How long??

You are not just looking for the right load for your barrel, but the right powder, charge, bullet, and weight.
After that it’s a piece of cake.

Are you planning to continue to use factory ammo?

How do you define the right load? Explain your criteria and maybe you'll get specific advice.

I started loading 9s about 2 or 3 months ago got a solid load 4.7gr win231 115gr hp col i think 1050 with CCI spp at 10yds 25rnds 1 hole about 1/2 dollar size so I loaded up 1500 good for a while.
I load mostly rifle ammo and this 9 was very ease the published data was very very near to perfect took only a small amount of tweeking.
Save your brass and stop with the pricy factory ammo. We make much better ammo you can to.

Congrats on shooting your first match.

I haven’t done one yet but feel like I’m getting ready.
If you have a place to practice do as much as you can. See what you need and make your loads based on that. So do you want less recoil? Is your accuracy acceptable?

I’m not an expert but I used factory ammo to get brass and to work on basic shooting skills. Then I worked on recoil. I wanted as light a load as I could that was reliable so I went it’s 124 gr RMR bullets. And chose BE86 as it was recommended and felt good. Then I adjusted the load for accuracy.

Repeat and adjust as needed.
Well that’s what I’m doing

Viking357 said:

How long did it take you to find the right 9mm load for your gun. I just shot my 1st USPSA match and would like to find a good load. Right now I am shooting factory ammo. I just want to know what everyone has done and get some sound advice. Thanks

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In USPSA, the priorities for your load, in typical order of importance, are:

• Makes power factor with enough room to spare such that, at a major match, you will never fail chrono. If you fail minor PF, you shoot for no score. May as well DQ on the first stage.
• Runs the gun reliably. Clearing jams adds a lot of time. The whole game is points divided by time. More time is bad.
• Suitable for progressive loading. Shooting and practicing for USPSA requires large volumes of ammo. No point bothering with a powder that won't meter well enough to throw every charge on the press.
• Recoil and sight-tracking behavior is to your liking. USPSA is a speed-based game. Being able to manage recoil and tracking the sights is a big part of being able to shoot quickly. As you get more into the game, you will get more attuned to little previously-unperceptible differences in how the gun runs as speed. This is honestly where most of the load development effort for USPSA shooters goes.
• Accuracy must be acceptable. This ain't bullseye. It is immaterial to your overall performance whether your gun/ammo groups 1.5" or 2.25" at 25 yards. It makes no difference. Generally speaking, if the bullets are stabilizing and the gun is generally an accurate gun, it is very likely that any particular load meeting the prior factors is accurate enough. You would be making a mistake to go with an OAL that adds accuracy but makes the gun even 1% less reliable, or to bump up powder to a point where you can detect more recoil in order to wring out another .2" of 25 yard grouping.
• Cleanliness is a plus. A big USPSA match or practice session might see 500 rounds through the gun in a single day. An active month of shooting might see many, many thousands of rounds through the gun. You don't want something so dirty that the gun begins to run differently in 500 rounds thus requiring a mid-match field strip cleaning, nor something that needs detail cleaning more than a couple of times a year (if that).
• Cost. Again, this is a high volume game. You want a load that is economical enough that it won't be the primary constraint on how much you shoot. Depending on your personal finances, this can move up above cleanliness.

If I would quit buying new heavy 9mm molds I might be able to settle on a load.

Closest I've come so far is 2.7 gr of Ramshot Competition under a 147 gr rn MP bullet. With no lube grooves it's dropping at 152 grs.

Viking357 said:

How long did it take you to find the right 9mm load for your gun ... USPSA match

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Not long. I started reloading because I started shooting USPSA matches with factory ammo and other match shooters told me I need to reload to reduce my group size.

I did my initial load development with Bullseye, Clays, WST, Titegroup, W231/HP-38, Universal, WSF, HS-6 and my average reload groups shrank best of factory groups by more than 40%.

