please critique first 9mm round

Looks fine. Your primer looks good. Just make sure it is slightly below flush, I have never actually measured them though. You can try to play with the belling but a little bit of shaving is not going to hurt anything. Are you seating and crimping at the same time? That can give you a little shaving.

Sounds fine for a starting load.

But I doubt 4.0 Unique is going to cycle very many guns.

And it certainly won't burn clean at the low pressure.

I think you will end up at 4.5 or more before you get a 100% cycling load out of it.

rc

-Gadsden- said:

I ran the round through my Sig SP2022 -- the gun I'm building these reloads for. Cycled fine and there was no bullet setback.

Click to expand...

I think you're saying you made only 1 round and fired it. If that is a fact how is it possible for you to know there was no bullet setback when you had no other rounds in magazine to check for setback?

Everything else looks good from the pictures you posted. I agree with RC, way too light a charge weight. where did you get that load data? Lyman 4th Edition Cast Manual lists a starting charge of Unique with a 124gr lead bullet @4.4gr so your charge weight is very low. Where did you get that data???

You can try that load but like mentioned above, that light a load might not cycle your slide and Unique will for sure be very dirty at those low pressures.

I would suggest making up 10 or so @ increasing charge weights and trying them at the range.

You wont really know until you shoot them, but it sounds like they will fire just fine.

4.0 grains of unique is the bare minimum I've had reliable function with my 9's. You probably could safely just jump to 4.5 and see if you want it hotter than that. I've always used the Lyman 120 gn data, but I start in the middle of the range because I know from experience that 4.0 of Unique is just too low.

Most of the problems I've had with leading in pistols were user error, by making the bullets undersized during the loading process. With lead bullets you have to be careful with shaving lead and how much of a crimp you put on it. You really should not crimp, but only remove the bell. Also if you are not belling the cases enough, the case tension can actually swage the bullet smaller. You can pull a loaded round and measure the bullet diameter to see if its smaller than before loading.

If your load works without leading than stick with what you are doing, but those are just some tips in case you need them.

and a final 5 with 4.5,

Click to expand...

Personally?

I would have started there in the first place.

But that's based on 50 years reloading experience, not todays published data.

And I would never recommend you do that!

rc

How's the overall length? Hard to tell with no side-on shot, but that bullet looks seated just a tad deep to me.

Oh, and welcome to the reloading addiction! Have another hit on the pipe.....

Most commercial casters make 'em fairly hard. Might be ok. But with softer bullets, the case can swage down the bullet while you seat. Esp with 9mm, cuz some of the cases are really thick, and some of the expander plugs are really short. If you already make "coke bottles" with jacketed bullets, just think what's happening to your poor cast bullets. If you end up with any accuracy issues, I'd pull one of those bullets and measure the diameter of the base.

I've swapped a bigger 38SW expander plug into my Lee 9mm expander die to get it to work with softer cast bullets.

I'm at 4.7 UN for my 124gr cast SWC, personally.

Glad to see you have ZCast bullets, BTW! I've bought a lot of bullets from James, I'm glad he's doing good and making it. Gotta support the small businessman!

You took great pictures You did the plunk test which is good, that is what determines your OAL. So if it drops in and out you are good to go.

When making test or dummy rounds, don't load them with primer or powder. Then you can safely test for fit in your barrel and magazine. Manually cycling the round does not really duplicate firing, but is OK to do with an inert round just to see if it fits and cycles.

If you are going to shoot cast bullets try and get the Lyman Cast Manual. it is the best.

Flaring the case, the bullet should just barely start, to much and you weaken the case, not enough and it shaves.

Sigs have strong springs and will not "run" well on real light loads so I also agree on moving on up to 4.5grs Unique to start.

How are you measuring your powder, weighing it, powder measure? Unique can vary in some powder measures

You are on your way and good to see that you have great pictures and asked before loading a bunch!

You can work up loads like that in increments of .2 grains I think. 4.0, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, etc. Up to you, I believe it will be nearly impossible to notice the difference at .1 grain. Might find your load a bit quicker that way.

Try ~ 4.5. to 5.0 Bullseye. Always worked for me in any 9MM load, except the 147 gr.

-Gadsden- said:

hi Rule3 -- I'm using the Lee Powder Measure that I mounted to the 2x4 I have mounted to a coffee table in our living room Not the best set up but it's working so far!

I ran a full hopper through the measure per Lee recommendations and it meters out a pretty consistent charge. Within half a tenth of a grain. I'm using the Lee scale to verify the charge.

Click to expand...

You are doing it all the right way!

I started on the kitchen table.

The Lee PPM actually is a very accurate measure with most powders. It is kind of iffy on the flakes. I was having problems with some stick rifle powder in my RCBS and then tried my old LPPM and it worked better! I guess I am just not a Unique fan. I use it for 45 Colt is about all. I prefer HP38/W231 (meters better) for 9mm and 40 I like Power Pistol. But Unique works for everything

Would something .005 shorter lead to an unsafe spike in pressure?

Click to expand...

Gosh, I sure hope not!

Measure a box of factory loaded ammo sometime!

.005" will seem like ultra-high precision!

rc

-Gadsden- said:

loaded up 10 today after I got the powder measure figured out.

They are all coming in at about 4.25 grains at 1.065-1.070" OAL. I figured starting around 4.2 would be fine, per everyone's advice.

Click to expand...

It was more like 4.5 to 5.0

I would not load anymore until you see that those cycle the gun or you are going to be shooting a single shot But if so, do not feel bad I did it once with 50 rounds,

If you are using this bullet:

http://www.zcastbulletz.com/images/products/9MM124GRAIN-Big.JPG

I seat it to where just a whisker of the shoulder on the bullet is above the case mouth @1.125. I can't help you with the powder. I use Bullseye, HP38, and AA #5.

Crimping cases when using lead bullets is not really required. If you are using the Lee bullet seat/crimp die to remove the bell and add neck tension to the bullet you really don't need to add any extra crimp or roll crimp. Doing so you can cause the neck to bite into the lead a little too much and cause the bullet to not obturate and seal in the barrel correctly. I load cast lead exclusively and sold all of my Lee crimp dies, once the round comes out of the bullet seat/crimp die, I check the neck tension and ensure no bullet set back occurs and good to go.

Just trying to save you a step on your single stage. I loaded on one (Lee single stage) for my first 5 years of reloading.

Springfield0612 said:

Crimping cases when using lead bullets is not really required. If you are using the Lee bullet seat/crimp die to remove the bell and add neck tension to the bullet you really don't need to add any extra crimp or roll crimp. Doing so you can cause the neck to bite into the lead a little too much and cause the bullet to not obturate and seal in the barrel correctly. I load cast lead exclusively and sold all of my Lee crimp dies, once the round comes out of the bullet seat/crimp die, I check the neck tension and ensure no bullet set back occurs and good to go.

Just trying to save you a step on your single stage. I loaded on one (Lee single stage) for my first 5 years of reloading.

Click to expand...

I can not agree. Ammo meant for a semi-auto needs a taper crimp so the bullets don't set-back and revolver ammo needs a roll crimp so the bullets don't pull. Sure neck tension is the most important and you can get away with not crimping with rifle ammo but not handgun ammo unless it's shot from a single shot gun.

Of course you should never over-crimp but a correctly applied crimp is needed with handgun ammo.