Loading some 9mm bayou bullets

[DBEAM]

I'm going to load some bayou 9mm 124 Gr. TCG tonight and was wondering if there is anything different I need to do as far as expanding the cases and seating the bullets as opposed to jacketed bullets. I am using a lee die set and am going to use the factory crimp die unless I shouldn't with coated bullets.

 

[Walkalong]

You may need to expand the case a bit more to seat a lead or coated bullet with no shaving vs a jacketed bullet. Depends on how much you are flaring/belling now.

I wouldn't, but others would.

 

[Dudedog]

I like the Lee FCD and use in 9mm with MBC coated bullets.
Other people don't care for it, Kind of a love/hate thing.
I would recommend you load some with it and some with out it and test to see if it helps, hurts, or makes no difference.

As Walkalong mentioned you may need a little more flair than with jacketed.

 

[ETXhiker]

One other thing - be sure to "plunk test" your rounds for seating depth. The Bayou 124 gr. TC bullet profile will require seating a little deeper with some pistols. The ogive doesn't taper as much as it looks like and with my G26, the bullet was hitting the lands until I went to 1.08".

 

[nevadabob]

I use the Lee FCD with my coated bullets. And you are doing the plunk test, right?

 

[Toprudder]

What ETX said - plunk test to determine the right OAL.

What others said - may need to flare a little more. I don't like to flare any more than I have to, so when I am loading plated bullets I don't flare very much. I definitely have to flare more when using coated bullets or I will occasionally shave off some coating.

I am a fan of the FCD, but my 9mm setup uses the Dillon crimp die, so I can't comment on the FCD in this case.

 

[DBEAM]

Well it looks like ETX hiker is right about the oal mine were about 1.145, my speer manual for 124 gr fmj was 1.135 so I tried to get them around 1.140 but it looks like my load master makes the coal a little longer once all stations are going. Anyways these still passed the plunk test as far as I can tell in my pt111 pro (they will drop right in might take a tap to get them back out) but they hang up on the feed ramp. I was surprised two have 2 magazines worth feed today but it jammed up on the feed ramp on the last few rounds of the third.
As far as flaring I used the same flare as I used for the Hornaday fmj rn I loaded before and it seemed to be about right. I think I'll try some of the bayou 9mm round nose next as I really don't want to load the oal that much lower then the manual.

EDIT. I was not doing the plunk test correctly, found out I could push the bullets maybe a 1/16 of an inch farther after they stopped and would then take a rod to push out. I looked closer at them because some primers looked like they were pushing out some around where the striker hit them. Hopefully I didn't get the pressures to high. Thanks for bringing this to my attention ETX.

 

[Toprudder]

I noticed I had to seat the TCG shorter than I do RN bullets, or they would not pass the plunk test. In my case it was 1.105".

 

[cali_blues]

same here I had to load 1.09 to plunk in my CZ.