Need Help with 9x18 Makarov Loads

You can get dies and supplies from Midway USA. I got good results with 3.6 gr. of Acc #2 and 95 gr. jacketed bullets

Might want to look into cast bullets... Really economical, and achieve very good accuracy, and perfect function for me in my CZ82. The Hornady JHP bullets expand really well - too well in my experience, and I feel do not deliver enough penetration. Last data is Fiocchi factory, and it's wimpy.

As for loads, I have a ton of them I have shot, and can give you some idea of performance, at a given set of variables... That said:

Posted for illustrative purposes ONLY, use and consider at your own risk. They work fine and safely for me, my experience level, and variables... But maybe not for you. Some data seems like a repeat; just trying different days and conditions. Favorites Propellants are PowerPistol, WW231, and Unique.

3.7 gr 700x CCI 500 93 grain MC Mixed trimmed 9x19 cases
1083 1041 1025 1054 1059 AV 1052 ES 58 SD 21

5 gr Power Pistol CCI 500 95 grain Horn XTP Mixed trimmed 9x19 cases
1001 1031 1017 1007 1013 AV 1013 ES 30 SD 11

3.7 grains 700x 93 grain .365” LRN CCI 500 mixed formed cases
1057 1028 1030 1025 1040 AV 1036 ES 32 SD 13

7.2 grains Blue Dot 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1070 1068 993 (Federal case?) 1036 969 (Federal case?) AV 1027 ES 101 SD 45

6.2 grain AA#5 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1011 (Federal case?) 1083 1080 1092 1039 (Federal case?) AV 1061 ES 81 SD 34

3.2 grains International Clays 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1007 1000 986 999 987 AV 995 ES 21 SD 9

6 grains HS-6 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
951 956 981 975 953 AV 963 ES 30 SD 13

3.5 grains 700x 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
992 969 971 982 988 AV 980 ES 23 SD 10

4 grains Bullseye 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1071 1087 1084 1090 1046 AV 1075 ES 44 SD18

4.8 grains Unique 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1017 ??? 1107 1109 1106 AV 1084 ES 92 SD 45

7 grains Blue Dot 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
964 1011 994 1057 965 AV 998 ES 93 SD 38

3.3 grains 700x 93 grain mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
991 961 1001 970 998 AV 984 ES 40 SD17

5 grains Power Pistol 93 grains Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1098 1096 1128 1054 822??? ***

3.2 International Clays 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
873 944 964 838 1146? AV 953 ES 308 SD 119

3.8 grains WW231 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
998 936 1001 1006 1010 AV 990 ES 74 SD 30

3.8 grains Bullseye 93 grain Mastercast LRN sized .365” CCI 500
1031 1005 1012 1006 1064 AV 1023 ES 59 SD 24

4.7 grains Power pistol 95 grain Hornady XTP-HP WWSPP new Starline brass seated .965”
940 912 973 954 962 AV 948 ES 61 SD 23

4.2 grains WW231 95 grain Hornady XTP-HP WWSPP new Starline brass seated .965”
1072 1072 1100 1108 1119 AV 1094 ES 47 SD 21

Fiocchi Factory 95 grain FMJ RN Made in Hungary
919 899 932 884 963 AV 919 ES 79 SD 30

I have been happy with the speer fmj bullet over 3.8 grains of universal in trimmed 9x19 cases.

I use the Meister 93gr cast lead RN for the bulk of my shooting, with the 95gr Honardy XTP's reserved for carry. Loaded with 3.5-4.0 gr of Universal.

I use cases converted from 9mm Luger exclusively. I don't shoot the Makarov anywhere near as much as I do 9mm, so I just load all the Makarov in nickel plated cases only, and never load 9mm Luger in nickel cases. Helps me keep them straight if they get mixed up by accident.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/4...95-grain-xtp-jacketed-hollow-point-box-of-100
http://www.meisterbullets.com/AWSProducts/406-C-22-P-0/09mm-093GR-365-RN-9-x-18-MAK

I bought some Berry's Bullets.They are 95gr plated RN. I shot them out of Red Army Standard, PPU and Fiocchi once-fired Mak brass and some various 9mm Luger range brass I trimmed down. Shot these through a Makarov and a P-64 with zero problems.

*walnut1704: Never thought about the nickel plated method to distinguish brass. Excellent idea! Any issues with the expansion or resizing dies with the nickel?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...karov-364-diameter-95-grain-plated-round-nose

I shoot a lot of berrys plated an load up whenever I see a sale. I bet the mak bullet would work great.

