9mm too hot?

[Shrinkmd]

I shot up some of my 9mm loads the other day. These are 124 LRN in CBC and WIN brass, CCI SP primer. I loaded some to OAL 1.125, and they functioned fine in one gun, but not in another. The 5906TSW ate them all, no problem, but my 952 choked on the long rounds. I had loaded up some shorter rounds, at 1.097, and those fed flawlessly in the target gun.

So, in the 4" tube, I was running 1088 with 5.3 gr of Power Pistol. I thought they felt like factory when I was shooting them, but some other people on the line commented that they seemed hot. I looked at the brass and primers, everything seems ok. According to the lyman manual, I am under the max charge and velocity, so this should be fine, right?

Although for target purposes, I might make up a big batch of the 3.4 gr Bullseye load. They had the lowest standard deviation, shot like a big 22lr, and the cases landed in a pile at my feet, some even on the bench below me. No chasing brass with that load, although they are short of minor power factor. I could up them another 0.1 or so of Bullseye to make minor if I needed to.

But back to the original question, does the 5.3 Power Pistol load seem unreasonable? The fastest value was 1110.

 

[918v]

5.3 is reasonable, but understand the 952 has a shorter freebore and will run higher pressures. Also, PP does not combust as completely as Bullseye in a pistol barrel and will make more noise and flash.

 

[Shrinkmd]

I'm sorry I was tired when I posted last night, so maybe I didn't write what I shot in what clearly enough.

I was only able to shoot the Bullseye rounds through the 952, since I loaded all of the Power Pistol ones to a length which would not function in it. All of the Power Pistol data was from my 5906TSW, which has a 4" bore. My 952 is the 6" longslide, so they ran about 70 fps faster through it.

What is the highest velocity most people load their 124 LRN to (to simulate factory or SD ammo) with Power Pistol?

 

[Sgt. Stiglitz]

Check the bullet profile. I find with cast 124's and some jacketed ones, the bullets will touch the rifling in some pistols and not others.......Buy a chrono too! I use 4.5Gr of Unique with a 124Gr bullet......

 

[Runningman]

But back to the original question, does the 5.3 Power Pistol load seem unreasonable? The fastest value was 1110.

Sounds reasonable to me. Speer #14 shows a max of 1157 FPS with 6.4 grains Power pistol using a 124 grain Gold Dot. Fired out of a 4" S&W 5906. Judging by velocity your pressure should be under what Speer got.

 

[1SOW]

re oal for two different guns.

Different guns will allow different oals.

Always do the drop in the chamber test for both guns, then if you want your load to shoot in both, load to the shortest max oal of the two.

Using a spent case (not sized) push one of your bullets into the case lightly. Feed this dummy round into the chamber and push on the case until it seats on the case mouth. Carefully remove it and measure oal, This oal is touching the leade/rifling. Subtract a few thousandths for safety and also subtract your reloader variances. Do this test with several spent cases and check for consistency.

If your reloader puts out +/- .003 from oal then subtract that from the max oal you measured + maybe a few thousandths more.

Do this for 'both' guns. The shortest oal you find should run fine in both guns.

Your loaded cartridge should drop in and seat on the case mouth. You can hear it seat, and you should be able to rotate it by hand to verify it's not touchoing the rifling.

 

[LightningMan]

I use PowerPistol a lot for JHP's bullets mostly Hornady XTP's 115 & 124 grain bullets. I've had no problems with max loads which from what data I have found is 6.6 for 124's & 6.7 for 115's.
http://www.best9mm.com/reloading9mm.html