Wanting to try out loading 9mm 147 grainers for fun (plan on getting a few RMR FMJs). Available powders are 700-X and TiteGroup. My Lyman #49 manual has data for 147gr TMJ, which I know is Speer’s offering. Are those the same as FMJ, or can I use FMJs with that set of data? People seem to do this, but wanted to check as well
9mm 147gr Data
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lordpaxman
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My understanding of Speers’ TMJ is that they are a plated bullet, not jacketed. I load plated at the start to mid-range jacketed data and they do fine. You should be fine with using the TMJ data especially if it’s for fun loads. Good luck!
papajoe222
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I've been loading 147gr Hornady XTP with TiteGroup for a while now and am very happy using them in all my 9mm's. They're a jacketed hollow point, but I'd venture to say that you could use the starting load data and work up from there. With this powder the difference between starting and max load is only .6gr so small steps if you plan on experimenting.
LiveLife
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But not all plated bullets have same plating thickness.
While many regular plated bullets have around .004" thickness copper plating and should be used with lead load data or plated load data, Speer TMJ have thicker plating around .015" and can be pushed to jacketed load data - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ng-at-25-50-yards.808446/page-3#post-10470195
And TMJ should be used with TMJ load data which is typically higher than regular plated bullet load data - https://www.speer-ammo.com/reloading/handgun
BTW, jacketed bullets have gilding metal thickness of .015"+
I found 1200 fps rating on regular plated bullets is point of failure for plating, not accuracy. And when regular plated bullets were pushed beyond mid-range load data, accuracy fell for me.
With 1500 fps rated thicker plated bullets, accuracy could be maintained with jacketed load data depending on the make of the bullet.
So considering that I won’t be pushing the bullets to those velocities, is it ok the load FMJ bullets with the TMJ data?
LiveLife
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Yes. Look at below FMJ vs TMJ load data
- 9mm 125 gr Sierra FMJ Titegroup COL 1.090" Start 4.1 gr (1,069 fps) - Max 4.4 gr (1,136 fps) - http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
- 9mm 124 gr Speer TMJ Titegroup OAL 1.135" Start 4.0 gr (1,020 fps) - Max 4.4 gr (1,095 fps) - https://www.speer-ammo.com/download...m_caliber_355-366_dia/9mm_Luger__124_rev1.pdf
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lordpaxman
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I agree the plating thickness differs among brands, and matters but would caution using lead data for plated. When plated first came out and there wasn’t any data the consensus back then was to use lead data which lead to squibs. I had one in a .38 load workup with Titegroup. The plated brands I use now either have published data or say to use low-mid jacketed data.
longdayjake
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Keep in mind that CBC brass and aguila won't work with the rmr 147s. They have way too thick walls and the 147s will bulge. We get a lot of complaints about our 147s being too big but guys don't realize that it's the brass that is out of spec. Our 147 was designed to work is SAAMI spec cases.
Thanks for responding Jake. Is that both plated and FMJ?
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