38/357 125gr jacketed bullet in LC9?

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germ

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My LC9 slugs at .357. .355 124gr XTP and MG bullets (reloads) leave copper or brass streaks down the length of the grooves. After a 2 hour soaking with Butche's, at least the XTP copper is FAR easier to remove than the MG brass. Strangely, WWB or PMC factory FMJ ammo does not leave any streaks at all. Streaks are in both leading and trailing edges.

I've only been involved in shooting for a little over 4 years. This is the first gun I've had/seen that deposited visible copper, even after a single mag full.

Cast...fugetaboutit...even at .359 and after 40 firelaps. Different powders and charges have had no affect (cast or jackets). Same for harder/softer alloy. Severe leading from breach to muzzle. This is my 2nd 9mm that I'm batting zero with cast.

So I'm curious if .357 jacketed bullets are a good idea to try. I mostly shoot cast, so I'm stuck in better-too-big-than-too-small mode, but not so sure this applies to jacketed.
 
Are you asking if you should try larger or small sized jacketed bullets for the .357 mag? Loading jacketed is pretty straight forward and slugging your barrel has little advantage when loading with them. In my experience, jacketed bullets come in .357" of every standard brand I've ever bought.
GS
 
honestly, i would contact Ruger. if the barrel is that much over sized, they may replace it. i have shot .355" jacketed bullets thru my wife's 38 special as of late, due to difficulty of getting the correct bullets. they work ok at the ranges we practice at. but i have seen no evidence of copper streaking.
 
honestly, i would contact Ruger. if the barrel is that much over sized, they may replace it. i have shot .355" jacketed bullets thru my wife's 38 special as of late, due to difficulty of getting the correct bullets. they work ok at the ranges we practice at. but i have seen no evidence of copper streaking.

It seems that .357 is the most common groove size for this gun. I've read this on various forums. At least the chamber is generous as well so .359+ cast bullets will chamber. Little good it does me though. BTW, I've also tried varying bhn from 9 to 22.
 
Are you asking if you should try larger or small sized jacketed bullets for the .357 mag? Loading jacketed is pretty straight forward and slugging your barrel has little advantage when loading with them. In my experience, jacketed bullets come in .357" of every standard brand I've ever bought.
GS

I slugged the barrel for cast bullets. I'm asking about using the larger diameter .357 jacketed bullets in a 9mm barrel which would normally take a .355. Heck, I can shoot 'em in my S&W 38/357's which slug at .357, so I don't see why not.
 
Now that I better understand your post, after I took the time to read it correctly, my apology, I would definitely send it back to Ruger. You mentioned fire lapping it, you didn't possibly run too many of those through that barrel, did ya? In my opinion, 40 is too many and could very well take away from the barrel. I don't like fire lapping, but when I have done it, I like to keep it down to 4-6 rounds on a barrel that needs it.
GS
 
The barrel slugs virtually the same after fire lapping. I took my time and did this over a month or so. This is the roughest barrel (machining) I've had/seen yet. There are tiny ridges that follow the length of the grooves. Looks to me like a well worn cutter was used. I've seen others write about this with the LC9.

I have a partial box of Berry's 158 FP DS that measure .356.5-.357. I loaded up 5 each with 2.7 and 2.9gr of BE. Fired them this morning and not only did they shoot quite well, I didn't see any sign of fouling. Ok, 10 rounds isn't a whole lot, however, I had with me another box of reloads I made up for my XD9, 115gr MG HP's over 4.7gr of Universal. One mag was enough to leave fairly heavy visible brass streaks that I'm still trying to get out hours later. Sheesh, I think the lead was easier/faster to remove.

BTW, recoil wise the 158's were really mild compared to the 115's, which felt more like factory ammo.

I just don't understand why factory fmj's don't foul the barrel but my reloads do, especially the XTP's. The only difference that I can tell is that the factory loads seem to be slightly more stout than my loads.

I thought about sending it back to Ruger, but my thought is that if it fires factory ammo ok, then they're just going to tell me it's within spec so tough luck, we aren't going to do anything for you.

Just found a RUGER forum. Looks like lots of post on the LC9 so I'm gonna poke around there and see what I come up with.
 
Well, it certainly isn't gonna hurt to contact Ruger.
The worst thing they can do is say it's within spec.

Good luck, I sincerely hope you can get it fixed.
 
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