Suedenflames68
Member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2020
- Messages
- 102
So when I first started reloading few years ago I came up with my 9mm load and never messed with it. Focused of getting other loads figured out and dont shoot it much. Did a work up with power pistol, stepping up .2 gr each step from min to max. Ended up using 6.4gr , 115 jhp zero bullets, 1.150 OAL.
I came down to that overall length by seating bullet back slowly to tell when it quit hitting the lands in my g17. I was thinking it was longer than normal but recent events had me rechecking factory ammo I had for comparison and finding out that's about what most OAL on 9mm 115gr is.
This load worked in my ria 1911 and my baby glock I got later. I always pluck test new pistols before shooting my ammo. Found out it doesnt fit my p38 or my cz85.
I just got a kimber aegis elite custom oi 1911 9mm. Plunk tested at the range and saw my ammo wouldn't work, so plunked a factory pmc 115 through the ejection port and seemed free so shot a box of those. Nothing bad happened and had an ES of 33fps for the whole box. Average of 1150fps
So today I'm prepping brass for new test loads with several powders since I have a chrono now and can really dive deep on getting some consistent rounds. I checked the pmc oal and was surprised some were as long as 1.158" so I pull barrel and plunk test properly this time and find that tho they do plunk , they cant turn in the chamber due to hitting the rifling.
I also have federal and blazer 115 9mm factory ammo. Federal passes plunk and turn. Blazer mostly pass but can feel one or two that seem to drag ever so slightly turning. Both of those brands ranged from 1.140-1.150 oal.
I recheck my other 9mm pistols and all factory passes in those until I get to my wife's kimber sapphire ultra carry . Pmc will stick in the barrel on it also.
I plunk an empty prepped and expanded case in my kimber barrel and measure how much is sticking out to know what I need to get to when measuring to make sure bullet is off the rifling. I start a dummy round with my zero bullets dropping OAL in steps. Finaly full plunk at 1.075 but wont turn free. 1.070 let's it turn free. ....so looking at 1.065 or maybe even 1.060 to be safe.
Apparently the zero bullets are a fairly fat ogive.
Shortest min seating depth I've found for 115 gr in books is hornadys book with xtps at 1.075. Not quite short enough with these bullets. And their info doesnt cover all the powders I wanted to try.
So not sure where to go at this point. I have 2000 of these bullets still cause I thought I liked em so I bought bulk.
Do I load em short at 1.060 and stay off max to make em work in everything?
I really dont want to have to have multiple 9mm loads for different guns. Really like this kimber . Was planning on optimizing a new loading for it and making sure it functioned in everything else.
Throat the chambers or whatever? Not really educated up on that.
Is that something Kimber should do since some brands of well known, mainstream factory ammo don't fit in the chambers properly on both kimber 1911s we own. Would like to think our $1200 and $1500 kimbers would be good to go from the factory.
No matter what I'm not modifying the p38, just dont really care to shoot it anyway and is fine with factory stuff. Maybe I'd do the cz , but I think it could be good with an OAL within what books have. It didnt look too bad on the plunk.
I seriously debated not reloading 9mm anymore until prices and availability problems for factory ammo came up again recently. That still may be the end result for 9mm for me, but since I have the component and everything I want to use them up at least and use this as a learning experience for in depth load development with the chronograph even if I decide to not continue loading it after these 2000 bullets are gone.
Any input on throating the barrels on the kimbers, extra short OAL 9mm, bullets on the lands, experience with the zero bullets etc is appreciated.
Seems like the best course of action would be to hopefully get kimber barrels done since they have problems with factory ammo, and then load shorter than I was at 1.150" (but still within book values) to make the shape of the zero bullets work in the other guns that fit factory ammo just fine.
But then if I do that and get another kimber ....may have problem again.
James
I came down to that overall length by seating bullet back slowly to tell when it quit hitting the lands in my g17. I was thinking it was longer than normal but recent events had me rechecking factory ammo I had for comparison and finding out that's about what most OAL on 9mm 115gr is.
This load worked in my ria 1911 and my baby glock I got later. I always pluck test new pistols before shooting my ammo. Found out it doesnt fit my p38 or my cz85.
I just got a kimber aegis elite custom oi 1911 9mm. Plunk tested at the range and saw my ammo wouldn't work, so plunked a factory pmc 115 through the ejection port and seemed free so shot a box of those. Nothing bad happened and had an ES of 33fps for the whole box. Average of 1150fps
So today I'm prepping brass for new test loads with several powders since I have a chrono now and can really dive deep on getting some consistent rounds. I checked the pmc oal and was surprised some were as long as 1.158" so I pull barrel and plunk test properly this time and find that tho they do plunk , they cant turn in the chamber due to hitting the rifling.
I also have federal and blazer 115 9mm factory ammo. Federal passes plunk and turn. Blazer mostly pass but can feel one or two that seem to drag ever so slightly turning. Both of those brands ranged from 1.140-1.150 oal.
I recheck my other 9mm pistols and all factory passes in those until I get to my wife's kimber sapphire ultra carry . Pmc will stick in the barrel on it also.
I plunk an empty prepped and expanded case in my kimber barrel and measure how much is sticking out to know what I need to get to when measuring to make sure bullet is off the rifling. I start a dummy round with my zero bullets dropping OAL in steps. Finaly full plunk at 1.075 but wont turn free. 1.070 let's it turn free. ....so looking at 1.065 or maybe even 1.060 to be safe.
Apparently the zero bullets are a fairly fat ogive.
Shortest min seating depth I've found for 115 gr in books is hornadys book with xtps at 1.075. Not quite short enough with these bullets. And their info doesnt cover all the powders I wanted to try.
So not sure where to go at this point. I have 2000 of these bullets still cause I thought I liked em so I bought bulk.
Do I load em short at 1.060 and stay off max to make em work in everything?
I really dont want to have to have multiple 9mm loads for different guns. Really like this kimber . Was planning on optimizing a new loading for it and making sure it functioned in everything else.
Throat the chambers or whatever? Not really educated up on that.
Is that something Kimber should do since some brands of well known, mainstream factory ammo don't fit in the chambers properly on both kimber 1911s we own. Would like to think our $1200 and $1500 kimbers would be good to go from the factory.
No matter what I'm not modifying the p38, just dont really care to shoot it anyway and is fine with factory stuff. Maybe I'd do the cz , but I think it could be good with an OAL within what books have. It didnt look too bad on the plunk.
I seriously debated not reloading 9mm anymore until prices and availability problems for factory ammo came up again recently. That still may be the end result for 9mm for me, but since I have the component and everything I want to use them up at least and use this as a learning experience for in depth load development with the chronograph even if I decide to not continue loading it after these 2000 bullets are gone.
Any input on throating the barrels on the kimbers, extra short OAL 9mm, bullets on the lands, experience with the zero bullets etc is appreciated.
Seems like the best course of action would be to hopefully get kimber barrels done since they have problems with factory ammo, and then load shorter than I was at 1.150" (but still within book values) to make the shape of the zero bullets work in the other guns that fit factory ammo just fine.
But then if I do that and get another kimber ....may have problem again.
James
