Three most important factors for 9m accuracy?

[BE Mike]

It all depends upon your standards. What distance do you want to test and what 10 shot or so group sizes do you hope to achieve

 

[gwpercle]

For Handguns : 25 Yard Precision ( Bullseye) Match .

Good bullets ... that your gun likes & shoots accurately... Tested .

Consistent charges of a Bullseye like powder ... Bullseye is usually best.
But the load must be liked by your gun ... use a fast powder and test them .

A quality Trigger Job by a Quality Gunsmith ... Clark Custom Guns put one of their Target Trigger jobs on two revolvers and a 1911 that did more for my NRA Bullseye ( Precision ) Match scores than anything else I ever did at the reloading bench ... spring swaping and polishing is ok but a Professional Clark Custom Triger Job has that beat Seven Ways To Sunday ... and puts a Smile on your face !

Goog quality bullets , Bullseye powder and CCG Target Trigger job
is my recipe for Accurate Handgun Shooting !
Gary

 

[gym cat]

Wondering what weapon you are trying to get all this accuracy from and what kind of accuracy are you expecting? Asking because some are not inherently accurate no matter what you do.

 

[44wheelman]

My Beretta likes .357 bullets. Sig too.

Was hitting a 9" pie plate at 100yds (at 50%) with a CZ in 38super (open sights).... using 135gr RN .357 bullets.

 

[teletech]

For Handguns : 25 Yard Precision ( Bullseye) Match .

Consistent charges of a Bullseye like powder ... Bullseye is usually best.
But the load must be liked by your gun ... use a fast powder and test them .

Gary

Another B/E user here. Sometimes I find a load that's more accurate than Bullseye, but it's a lot of work and better is almost never very much better. So, if you want just one powder to try, I'd say this is it.

 

[Bullseye Smith]

Match the bullet to the throat of your barrel shape wise.

Set the oal of your reload to the throat of your bbl.

Use the correct expander die for the length/diameter of the bullet you plan on using.

You must be shooting a auto, when you put the round up tight on the rifling you are raising the pressure on the gun and harder on the tupperware action. ( just kidding on the tupperware) I shoot a revolver 100% of the time. Each gun knows what it likes to eat, inwhich is hard to find what it likes.
I load on a dillion 550 and I check every fourth round for run out, OAL, weight. That is for a match, just putting holes in paper I check every 10th round. I use Federal and Starline Brass for everything. It's doing everything the same way all the time. That is the different between a 10yrd pop can expert or a 25 to 1000 yard Shotter. My 2 cents!!!

 

[noylj]

If you start load with bullet touching rifling, or very near, you STILL work up the load. In all my years, my max load at normal COL is no different from max load with bullet nearly, or sometimes actually, touching the lede.

 

[Jakerin]

I’ve mostly shot 9s in 4” barreled M59s and 39s. Our Mac 10s were .45s. I liked 115g JHPs but I’ve never tried for accuracy beyond 4-5 car lengths. I preferred the arched back strap on the 39 but I’ve never shot a Hi-Power.

 

[Forrest r]

You must be shooting a auto, when you put the round up tight on the rifling you are raising the pressure on the gun and harder on the tupperware action. ( just kidding on the tupperware) I shoot a revolver 100% of the time. Each gun knows what it likes to eat, inwhich is hard to find what it likes.
I load on a dillion 550 and I check every fourth round for run out, OAL, weight. That is for a match, just putting holes in paper I check every 10th round. I use Federal and Starline Brass for everything. It's doing everything the same way all the time. That is the different between a 10yrd pop can expert or a 25 to 1000 yard Shotter. My 2 cents!!!

Actually I don't put any reload oal/bullet into the rifling on my semi-auto pistols. Doing so causes too much variation in rise/lowering of the pressures as you have stated.

I do use the "plunk test" to set the oals.

Most reloaders see the "best accuracy" heads pacing and do that to set their oal. I don't because my reloads very +/- 5/1000th's in oal. This causes 1 round to be (like you stated) jammed into the rifling raising pressure/velocity/recoil. The next round could be short of the rifling's and have a low short start pressure/lower pressure load. Changing velocity & recoil. I like to set the oals +/- 10/1000th's of the lands.

