9mm handloads

[WeekendReloader]

When I start at minimum charges by the book, often times it will not/barely cycle my Walther PPQ. Although it is rather neat that the cases dribble out and land at my feet, I work up a bit more to get a positive cycle/eject.

I loaded some 95gn cast 380 bullets into 9mm using a little bit of Win231. They were really accurate and felt like shooting a pellet gun. I'd make more, but I only have a two-cavity mold. It takes too long to make enough for general plinking. I use my 6-cavity molds for plinking loads with a dash of titegroup.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

When I start at minimum charges by the book, often times it will not/barely cycle my Walther PPQ. Although it is rather neat that the cases dribble out and land at my feet, I work up a bit more to get a positive cycle/eject.

I loaded some 95gn cast 380 bullets into 9mm using a little bit of Win231. They were really accurate and felt like shooting a pellet gun. I'd make more, but I only have a two-cavity mold. It takes too long to make enough for general plinking. I use my 6-cavity molds for plinking loads with a dash of titegroup.

Now we really are sounding more like chefs than gun guys. A pinch of this, a dash of that, cooking up squabs...

Take a look at the ACME "Green" .356" bullets. No leading, inexpensive, in stock... and they just look cool in gnarly, crusty, tarnished, range abused brass.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I see a squib in my future.

I hope not! I worked DOWN to the load from the minimum on purpose. Best advice I ever give anybody and it bears repeating: don't do what I do. You do you.

 

[DMW1116]

I’ve been considering casting but don’t know anyone that used it for 9mm. I have a friend that casts for his 45 ACP and has tuned the load so it is mild enough he can recover his sight picture as soon as the slide returns to position. He said the bullets are going slow though. You can see them coming but don’t have time to do anything about it. Maybe 700 FPS or so?

 

[DMW1116]

So how should Berrys Bullets be treated? I have a lot more load data for the new powder than CFE Pistol. It ranges from 3 grains to 4.8 depending on source and if it’s treated like an FMJ or cast LRN? I just loaded up a test batch of 25 with 115 grain Berrys and a minimum charge of Winchester 231 using data from Hodgdens website. Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook goes as low as 3 grains for a 120 grain Lead Round Nose (LRN).

 

[Zendude]

So how should Berrys Bullets be treated? I have a lot more load data for the new powder than CFE Pistol. It ranges from 3 grains to 4.8 depending on source and if it’s treated like an FMJ or cast LRN? I just loaded up a test batch of 25 with 115 grain Berrys and a minimum charge of Winchester 231 using data from Hodgdens website. Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook goes as low as 3 grains for a 120 grain Lead Round Nose (LRN).

For copper plated bullets like Berrys or Xtreme, I start at the minimum load for jacketed bullets. The loads I end up with are always near the midpoint of the minimum and maximum jacketed load range.

 

[lordpaxman]

Take a look at the ACME "Green" .356" bullets.

Aren’t those reserved for zombies?

So how should Berrys Bullets be treated?

https://www.berrysmfg.com/faq

From all the plated load development I’ve done, if there was no published plated data, I found jacketed data to be the most useful. Good luck.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

So how should Berrys Bullets be treated? I have a lot more load data for the new powder than CFE Pistol. It ranges from 3 grains to 4.8 depending on source and if it’s treated like an FMJ or cast LRN? I just loaded up a test batch of 25 with 115 grain Berrys and a minimum charge of Winchester 231 using data from Hodgdens website. Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook goes as low as 3 grains for a 120 grain Lead Round Nose (LRN).

Western Powders has loads for most of the Berry’s and Rainier plated bullets. The 8th Ed. of the manual is available as a free download from the Western site. Compare the loads, velocities and pressure for BRB and RNR with jacketed and cast for the identical bullet weight and profile-apples to apples. Plated are typically lower than jacketed but higher than swaged; pretty close to medium hard cast (vs #2 Alloy). Find the same pressure at velocity for your powder and you have your load range. Start low, build up.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Aren’t those reserved for zombies?

 

[BOISE BADWOLF]

Here's a few good loads.
Berrys 115g RN, 5.7 grains of A#5, OAL-1.105
FPS-1072, super accurate load!
Also have great results using A#7 for Berrys 147grain RN, 6.5 grains of A#7, OAL-1.160. Havent chronographed but super accurate load.
I like that I can use the same 6.5 grains of #7 for the berrys 115s at an OAL of 1.100, and get another great load. Accurate powders are excellent! P.S- I use a light crimp

 

[DMW1116]

I tried the minimum charge and it looks like this combo will be my go to load for plinking loads.

I ran 25 rounds through my Shield and M&P9 mostly for function check. It was a load of 115 grain Berrys bullets over the minimum charge of Winchester 231, which is 4.3 grains according to Hodgdens website as well as the Hodgden section of my 9mm Loading Handbook/Pamphlet. This is the little bound compilation of 9mm load data I picked up when I started reloading.

All 25 cycled without fail, though the brass did not fall at my feet like the minimum charge of CFE Pistol did. I’ll have to do a bit more testing but accuracy seems to be at least as good as the CFE Pistol. Maybe the velocity reduction was beneficial in that regard.