If you can place all of your holes inside 1/4 piece of copy paper (which is smaller than "A" zone) at typical USPSA target distances of 7-15 yards, it is good enough and many loads with different powders meeting 130 minor power factor will achieve this.

ATLDave said:

Accuracy must be acceptable. This ain't bullseye. It is immaterial to your overall performance whether your gun/ammo groups 1.5" or 2.25" at 25 yards. It makes no difference.

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ATLDave said:

Recoil and sight-tracking behavior is to your liking. USPSA is a speed-based game. Being able to manage recoil and tracking the sights is a big part of being able to shoot quickly

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ATLDave said:

The whole game is points divided by time. More time is bad.

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What ATLDave posted is very true.

While Bullseye/WST/Titegroup produced smaller groups, I preferred the slower "recoil impulse" from W231/HP-38 that allowed me to get back on the front sight/target for faster double taps. So even though W231/HP-38 loads were slightly less accurate (slightly larger group size), I was able to shoot the match stages faster. For USPSA, faster stage time will trump slightly greater accuracy and you will end up with higher stage score. Yes, this is one aspect of USPSA "game" but it's a rule we must follow to get higher stage scores.

Even Rob Leatham explains USPSA is a game of "scoring". Rob points out in this video "You have to be fast enough to matter" for competition shooting and "Shooting accurately enough, faster is better than shooting extremely accurate, slow" and negates many myths about accuracy vs speed. And for USPSA scoring, that will always be the case - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-help-me-speed-up.824618/page-4#post-10902226



Member 1KPerDay wanted to not only maintain accuracy but increase speed as well and we outlined step-by-steps and various match shooting techniques on this thread like this post of fundamental "double tap" for accuracy and speed - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-help-me-speed-up.824618/page-4#post-10902245

And just as there are reloading variables, there are shooting variables too. Just to rule this out, dry fire while watching the front sight. If the front sight moves/jumps when the hammer/striker is released, you may be adding trigger/grip input and moving the muzzle of the barrel. If so, follow this post to eliminate that - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-help-me-speed-up.824618/page-4#post-10902444

► I got there in less than a week with only one test firing session to double check. But I took 600-700 test loads to that one test firing. I was able to do it quickly by focusing on generally acknowledged standards in reloading, and generally acknowledged standards for my gun. You need to research both. The way you prep a CZ is not the way you prep a Glock.

► Unstated, but equally important is your choice of reloading equipment. ALL reloading equipment available today makes excellent ammo (much better than factory), but the different models produce ammo at different rates. So you can't expect to buy a value priced starter set and have 1000 rounds ready every Saturday. I say this because a lot of time is also consumed finding deals, ordering supplies, cleaning and preping cases, and on, and on. Yes, you can get into reloading for $150, but you'll be busy reloading probably 4-5 nights a week in preparation for Saturday. Your family time, love life, and practice time just disappeared. So you're going to need to jump into the "deep end" to start, and that might require something close to $1500 for equipment and supplies.


For these 2 reasons I highly suggest you team up with another local shooter who reloads. (Placing your locale in your profile might even help us find you someone.) Follow him around for awhile. Sit through a couple of complete reloading sessions with him. Then add up all the costs and time and be aware of the commitment it takes before "pulling the trigger".

All the best my friend.

Hi fella. go to my hobby site and with whatever powder you got, you can dial in a decent load very quickly with probably 3 different loads around the FPS you want.

http://www.natoreloading.com

Viking357 said:

Hey guys thank you for the great info, I have a lot to learn.

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Could you please answer the questions in post #3?

Without knowing exactly what you want we're shooting in the dark, and some people will be wasting their time writing answers to something that might not be relevant. You don't want that, do you?

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More in detail though, I tried 3 types/weights of bullets, 2 powders, and 2 brands of primers before I was satisfied. How long that will take to test depends on how often you can go shoot, and how much time you have to reload. Good luck on your first match, I'll be doing my first as well in a few months!