I brought up throating for 2 reasons. A un-throated barrel.

These bbl's do best with ball ammo (+/- 2r profile). Issues can come into play if the semi-auto's chamber is of the semi-auto is generous/near max size. Using these type/style bullets aid in accuracy by having the bullet aligned in the bbl.

Same bbbl that's been throated. tc, swc & fn style bullets do extremely well in throated bbl's. They all can be setup to center in the bore due to the generous leade in the chamber (forcing cone on a revolver bbl). A secondary bonus is that you can use larger in diameter bullets if needed to take away any slop in the bbl's chamber.

I use a 1911/9mm. It cost me $700 several years ago and is box stock/no mods. It has nm stamped on it. I guess that means "national match"???. Anyway the bbl is throated in that 1911 from the factory. I shot +/- 10 rounds in it when I 1st got it and saved the brass to measure how much they expanded in that chamber. I found I could use a .358" bullet (max) so I cast a 8/9bhn alloyed 125gr fn hp and coated/sized them to .358". Did the plunk test to set the oal and started testing powders loads. The green bullet I all I use in my 9mm's.

After a little testing I came up with this load. It's only a 10-shot group @ 50ft. But heck, that's all I shoot anymore is 50ft and the load is consistent/repeatable.

Glad to see your a revolver guy, so am I. The chambers in revolver have leade's in their throats also.

The 125gr hp fn 9mm bullet pictured above is a Mihec design fn. This is that bullet

I use a Mihec (640 series) 158gr fn hp in the 38spl/357mags. I has 2 crimp groove to allow me to load the bullet long to get it out into the leade's of the chambers in my revolvers. The hp is 158gr the fn is 170gr

6-shot groups @ 50ft with a 686 competitor (I guess that's s&w nm revolver???)

WST is a fantastic powder & can be used for target loads in any pistol/revolver caliber. The only reason I'm using clays and bullseye for other target loads is that I have 20+ #'s of it laying around. It will take me the rest of my life to burn it up or I'd be buying 20+ #'s of wst.

 

[gwpercle]

I am a handgun target accuracy fanatic ... have always strived for 1-hole groups . Consistent Powder Charges are important and I have discovered that if you use a Powder Dipper ... with a super consistent technique ...
you can dip powder charges better than an expensive powder measure .
The secrete is to have that super consistent dipping technique and do it every time . What I like about dipping is if something doesn't feel or look right , dump the powder back in the cup and re-dip the charge ...
You get to see and feel the charge in the dipper .
Think about dipping if you are having trouble with consistent charges ...
and it beats weighing each charge ...Seven Ways to Sunday !
Gary

 

[gjgalligan]

The first rule of purchasing bullets, is to select a company that doesnt sell more varieties of "seconds" and "oops bulelts" where the manufacture states and actually brags that:

1. they arent sure of the actual bullet weight or measurements
2. didnt KNOW the machines were out of "adjustment" until after they had made 1,000 pounds of bullet and actually started checking for quality.

I have to politely disagree with you. ANYTHING made by man can have defects, machinery has a tendency to wear out.

A company that doesn't admit to mistakes is not to be trusted.

 

[taz666]

I am a handgun target accuracy fanatic ... have always strived for 1-hole groups . Consistent Powder Charges are important and I have discovered that if you use a Powder Dipper ... with a super consistent technique ...
you can dip powder charges better than an expensive powder measure .
The secrete is to have that super consistent dipping technique and do it every time . What I like about dipping is if something doesn't feel or look right , dump the powder back in the cup and re-dip the charge ...
You get to see and feel the charge in the dipper .
Think about dipping if you are having trouble with consistent charges ...
and it beats weighing each charge ...Seven Ways to Sunday !
Gary

I like sizing an empty cartridge shell to a grain requirement when heaped. The shell rim can't stack powder on it so the load is always the same without the influence of having to strike the shell off.