Unfortunately most of my hard copy load manuals/sources did not have information on CFE Pistol, which is evidently fairly new. Winchester 231 does not suffer this deficiency and data is present in nearly all sections of my hard copy sources.

Winchester 231 looks like it will be a good 9mm powder for my uses. I’m not after top velocities and would trade some potential there for more accuracy. I’ll use the rest of my CFE Pistol for times when velocity is more important. For 99% of my use it is a distant second, but for some applications it is equal to accuracy in terms of priority. The CFE Pistol appears to be useful in a wider variety of calibers so that’s another good use if I get into reloading other pistol calibers.

231 is listed as a ball powder, but it must be flattened balls, because they look like flakes to me, more so than CFE Pistol. In any case I am well pleased with the new powder. It’s about the only other option that was available locally and I mostly just wanted to try something new. I won’t complain about the same amount of powder loading about 15% more rounds either.

 

[DMW1116]

Aren’t those reserved for zombies?

Well yea. You don’t have zombies where you are? Man I gotta move.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Well yea. You don’t have zombies where you are? Man I gotta move.

 

[DMW1116]

Thanks for the recommendation of the Acme bullets. I tried them out today and went lower in charge. Hodgdens minimum is 3.9 grains of Winchester 231 for a 125 grain lead conical nose bullet. I went down to 3.3 grains with good accuracy and no function issues. Accuracy was actually among the best I’ve seen from my M&P9 at 15 yards. It was off hand and I pulled a couple, but I was doing that with everything today pistol related.

Lyman lists a starting charge of 2.6 grains of Winchester 231 with a cast 130 grain bullet, so my plan is to work down to that unless I see issues first.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

Thanks for the recommendation of the Acme bullets. I tried them out today and went lower in charge. Hodgdens minimum is 3.9 grains of Winchester 231 for a 125 grain lead conical nose bullet. I went down to 3.3 grains with good accuracy and no function issues. Accuracy was actually among the best I’ve seen from my M&P9 at 15 yards. It was off hand and I pulled a couple, but I was doing that with everything today pistol related.

Lyman lists a starting charge of 2.6 grains of Winchester 231 with a cast 130 grain bullet, so my plan is to work down to that unless I see issues first.

Sounds great. Glad they’re working out. I noticed they changed the profile since my last order. I will say it’s a improvement. I think 3.1gr was where I started seeing FFF problems with the Firestar using the previous bullet. I haven’t had a chance to try the new ones yet. It’s a compact so the spring is pretty stiff.

 

[DMW1116]

I need to investigate a little more. If you saw feeding issues at 3.1 maybe I need to make sure the details match w/r to COAL and charge.

 

[Shaggy357]

Using light loads you have to be cognizant of powder location on firing. Even with 9mm. Powder close to primer will be nano seconds faster than powder close to bullet. Nano seconds in pressure building can make a difference in velocity and in the way the action functions.
Holding gun up and coming down to fire may have higher velocity and work the action perfectly. Pointing the gun down and coming up to fire has powder closer to bullet. Pressures and velocity may be slower and action may not work properly. This minor difference can be especially true depending on slide spring difference between two different guns.
I have a 38 Special load that I have to use a foam wad to keep powder close to primer. When there, the projectile being fired performs flawlessly. When I leave the card out, sometimes the projectile tumbles or goes way off target.
This phenomenon is not true in all calibers nor with all powder, but it is something to consider if a load worked last week but doesn’t work today, or if gun fires fine when “Bob” is shooting and stove pipes every time “Tim” fires it. Load becomes marginal based on location of powder in partially full case.

 

[DMW1116]

This powder is pretty fluffy. I don’t see this type of thing being an issue though for lower power in general it’s definitely something to consider.

I did finish download testing this weekend. The minimum published charge for a cast lead bullet was from the Lyman data in my 9mm reloading hand book. It is 2.6 grains for a 130 grain cast bullet. I’m using a 125 grain cast bullet. The minimum load for a cast lead bullet from Hodgden for this powder is 3.9 grains. I got down to 2.9 with good function, though the brass dropped on the shooting table beside my bag and was quite sooty. 2.7 grains didn’t even open the slide, let alone eject the case. I’ll probably bump up to 3 grains for a nice round number and to ensure function. I only loaded 2 of each charge so some volume testing is in order. I have to see how my powder measure handles such low charges and I may have to go higher just to be consistent there. Accuracy was very good on each test, minus 2 fliers that I manages to pull, one high and one low.

 

[DMW1116]

Oh, and while these are intended for one pistol only, I’ll check them in the other to see if they work just by chance.

 

[stillquietvoice]

Well I went against my better judgement of waiting for primers to make a comeback and reloaded 200 rounds of 9mm, dipping into my supply of 38 Super bullets.
Loaded up 100 rounds of Xtreme 124gr. plated flat points using 5.1 gr.'s of CFE Pistol. First time trying out this powder.
The other 100 rounds were with the same bullet over 3.9gr's of Titegroup.
Hope it proves to be worthwhile, sure hated parting with the components.

You could always try srp in your 9mm if you can't find any more spp. While I haven't tried srp in 9mm yet others on this board have.