Anyone load 9mm 115gr ammo for a Kimber Ultra Carry II?

[DaBruins]

Last week I bought a new Kimber Ultra Carry II in 9mm, but had a very disappointing trip to the range- 70 out of 80 factory rounds (Remington 115 gr RN) either jammed, stovepiped, or didn't cycle the slide. According to Kimber tech support, the gun will only operate with bullets larger than 124 gr. Given the current "panic" conditions, locating either 124 or 147 gr factory ammo or reloading components is impossible, either locally or online, but I have a small supply of Berry's 115 gr that I load with 4.3 gr's of AA #2 for use in my Beretta PX4. Has anyone had any success reloading a 115 gr round that will cycle a Kimber with a 3" barrel. I could try working up some test loads with the AA #2 (I also have some Titegroup available), but I'd prefer not to waste ammunition if Kimber tech support is correct and 115 gr bullets just won't work.

 

[LiveLife]

Berry's 115 gr ... 4.3 gr's of AA #2

It's been my experience that lighter 115 gr 9mm bullets need to be pushed harder to reliably cycle the slides of stiff recoil springed pistols, especially for compacts/subcompact.

Accurate load data (plated load data for No 2 on page 4 of pdf)

No 2 - 9mm 115 gr Rainier RN OAL 1.140" Start 3.8 gr (957 fps) - Max 4.6 gr (1,081 fps) 33,695

I know Berry's MFG recommends we use start-to-mid range jacketed load data for their regular plated bullets (not TP), but you could use the load data for Rainier plated bullets (which has thinner copper plating) and try 4.4 and 4.5 gr powder charges to see if they improve slide cycling/feeding/chambering.

BTW, I push Berry's 115/124 gr HBRN-TP bullets to high-to-max jacketed load data with no issues.

FYI, I use Winchester 115 gr FMJ/Berry's 115 gr HBRN-TP bullets with 4.8+ gr of W231/HP-38 loaded to 1.135" OAL and they work reliably in various pistols my family/friends/neighbors/coworkers who join me to the range.

 

[gamestalker]

Switch to a slower burning powder, Longshot or HS6 should cycle that Kimber. I have loaded for my Brother in laws Kimber and it actually cycles 100% with those powders v.s. anything else he has run in it.

GS

 

[DaBruins]

Update-

I had some time to kill this morning, so I loaded a small batch of 115 gr rounds using 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6 gr's of AA #2. A quick trip to the range yielded no improvement using the 4.4 and 4.5 loads, but out of 10 rounds with the 4.6 loads I only had 1 jam and 1 stovepipe, but the ejection pattern was rather feeble- the spent case was tossed straight up in the air about 6 inches.

As a side note, I located some Fiocchi 130 gr rounds at my lgs and also brought them to the range to see if a heavier bullet weight would do the trick, as suggested by Kimber tech support. Nope! Every round jammed! It looks like I'll be making another call to Kimber.......