148 gr. Wadcutter in 9mm?

[eldon519]

Has anyone ever successfully gotten their 9mm pistol to feed true .38 special wadcutters loaded into 9mm cases? I ran a search and could only find info about people trying it with SWCs. I am thinking about trying it with cast, double-beveled (ie non-hollow-base) bullets like you see from Meister, Hunters Supply, etc. Seems like they would be fun at the range or if they feed well, a good small-game round for woods carry.

 

[eldon519]

FYI, I also load with a Lee Factory Crimp die, so it should resize and reduce the bulge of a .358 projectile.

 

[Floppy_D]

My reloading buddy uses 158g LSWCs meant for a 357 (but sized down to .356) and has had great success with them... that bullet in particular has a much wider meplat than traditional SWC intended for semi-autos...

I imagine you're going to have feeding issues. If you have any luck, let us know, but I've never heard of that working.

 

[RyanM]

You're also going to have trouble getting the gun to cycle, unless you either load them faster than intended (lead city), or use a reduced power recoil spring.

 

[ranger335v]

You can single load them but few, if any, 9mm auto loaders are going to feed WC ammo from a magazine.

 

[dwhite]

This sounds like a fun experiment. if I had a 9mm I'd absolutely give it a try. Load 10 and see what happens.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[eldon519]

I think I might seat a FMJ upside down just to see if I can get my pistol to feed it and then go from there. If that works, I might make a small test batch, but I don't have any on hand at the moment.

 

[Steve C]

The problem is going to be the length of the bullet and the small 9mm case capicity. The HB wadcutter is aobout as long as the case and the solid base is very close. The next problem will be having enough room to seat the bullet without having it run into the rifling before the case is fully seated in the chamber.

There are 115gr SWC's bullets for the 9mm available from commercial casters that are similar in design to what is used in the .45 acp that would be more appropriate for target paper punching.

 

[ranger335v]

You can reduce the charge to compensate for the larger bullet/smaller residual case volume. But you can't compensate for that square case mouth/bullet hitting the feed ramp and stopping.

 

[eldon519]

And the award goes to....[drum roll]....wait for it....Steve C!

Exactly as predicted, the bullet rams into the rifling. They do actually feed like a charm in my Hi Power despite this fact. I tried it with both a 158 grain SWC beveled base seated upside down and a 147 grain Oregon trail beveled base FP seated upside down. The bullets were seated about as deep as I could get them with light tapping.

The 158gr SWC probably had about 1/4" protruding from the case and chambered but could not go all the way into battery. The bullet engraved into the rifling and was pulled out of the case when I got the slide open.

The 147gr had about 1/8" protruding and chambered, but engraved into the rifling and was very difficult to extract, but came out still in the case once I got the slide open.

I would suspect that it may be possible to get a 148gr double-beveled cast bullet to load and fire, but it would require a greatly reduced powder charge, and I am not comfortable experimenting further because I do not have experience making super-light squib type loads, nor do I have a chronograph. If anyone would like to continue where I left off, I'd recommend just to try seating a beveled-base case bullet upside down to check if your gun would feed and then go from there but feeding really posed no issue. Something like a upside down 124 gr FP may achieve similar desired results without the required experimentation.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I wouldn't attempt it myself but feel free to experiment.
mike at mastercastbullets makes a very good 124gr tc fp that shoots great from my 5906, feeds perfect too.

 

[trentcwwilson]

I think I might seat a FMJ upside down just to see if I can get my pistol to feed it and then go from there. If that works, I might make a small test batch, but I don't have any on hand at the moment.

I've tried this when I was loading for my 38 spec. Paper target showed the bullet tumbles. But I'm seriously interested in all of this. I'm just getting back into 9mm and I have well over 10,000 cast 38 bullets I'd like to try.

 

[ljnowell]

Maybe try giving some of these a try? 75 grain Wadcutters
http://www.mattsbullets.com/index.p...id=231&zenid=74ad13405ca56fe1ce0129e1489f39f2

 

[Dudedog]

Yep case size is an issue. I have shot a lot of Missouri Bullet Company 9mm 125gr SWCs both coated anad uncoated. (prefer the coated ones no that they are available) They make nice clean holes in paper targets.
MBC offers THR members a 5% discount with the code. (At the start BDSs PIF thread)

 

[eldon519]

Now that's a blast from the past. I was just reading through this scratching my head trying to recall why I wanted to do this in the first place. Still not sure I know :-/

 

[PapaG]

Worked in my P85, but everything worked in it. It loved the RCBS 38-150KT, which did bulge cases but shot tight groups. Some 150 hollow points were fun on chucks.
Darn. Wish I'd kept it.

 

[LiveLife]

I think I might seat a FMJ upside down just to see if I can get my pistol to feed it and then go from there. If that works, I might make a small test batch, but I don't have any on hand at the moment.

My Glock 22 with KKM/Lone Wolf 40-9 conversion barrels will feed empty cases.

I just seated 115 gr Winchester FMJ/Berry's HBRN/RMR HM RN and MBC 124 gr RN BB/Dardas 126 gr SWC FB bullets upside down (see picture below) and they all fed/chambered from the magazine except Dardas SWC bullet as the flat base expanded when it was seated. So I think use of bevel base lead bullets would be better over flat base.

I am thinking about trying it with cast, double-beveled (ie non-hollow-base)

You are going to have significant amount of bullet base inside the case neck. As you seat the bullet base deeper, the case wall will get thicker and will bulge the case.

If you are going to use .358" sized .38 bullets for 9mm, check your chamber first. Unless your chamber is generous, you may want to consider sizing the bullets down to .356" first so finished rounds will fully chamber in the barrel.