9MMX19 reloading

[Rick W.]

I recently run out of my bullet for the 9mmx19. I bought a fair amount of 115 FMJ commercial Winchester bullets years ago. As a reloader, I was taught to bell as little as possible with a jacketed bullet, and run the completed rounds thru a case checker or the barrel itself. Always did a pretty good champher on the case mouth as well. All my brass is once fired from the local PD ranges, bought some over the years and stashed.

So one day, I run out of the Winchester 115 FMJ bullets. So having not bought bullets for a while, the prices in larger quantities put me back a little, so I bought some plated bullets. Did the usual routine on the Dillon, and shot some thru a Browning HP GP and some Lugers, no problems.

The completed plated bulleted cartridges looked good to the eye, no bulges, scrapes, etc; so did not run thru the gages.

About this time, a year ago, i decided to try out the current century of handgun, and bought a new striker fired semi auto, large capacity mags, kinda all new to me.

Shot about 500 plated rounds thru the new pistol, all is well, once you get used to all the synthetics and weight(light).

Then one day, one the last round of the mag, I suffered a severe blowout, the case ruptured at the rim area and the case was swelled about 2 tenths up. Nothing other than that, sounded the same, felt the same. I use a Unique load that is about halfway up the books, so double charge is not likely because of volume.

Needless to say, after a while at reloading(40 years plus) that took me back, never had that happen before. So I started looking at bullets in the MTM boxes to be shot, and some of them looked odd straight on.

I dusted off the case gages(like I should have before) and about half would not fully insert into the gage(Dillon). Most would stick out about 0.050" or so, a few more than that.

I was hoping that the pistol would give some protection to an out of battery problem with the disconnector. This particular pistol is new on the market relatively speaking, and when loaded with an empty 9x21 case, the disconnector does its thing. I can however, put a correctly lengthed 9mmx19 into the firearm and slowly close the action, the user can feel the slide/trigger engage, and stop, then pull the trigger, the slide jumps forwards a tiny amount and the firing pin drops. So something seems to be going on there to me, but just a simplistic opinion.

I would surmise that a strong hold would help with most things, a soft hold would irritate the breeching completion, especially on a slide that has been lightened as this one has.

In examining the plated bullets, slightly cocked in the completed cartridge as reloaded; I revamped my Dillon progressive dedicated to 9mm. I took the route of the lead bullet guys and bell the heck out of the empty case, and firmed up my taper crimp. This seemed to help a lot by allowing 90% of my reloaded 9mms to pass the gage test. Still have a few to go in boxes of bullets, always buy in 1000 piece lots which sometimes bites me I guess.

Things I have noted about plated bullets. They deform easily, as just plating over lead. Not very tolerant of a minimum champer, cuts rings off the bottom of the bullet. Seems that the coefficient of friction is more stout than with fmj bullets, seem to grab the inside of the case, just my opinion again from feel during seating. Some will show the case mouth pushed back some, ie the bullet grabbed the edge and deformed the case mouth very slightly.

So I am about ready to cry uncle and throw in the towel with plated bullets for autos. Probably will still use them for revolvers and single shots. Not completely there yet,as thinking I am missing something easy...........

All these years I have never used graphite as an inside the neck lube. My old mentor said, try it, the graphite; if you like it or not. I never thought it did anything for me with the components of the time, all jacketed. I did cast and reload for lead bullets in my early days, but the heavy belling did the trick ok without graphite etc. Probably will buy my first graphite lube kit just to see.

So a query to the shooters of autos here that have used the new plated bullets.............what am I missing????

I probably will just revert to my old ways, and buy a couple of cases of fmj's again for the autos; and suffer the checkbook fatigue some.

The use of the cartridge gage is super important, the old guy here fell in the well some, so on my bench the gages are back out...............and being used again. After the first million of rounds(exaggeration) you get over confident I guess, twas a mistake on my part. I am hoping that my talking might cause some to ponder their technqiue even if they are not new to the game.