thefish said:
my first 9mm loads last night, five of em! I wanted to get a 2nd opinion before I load any more.
Using the load data and instructions on the lee 9mm die set ... 4.1 grains of hodgson titegroup under an extreme 124 grain plated round nose, with a col of 1.150.
Bullet passed the plunk test in my Taurus pt709/shield ... Thoughts or advice?
As many posted, you are using the max pulished load data listed by powder manufacturer of Titegroup which is Hodgdon. Often powder manufacturers publish more conservative load data than bullet manufacturers (and Lee Precision simply copies/pastes these load data in their publications) and I often use the more conservative load data to start out my powder work up when using new bullet I have not used before.
We reference load data for Berry's plated bullet because X-Treme is plated and not jacketed. Although I have used jacketed load data for some X-Treme bullets with good results, it is a good idea to use more conservative load data for your initial powder work up.
The reason why you don't want to start out with max charge is there are variables to reloading. Unless your scale is verified to 0.1 gr accuracy with the use of check weights for the powder charge your are using (4.0 gr), scales (especially digital scales) can be off by .1-.2+ gr. Bullets can often be seated deeper when the round is loaded from the magazine and bumped on the feed ramp by the slide slamming behind them. This could seat the bullet deeper (we call this bullet setback) which will increase chamber pressure (You check bullet setback by measuring OAL/COL before and after feeding/chambering from the magazine).
So if you are starting at max charge and used .2+ gr higher at 4.3+ gr due to scale inaccuracy and experience bullet setback, your chamber pressure will go higher. Since I use range pick up brass with unknown reload history and condition of the brass (that may experience varying degrees of brass spring back after being resized), when I am starting out with a new powder/bullet, I like to have some buffer headroom to compensate for these issues. Using published start charge to conduct your powder work up is insurance against these reloading variables as you monitor for pressure signs, reliability of loads and accuracy trends.
This is what Hodgdon lists for Titegroup and lead, plated and jacketed bullets -
http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp
125 GR. Lead CN Titegroup 1.125" Start 3.6 gr (1002 fps) 22,900 CUP - Max 4.0 gr (1096 fps) 30,400 CUP
124 GR. BERB HBRN-TP Titegroup 1.150" Start 3.6 gr (957 fps) 27,700 PSI - Max 4.1 gr (1057 fps) 32,700 PSI
125 GR. Sierra FMJ Titegroup 1.090" Start 4.1 gr (1069 fps) 27,300 CUP - Max 4.4 gr (1136 fps) 30,600 CUP
For 124 gr plated RN bullet like Berry's HBRN-TP bullet, start charge of 3.6 gr and max charge of 4.1 gr are listed for 1.150" OAL/COL.
Different pistols require different powder charges to reliably cycle the slide (especially for compact/subcompact pistols with stiffer recoil springs). Some of many reasons why we conduct powder work up from published start charge is to identify the powder charge where the slide reliably cycles to feed/chamber/extract/eject spent cases. Once we identify that powder charge, then we incrementally (.1-.2 gr) increase the powder charge towards published max charge to identify the most accurate load.
Often accuracy will build around mid-to-high range and most accurate loads at high-to-near max load data. Depending on the powder, sometimes accuracy is obtained at high range and not at max charge.
While Hodgdon lists 3.6 gr as start charge for Berry's 124 gr plated RN bullet, 3.6 gr start charge (especially at longer OAL/COL of 1.150") may not reliably cycle the stiffer recoil springs of many semi-auto pistols. While 1.150" may have passed the barrel drop test in the Taurus barrel for max OAL/COL, unless you function checked by feeding/chambering from the magazine, it may be too long to be your "working OAL/COL". If you are looking for accuracy, you want your bullet base closer to the start of rifling to reduce high pressure gas leakage but still reliably feed/chamber from the magazine and that seems to be around 1.140" for some of my barrels and I use 1.135" to reliably feed/chamber in all the pistols I load for.
At 1.135" OAL/COL, 3.8 gr of Titegroup with 124 gr plated RN bullets (Berry's/Rainier/X-Treme) will reliably cycle the slides of my pistols and 4.0 gr will produce slightly greater accuracy. I have not shot your pistols which are compacts/subcompacts. You can load 10 test rounds at 3.6, 3.8, 3.9 and 4.0 gr and see which powder charge will start to reliably cycle the slide and which charge will produce greatest accuracy. I would also use the shorter OAL/COL that works reliably for both pistols.
I hope this helped.
