Hondo 60
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Berry's says to use low to mid JACKETED data on their plated bullets
From Berry's website:
From Berry's website:
Whats your go to 9mm load?
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LiveLife
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We no longer need to guess what load data to use with plated bullets as Hodgdon, Accurate and Ramshot load data lists Berry's and Rainier plated bullets.Hondo 60 said:
Hodgdon load data list Berry's bullets under BERB for 9mm and 40S&W and Accurate/Ramshot load data list Berry's bullets under BRY and Rainier bullets under RAN for 9mm through 45Colt.
tcoz
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115gr X-treme plated RN, 6.0 gr AA#5 (.40 disk using Lee ProDisk Powder measure), 1.145 COL
Potatohead
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You all seat much longer than me. I wonder if I would have better results with longer seating.
jwrowland77
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There's only one way to find out....experiment. That's what's great about reloading. You're not stuck to one thing.
Vodoun da Vinci
Member
What length are your seating at?
I plunk tested my Glock and Beretta barrels and then pushed the bullet down another little bit to just keep the bullets out of the rifling...the Beretta needed to go quite a bit shorter than the Glock and my OAL for Glock only would likely have been pretty long compared to what others have posted. Seems to be quite some variation in barrels so, like jrowland77 pointed out, we can maximize and build rounds to our own personal requirements.
One of the biggest advantages to making "standard" ammunition that has to cater to the shortest chamber likely to be encountered. I have not much experience with 9mm and I am loving the shooting of my own range ammo...tailor made my me for my guns.
What a rush.
VooDoo
I plunk tested my Glock and Beretta barrels and then pushed the bullet down another little bit to just keep the bullets out of the rifling...the Beretta needed to go quite a bit shorter than the Glock and my OAL for Glock only would likely have been pretty long compared to what others have posted. Seems to be quite some variation in barrels so, like jrowland77 pointed out, we can maximize and build rounds to our own personal requirements.
One of the biggest advantages to making "standard" ammunition that has to cater to the shortest chamber likely to be encountered. I have not much experience with 9mm and I am loving the shooting of my own range ammo...tailor made my me for my guns.
What a rush.
VooDoo
Potatohead
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I'm just now getting to where I'm really experimenting. Ive mainly loaded at 1.125". My sr9 will take up to 1.16 I do believe. I haven't really had much chance to really see what works best.
LiveLife
Member
The longer the round, closer the bullet will be to the start of rifling and will result in less high pressure gas leakage when the primer ignites the powder charge to build chamber pressure sooner.Potatohead said:
And in theory, this will produce more consistent chamber pressures that will result in more consistent muzzle velocities/lower SD numbers and greater accuracy. So if your barrel will support longer OAL/COL than 1.125", then longer lengths (say 1.140"-1.150" or longer working lengths that will reliably feed/chamber from the magazine) should produce greater accuracy (but powder charges need to be adjusted for shallower bullet seating depths).
IMO, there's a point where this may not be the case, especially with lighter 115 gr bullet with shorter bullet base. You do want enough bullet base seated inside the case neck to provide sufficient neck tension/resistance for the initial powder burn/chamber pressure build. I think longer 124/125 gr bullet base seated deeper in the case neck may be a contributing factor why 124/125/147 gr bullets may tend to produce greater accuracy than 115 gr bullet, not to mention longer bearing surface may engage the rifling better for rotational stability in flight.
So even for match shooters with barrel/pistol that will accommodate 1.169" OAL, they may use shorter 1.135"-1.150"+ lengths unless they need to load longer to stuff more powder under the bullet.
I think the best thing to do would be to test different lengths to see which lengths produce greater accuracy. You could try 1.135", 1.145" and 1.155" and go from there while increasing powder charge accordingly for longer lengths. I load for multiple pistols and all of my rounds must feed/chamber in any pistol that may show up when my family/friends/neighbors/coworkers join me to the range. So far for 9mm, 1.135" has worked well for FMJ/RN nose profile. YMMV depending on the pistol/barrel.
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Potatohead
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Interesting. Thanks BDS.
PM sent to avoid hijack.
PM sent to avoid hijack.
Saleen322
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If you are new to reloading and you developed this load yourself, you did very well. You will play with a lot of stuff and find VERY few that will shoot more accurately. I have tried most of the powders listed in this thread and only Power Pistol shot as well or better than WSF. One I have heard good things about but have not tried is Autocomp. Good luck with your loads as you are off to a good start.
Packnteacher
Member
Sexybeast--thanx for the info. What's the OAL on the 124 gr LRN?
Hey Packinteacher, I think you are referring to a question you asked on another thread. I'll answer it here:
OAL is not important on light loads. A few thousanths will make little if any difference. Bullet shape and your barrels will determine that.