If you want to send me a PM I can PIF you some of these to try assuming it's legal for you to get bullets in the mail. (I don't know about Florida, I live in CA which has all kinds of screwy laws)
http://missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=112&category=5&secondary=28

When I bought the ones I have they did not offer the coated ones.
They shot well for me.
I used both 3.7 and 4gr of Universal.
No pressure signs or issues in at 4gr but 4gr should be considered a MAX load.
Can't seem to find the vels at the moment, had a Hard drive crash a couple years ago and lost some data. (Had backups just not as current as they should have been)

Ok, will try to get them out to you tomorrow.

What I did if I didn't have data was took .380 data and worked up from there.
A big generalization but most .380 MAX loads seemed to be a good start point.

MAK brass is somewhat pricey. You can trim 9X19 brass to work.
Back when I could order ammo online (stupid new CA law prevents it now)
I used S+B and PPU as a brass doner.
PPU seems to be good brass, I had no issues with the S+B brass but some people don't care for it

These might be a good donor
https://www.targetsportsusa.com/prvi-partizan-9mm-makarov-ammo-95-grain-jhp-pp-941-p-76590.aspx
https://www.targetsportsusa.com/prvi-partizan-9mm-makarov-ammo-93-grain-fmj-pp-r94-p-47.aspx

Fiocchi makes MAK ammo but for some reason they seem to have issues with getting the flash hole where it belongs in the middle of the case.
Ammo works fine, but if your not careful you can mangle a decap pin on the brass, I know this because I was not careful.

Starline makes brass
https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/9MM-Makarov-Brass/
about $88 for 500 so about half the price of what 500 rnds of loaded PPU would be .

I take a sharpie and color the base of the cases a different color than I use for 9mm to make it easier to tell it's MAK brass.
(I usually color bases of 9mm for different loads, or different runs of the same load, 8 pack of big sharpies from Wally World gives you 8 colors to work with)
After looking for 9MAK on the range for a while it gets easier to spot and tell apart form the .380/9X19 stuff, but I have to warn you in the beginning it likes to hide.

Patocazador said:

Isn't the inside diameter of 9x19 too short for the .365 bullet? Or does the expander die adequately 'bell' it?

Click to expand...

You can bell it enough. The first loading looks funny, but after that the brass is fire formed.

CAUTION: The following post includes untested loading data for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.

I like 4.0 grains of Green Dot with either a 95 grain XTP or Berrys plated. This is just slightly faster (1080 fps) than the factory S&B loads (1045 fps) out of my CZ83. This is a max load that you should work up to.

I have shot thousands of modified 9x19mm cases. Shooting range pick-up brass many are big enough that the expander does not need to do much. Some others are a little funny looking until they are fired once in the Mak chamber.

The ones I made I just ran thru my Lee 9mm MAK sizer then trimmed to the correct length.
Seemed to work fine no issues doing it other than the time it takes to trim them.
(need a clever jmorris machine here ....dump 9X19 brass in top, spits out 9 MAK brass resized and trimmed)
I trimmed mine by hand on my Hornady hand crank type trimmer, not a real speedy way to do it.

I made a jig to use a Lee trimmer in a drill press. I mounted a drill chuck on a plate that I bolt to the table of the drill press. This accepts the Lee shellholder. Then I chuck the Lee cutter and pilot into the quill chuck and trim away.

W5X said:

I bought some Berry's Bullets.They are 95gr plated RN. I shot them out of Red Army Standard, PPU and Fiocchi once-fired Mak brass and some various 9mm Luger range brass I trimmed down. Shot these through a Makarov and a P-64 with zero problems.

*walnut1704: Never thought about the nickel plated method to distinguish brass. Excellent idea! Any issues with the expansion or resizing dies with the nickel?

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...karov-364-diameter-95-grain-plated-round-nose

Click to expand...

None whatsoever. I shoot these in a PA-63. I've reloaded the nickel cases half a dozen times. I usually use a lighter load and a lead bullet for the first loading that fire forms the case. You can usually get people to give you their nickel brass, or trade it one-for-one for the non-nickel. Most guys have a smaller quantity of nickel brass in a can somewhere that they've culled and don't plan on using.

I would mark your brass with a sharpie so you don't get them mixed with 9mm brass

I dont know if this was posted but https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/9MM-Makarov-Brass/

Graf's has the PPU 9MAK HPs in stock, the RNs as well.
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/37?
$18/50 for the HPs, RNs are $17/50
They also have Starline 9MAK brass in stock $19/100.

I wouldn't put the PPU brass on the same level as the Starline brass but the batches I have are good brass.

Don't know if Dillon has all the parts but one of these might be the cats meow to trim 9X19 to 9MAK
https://www.dillonprecision.com/rt1500-electric-case-trimmer_8_8_26196.html

Anybody here have one for 9X19?
If so can you trim a 9X19 case to 9X18?

Good price for 9MAK ammo.