I am relatively new to reloading and would like to get as much information as possible before I reload ... I will probably always use factory defense rounds
Very good idea and welcome to THR.
I don't necessarily feel factory loads are better. If you take the time to double measure everything and provide proper research to your loads, i'd believe, reloads would be more reliable and consistent even for defense.
This is an incorrect and very dangerous assumption and you know what they say about assumptions?
Why?
-
Factory ammunitions use all NEW COMPONENTS. New brass will provide more consistent neck tension (friction between bullet and case wall) which will result in more reliable feeding/chambering and more consistent chamber pressures that translates to more consistent muzzle velocities (more on Chrono and SD number on my next post) and ultimately greater accuracy.
- If you are using
mixed range brass with unknown number of firings/reloadings and varying condition of brass from headstamp/lot variation and work hardening that will result in different amount of neck tension when the slide slams the nose of finished rounds on the feed ramp,
bullet setback can occur which could increase chamber pressure to over published maximum. Inconsistent amount of bullet setback can produce different levels of chamber pressures to affect muzzle velocities and accuracy.
- Consistent "finished" OAL/COL and bullet seating depth are useless until you are able to produce consistent "chambered OAL" with no or little (less than a few thousandths of an inch) bullet setback AFTER rounds are fed/chambered from the magazine. Your holes on target will be determined not by
finished OAL but by
chambered OAL.
- Pulled bullets have been crimped and may have smaller diameter than new bullets. Smaller diameter bullets are likely to produce less neck tension and susceptible to more bullet setback.
Can you reload rounds that will experience little or no bullet setback when chambered? Yes, with certain diameter bullets and careful adjustment of reloading dies. Keep in mind not all 9mm bullets are sized .355".
With mixed range brass, if you want greater neck tension to reduce bullet setback (especially if your barrel's groove diameter is more than .356"), you want to use larger sized bullets like .3555"-.356" -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...re-sized-the-same.818806/page-2#post-10567453
So until you are able to produce consistent finished rounds that reliably feed/chamber from the magazine and produce little or no bullet setback, I recommend you not use them as defensive rounds.
I also would prefer to carry a defense load that responds identical to the rounds i practice with.
While this is a good idea in theory, not very practical in reality as ammunition manufacturers use powders that are not often available to reloders as canister powders. Only verification we have where this is the case is Alliant BE-86 which apparently has been used past 30 years as OEM powders for CCI/Federal/Speer factory JHP ammunition.
I use Speer Gold Dot HP and Remington Golden Saber JHP factory ammunition for defensive rounds and have used same bulk projectiles with WSF powder over the decades to produce comparable "practice" reloads along with HS-6, AutoComp and CFE Pistol for higher velocity "full power" loads. Since BE-86 has produced greater accuracy with higher velocities, I will be using BE-86 for future "practice" reloads using Gold Dot and Golden Saber projectiles.
As to producing loads that respond similar to factory rounds, there is difference between POA (Point of aim) vs POI (Point of impact) and felt recoil. POA/POI difference between typical mid-to-high range reloads vs factory JHP is often less than 1" at 7-15 yards, not very significant. What I consider more important is felt recoil and amount of muzzle flip for fast follow up shot practice (double tap in USPSA shooting). For this, I found faster than W231/HP-38 powders replicate comparable "snappy" felt recoil of factory JHP good enough for range practice with mid-to-high range load data. Personally, I use Red Dot/Promo in 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP with jacketed/plated/coated lead/lubed lead bullets to produce very comparable practice loads.