How many 9's are you loading for? Take out each barrel and drop the round in until it fits. You want them as long as possible and still fit in each barrel.
I don't know what the OAL on my 9's are. I use so many different bullets from 122tc, 125 ball, 126swc, and 125 cone. But I use the same load for each. 3.7gr of 231/hp38. OAL's on each of these are all probably different for each. I don't know. I have never measured OAL's unless I am loading max.
Anyone who tells you that OAL is uber-important for your rounds to work is wasting your time.
OAL is not important on light loads. A few thousanths will make little if any difference. Bullet shape and your barrels will determine that.
How many 9's are you loading for? Take out each barrel and drop the round in until it fits. You want them as long as possible and still fit in each barrel.
I don't know what the OAL on my 9's are. I use so many different bullets from 122tc, 125 ball, 126swc, and 125 cone. But I use the same load for each. 3.7gr of 231/hp38. OAL's on each of these are all probably different for each. I don't know. I have never measured OAL's unless I am loading max.
Anyone who tells you that OAL is uber-important for your rounds to work is wasting your time.
Saleen322
Member
FWIW, these two targets were shot @ 25 yards with the same pistol, the same load EXCEPT the one OAL is 0.035" longer. IMHO, length will generally give you more gain than powder charge changes. Once your groups "round out", power charge changes usually don't help much after that. YMMV
Blue68f100
Member
My BHP likes a particular length, shot group improved noticeably, similar to Salleen322. But my Sig did not make any difference with the powder/bullet combo. You will also find that some guns like different weight bullets.
Dudedog
Contributing Member
Missouri Bullets 125 LCN, 3.8 Universal Clays 1.11 OAL
Potatohead
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Are you saying COL is not that important in just getting your rounds to work ? Or getting them to work accurately?
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rke.northwest
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I have found that outside temperature play a factor in reloading. For the 9mm Universal Clays is acceptable but for warmer weather shooting 115 grains FMJ and 4.5 grains of powder.
Also, Tite Group during the really cold days becasue it shoots hotter, 115 grain FMJ at 4.0 grains of powder.
There are other powders that work equally as well, the importance now a days is cost of the powder and the avialability. Tite Group takes less may cost more.
Good luck new reloader.
Also, Tite Group during the really cold days becasue it shoots hotter, 115 grain FMJ at 4.0 grains of powder.
There are other powders that work equally as well, the importance now a days is cost of the powder and the avialability. Tite Group takes less may cost more.
Good luck new reloader.
TurboFC3S
Member
Since I'm loading for about 15 different pistols, my all-arounder load is set to 1.13". Some like it a bit longer, others shorter ... that produces good results in all.
115gr Montana CMJ
4.5gr HP-35
Fed 100 primers
mixed brass
Gets to about 1150fps in a Sig 229, 1220 in my Beretta 92, and 1080 in shorter guns like a Ruger LC9 and sig P938. For whatever reason that load in the Ruger shows high-pressure signs ... nothing dangerous, but pretty flat primers. All others the primer is still rounded with just a mild firing pin divot.
115gr Montana CMJ
4.5gr HP-35
Fed 100 primers
mixed brass
Gets to about 1150fps in a Sig 229, 1220 in my Beretta 92, and 1080 in shorter guns like a Ruger LC9 and sig P938. For whatever reason that load in the Ruger shows high-pressure signs ... nothing dangerous, but pretty flat primers. All others the primer is still rounded with just a mild firing pin divot.
Also one of my favorites. Discovered Universal when i could find nothing else that I usually used. Good luck finding it now!
Potatohead asked:
Accuracy! I gave examples of the bullets at 125gr that all have to be set at different OAL's in order to chamber. With light loads the pressure difference is almost nil. You get more pressure variations with different weight bullets. Ever weigh cast lead bullets? I have found that they are 2gr + or - with many of them. This will change the pressure more than a couple thousanths.
This from experimentation I have done. With RN and Cone and Truncated I tried small variations. With 147's I tried two different OAL's and it made no difference. I'm usually not satisfied until the loads will do 2" or less at 40 feet.
Saleen: What load and bullet were you using in your CZ 75 to get such differences? Almost all of my testing were with my Glock 17 or M&P 9pro. Some testing with a 1911 too, but I have mostly given up with it for shooting light lead loads.
Those are nice and clean holes, are they semiwadcutters?
I did not know that about titegroup. Good to know. What is your source of info on this?
You are in the Northwest, back a few weeks ago during the cold front I shot at a match [24degrees] and noticed no difference. I was shooting max load of 4.8gr of titegroup behind a 115gr fmj. You shoot 4.0, do you feel a difference during cold weather.
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