9mm reloading

[RJH245]

OK i took some advice and got a lee O single stage loader and a set of 9mm dies.

I have been reading reloading data for some time and i am ready to load some 9mm shells.

I have 119 gr lead bullets and titegroup podwer. It coud not find any data for 119 grain lead bullets. So my question is this.

Do you think 3.8 grains of titegroup is safe to start with? I was trying to find something that was about 1/2 between the starting load for a 115 lrn and a 124lrn.

If i start with a lower load and it does not cycle the gun should i just increas loads until it will cycles? I would assume that i should only increase loads by 1/10 of a grain at a time.

Any information would be helpful.
Rob

[knight0334]

OK i took some advice and got a lee O single stage loader and a set of 9mm dies.

I have been reading reloading data for some time and i am ready to load some 9mm shells.

I have 119 gr lead bullets and titegroup podwer. It coud not find any data for 119 grain lead bullets. So my question is this.

Do you think 3.8 grains of titegroup is safe to start with? I was trying to find something that was about 1/2 between the starting load for a 115 lrn and a 124lrn.

If i start with a lower load and it does not cycle the gun should i just increas loads until it will cycles? I would assume that i should only increase loads by 1/10 of a grain at a time.

Any information would be helpful.
Rob

You should be fine with 3.8gr behind a 119gr slug. There are 125gr bullets with 4.1gr of Titegroup behind them listed at Hodgdon's site.

I doubt cycling problems will occur with that load, but if you do - the 1/10 grain practice like you mentioned is the thing to do.. ...bump the powder load up to 3.9 or 4.0gr and see what happens.

[rwilson452]

Reloading rule:

When you can't find data on your weight of bullet, use the data for the next heavier bullet.

As always start at the start value and work up. should your manual not include a start value reduce the max value by 10% and work up from there. I would suggest you make no more than five at each powder throw weight. Might seem to be a PITA but it's safe. I would also suggest you use the barrel out of your pistol as a case gauge. the cartridge should just fall into the chamber without force. if you need to push it in it ain't right. ascertain why and fix it. I would suggest you make some dummy rounds to get this part right. The major factors here are crimp and OAL. Assuming you have an inertial bullet puller you can salvage the cases and bullets at a later time from the dummy rounds. I keep a dummy round of the proper dimensions as a standard should I need to reset dies.

[Kaos]

Im interested in 9mm reloading too, but the cost seems to be on par with what a case of WWB would cost.

Decisions, decisions.

[knight0334]

There is little to no cost savings to reloading. You have to reload thousands of rounds before you pay off your equipment, let alone actually start saving money.

[school89]

when I first started shooting about 10 years ago. I started reloading 9mm. I did not make any svings unitl I started loading 40 s&w and 45 ACP. I reload because it is relaxing.

[BearTitan]

9MM is harder to break even on, but it is still a significant savings. I buy all my shooting and reloading stuff from www.natchezss.com, so I have based my analysis on that. I am assuming that you want to shoot regularly at least 200 rounds per week, so lets look at that number of rounds

Buying the cheapest ammo available is Wolf 115 Grain for 10K rounds which your total cost would be $1658 delivered.

For reloading you would need to buy:
10 K bullets FMJ 115 Gr = $1050 delivered
4# tub of Titegroup powder = $60 delivered
10K pistol primers = $250 delivered

Total cost to reload 10K rounds of 9mm = $1360 (18% savings)

Your savings would be $298 for the first year, paying for your press and dies. Now this is provided you have the brass and the time. An added benefit of loading your own rounds is that you can custom tune them to the type of shooting you do. Shooting IPSC? Make them as soft as possible while still making 135 power factor.

Like I said, 9MM is a round that people who already reload will load just because they already have the stuff. I reload .40 where the analysis is much more in favor of reloading and have bought the $40 worth of 9MM stuff just to load my own 9's. I doubt I would get into reloading if 9MM was the only caliber I was going to load.

[RJH245]

Ok, I loaded up some 9mm and they look very nice. The bullet seated however the case is longer overall than some factory ammo i have.

The loads are longer than the factory ammunition however they still cycle through the gun and they fit into the mag.

I did not want to seat the bullet too deep and compress the powder. I was told that can cause problems.

So if the over all length of the case is longer can that casue a problem? It will not increase the press will it?


Thanks again for all the info

Rob

[BearTitan]

There are guys with alot more experience than me on this, but my understanding is this. You are right that if you smash down the powder, then that is a bad thing. If the round is a little long, that is not a bad thing, provided it cycles in your gun. Some of the competition guys load their pistol rounds really long.

Good luck.

[SteveD]

Purchase a set of calipers and check the overall length. It should be somewhere around 1.125 OAL.