[reloadn]

I am having a little trouble cycling lead rounds in my 9mm. I have reloaded some copper plated 9s and they run great but when I try the lead rounds they will sometimes hang in the chamber or the gun will not go into full battery. I have checked the aol at 1.30 so I am not to long. Any help would be great.

[HANDLOADER]

Sounds to me that you lead bullet is to large I had the same problem in a ruger P-89 about 6 years ago. The bullets were my home cast 125 grain RN. What lee says is very wrong always size the bullet. The bullets dropping from the mold were .358 to .359 which is defintantly not .356. That is my 2 cents worth.

[ArchAngelCD]

Lead bullets are slightly wider than jacketed bullets and are softer. If you don't flare the case mouth wide enough you can "shave" the lead slightly when you seat the bullet. This will cause the build up of lead around the case mouth which might prevent the round from allowing the slide from closing completely. That could be causing your problem, it only tales a very slight build of of lead considering the case lip is where the head space is set on a semi-auto. (I hope I explained that correctly!)

Just a possibility to look into.

[reloadn]

Just rechecked the bullets and they are .356 so they are good. yes arch you explained it correctly and I will keep that in mind on my next batch. Handloader I see you are from W KY I live around Oboro.

[rcmodel]

See this thread for another possibility.
That being, the shape of the Lee bullet may be the problem.

The thread concerns the .45 ACP, but the same applies to lead bullets in the 9mm.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=455184

rc

[David Wile]

Hey Reloadin,

The only difference between copper "plated" bullets and cast lead bullets is the color. Copper plated bullets are cast lead bullets that have been colored. They are not in any way comparable to jacketed bullets, and I have no idea why folks pay extra for them rather than regular cast bullets.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[blikseme300]

relaodn

The oal my be too long. Some pistols have shorter leads than others. The CZ75 is a typical case. I had to seat the LSWC bullets a tad deeper before they become reliable. There are numerous discussions about oal and bullet shapes in this and other forums.

[Nate1778]

I had a similar problem with a .380 I own. It would cycle a RN bullet fine, but if I was using a FN, the ogive would be too far forward and engage the rifling before the gun was in full battery. Tried them in another .380 and they work fine.

[Walkalong]

The only difference between copper "plated" bullets and cast lead bullets is the color.One pretty big difference is the copper plating. It's not paint. Plated bullets are a beast all their own. They don't load like lead or jacketed. They are not limited by lead data, but you can't just use jacketed data either. I have been shooting them for over 20 years, along with lead and jacketed.

The previous posters have given some good suggestions.

[loadedround]

Is your 9mm a BHP, Luger, P38, or a similar military style pistol? If so, a lot of these older 9mm's were designed to run on FMJ bullets only and have feeding problems with anything else, but particularly don't like SWC's or HP's of any kind. My BHP was one of these pistols until I had it throated and polished and now it feeds anything. Something to think about. :)

[tactikel]

I have to disagree about the plated bullets being a waste. having cast and shot over 20k pistol rounds, the plated bullets have a few advantages: less smoke (vaporized lube, and lead), less lead dust upon hitting backstop (my local range has banned all exposed lead bullets), slick feeding, and uniform weight. They are not cast bullets plated, but double swaged for a very consistant weight. Do I shoot them anymore, no- the price shot up and they were always out of stock at Midway, so I went back to casting.