is a truncated cone style bullet just like the Sierra JHPs. Unlike round nose bullets that have a long ojive, the ojive on a TC style bullet is very short and it can not be loaded as long as a RN style because what happens is that the shoulder of the bullet, that is a full .355 diameter, runs into the rifling in the throat.

If you measure the length of the bearing surface of a 124 grain RN bullet vs. a 124 grain TC style bullet you will find that the bearing surface is much longer on the TC style bullet...which means that there is less nose area above the point where the bearing surface ends and the nose begins to the tip of the nose...

Easy way to determine maximum LOA is to pull your barrel and gently drop a round into the chamber. If the case head sticks up above the barrel hood, then the round is too long. Screw the seater stem in till the bullet is seated in far enough so case head is flush with the barrel hood and then in a few thousands more just for the occasional oversise case or bullet.

You are not alone... CorBon started marketing .38 Super using Sierra JHP bullets back in the early 90s. Their LOA was 1.200" even though the max LOA for the magazine is 1.280. This was correct for the TC style bullet that could not be loaded to more that 1.220' w/o a possibility of the bullet being jammed into the rifling of some .38 Super barrels.

In the late 1990s I bought a box of 115 HPs...and the slide would close, but it had to be pushed closed...hard in some guns... Checked the box and someone at the factory had decided that they needed to take advantage of all that extra powder space and lengthened the round to 1.270..

I called the factory and talked to one of the techs who said the rounds worked fine in their SIG P220 and said it was a problem with my gun... He wasn't even moved when I told him I had a dozen Supers with barrels from 6 different makers and it was too long in all of them... I finally ended up sending a detailed letter to Peter Pi Sr. who started the company...and the next box of Super I bought had been shortened...

Bob