Formulating My 1st 9mm and 223 loads

[Gunowner99]

I've been doing my research and I am about ready to load my first rounds. I want to be super cautious so I am asking for some help to verify my research. I have Lee and Lyman manuals and have also perused the powder sites. I am coming up with a lot of questions but to simplify, here is where I am at:

9mm
Using 115gn Thick Plated or Copper Plated (thick is RMR and just copper is Xtreme):

Titegroup Can’t Find Specific Data in books or on Site.
Unique only lists Only FMJ or JHP
Power Pistol 5.45-5.9 Took middle of Lead and Jacketed for start (5.0-5.9) and max start of FMJ data)-This is merely my guess and I don't want to load on a guess
Bullseye Can’t Figure it anywhere

Using 115gn Hornady FMJ I got this:

Titegroup 3.9-4.3
Unique Don’t Know
Power Pistol 5.9-6.3
Bullseye Can’t Figure

Plated has little data and for the FMJ I usually only see HP so thus I can't figure out what to do.


For 223 it may be a bit simpler:

Using 55gn FMJBT

BL-C(2) 23.0-26.5 (Lyman Manual) 25.5-27.5(Lee Manual)

Hodgson site says 25.5-27.5 for SPR SP or 24.0-27.0 for SFIRE. What are those designations and they seem different?

Any help you can provide is appreciated. It just seems I am getting contradictory info so I wanted to ask some pros. I am not loading 223 for quite a bit until I get the 9mm down good. Just wanted the data so when I was ready.

[deadctr]

When you say 'Bullseye can't figure it anywhere', please expain.

I've ran 4.4 grains of bullseye with 115 grains plated (Berry's and xtreme) with good success. Ran out of Bullseye and had to switch to IMR SR 4756 (wanted to get rid of it) had to take it just about max load to cycle slide.

Typically your plated bullets can use jacketed data. AGAIN, START LOW AND WORK UP.

[R L Suehr]

With the extreme bullets you can run jacketed velocities. Just keep them on the low side of the spectrum.

Edit: looked up my loads. 6.0 grains of pp should work well. That's what I last used.

I have loaded 5.5gr unique with a jacketed bullet. I don't think that's anywhere near a the top of the spectrum so it should be fine with plated bullets.

[MT1]

I am really confused. What references or manuals are you using?

Bullseye and Unique are two of the most common powders. I have load data in all of my manuals for both powders.

[M&P Chris]

My recipe for 9mm is 4.5gr Titegroup with a 115gr fmj with an OAL of 1.125".

For hornady xtp bullets I usually go around 4.8gr.

[Gunowner99]

When you say 'Bullseye can't figure it anywhere', please expain.

I've ran 4.4 grains of bullseye with 115 grains plated (Berry's and xtreme) with good success. Ran out of Bullseye and had to switch to IMR SR 4756 (wanted to get rid of it) had to take it just about max load to cycle slide.

Typically your plated bullets can use jacketed data. AGAIN, START LOW AND WORK UP.

Can't figure it anywhere means Lyman has 115 Jacketed Hollow Point Data only, Lee has only Bullseye data for 115gn XTP at 4.1-4.7 and the Alliant Site has only 115gr Speer GDHP at 4.7 as charge weight so I would assume start 10% below but again it is Hollow Point So, for this newbie nothing matches the exact bullets I have thus my question. ;-)

My thought was plated was between lead and jacketed thus my splitting of the difference however if I can't find the right bullet I am at a deadend so to speak since I am just getting in the game.

[Gunowner99]

I am really confused. What references or manuals are you using?

Bullseye and Unique are two of the most common powders. I have load data in all of my manuals for both powders.

I am using Lyman 49 and Lee 2nd edition. Everything I could find is in my original post. It's either only data for hollow point or no data for the powder I want. What I found is what I posted.


I don't want to interpolate, I want to be safe thus I am asking you all with experience.

[wanneroo]

I don't use plated as I have found buying in bulk I can get real FMJ Hornady bullets for not a whole lot more. But like with anything you load start near the bottom of the scale on powder and build up from there to find the best load of powder for the bullet you use.

If you have Unique you can use it with 9mm. I have done thousands of 9mm with Unique. Works just fine. For me I settled on a mid range load around 5.7 grains with an OAL of 1.135 with a Hornady 115g FMJ. I found I could go higher or lower but the 5.7 works for me.

Probably the main issue with Unique is that it's a big flakey powder that doesn't meter well, so sometimes there can be a .1 grain swing and occasionally I would get some big undercharges or overcharges with the powder of around .5 grains. So typically what I did was load powder in 50 cases in a tray and visually inspect them all. Anything that doesn't look right I would dump the powder, weigh it and re-do. I wouldn't use this powder in a progressive press for that reason.

[Gunowner99]

Wow, I am getting quite the info, thanks!

I guess the main questions really are:

1. Copper Plated and Heavy Copper Plated, what would that equate to? I hear jacketed but on the low end.

2. HP vs RN, do I make any adjustments?

3. There seems to be contradictory info between sources both printed manuals and powder manufacturers. Like the following:

Using 55gn FMJBT

BL-C(2) 23.0-26.5 (Lyman Manual) 25.5-27.5(Lee Manual)

Hodgson site says 25.5-27.5 for SPR SP or 24.0-27.0 for SFIRE

4. I am just trying to make some correlations but it seems there is nothing exact with what I have (plated vs. jacketed vs. SP vs HP, etc)

I just want to be safe but not too low so I run into other issues. ;-) I have learned that Lyman manual has little info for 9mm that's for sure! And Lee is basically an ad for Hodgdon.

[BobGun]

I shoot Berry's plated bullets all the time. I look at the loads for lead bullets and take the middle of the table as a starting point. I then fire groups and check for pressure signs. I usually wind up somewhere near the MAX for LEAD bullets.