Anyone load light bullets in 9mm?

[Rule3]

I consider 90 and 100 grain bullets light for caliber 9mm. Even though there is data for them. Plated, FMJ and lead. Generally I load 124 gr.

I have a boatload of bullets I bought during the great 380 shortage over 4 years ago. The pocket guns were the craze and 380 ammo could not be found.

I have all these bullets so I figured shoot them up in the 9mm. I can shoot them as 380's but prefer dealing with 9mm brass and guns. The 380 brass goes off into some black hole somewhere.

Just wonder if they work well and can be accurate.??

 

[Walkalong]

I shot some Remington 88 Gr JHPs in 9MM, leftover from my .380 days as well. They worked fine and shot well. I do not have the data as I did not transfer it over from my hand written manual when I went digital. I was using W-231. I still have a few around.

 

[rcmodel]

I have.

But you need to really watch out for insufficient case neck tension, and bullet set-back.

There isn't much bullet base (friction) in the case neck when loaded to a length that will feed.

rc

 

[Rule3]

I have.

But you need to really watch out for insufficient case neck tension, and bullet set-back.

There isn't much bullet base (friction) in the case neck when loaded to a length that will feed.

rc

Yes, I wondered about that. There is not much to these. I can use the evil LFCD Thanks

 

[rcmodel]

The FCD cannot / will not make up for poor case neck tension in the first place.

If you crimp the case on the bullet tighter then the case neck tension was in the first place?

Guess what?

The hard brass case springs back away for the softer bullet jacket and softer lead core.
And you end up with more chance of bullet set-back than you had in the first place.

Taper crimp, or FCD crimp DOES NOT / CANNOT make up for insufficient case neck tension in the first place.

rc

 

[Walkalong]

Very true.

 

[gacajun]

I consider 90 and 100 grain bullets light for caliber 9mm. Even though there is data for them. Plated, FMJ and lead. Generally I load 124 gr.

I have a boatload of bullets I bought during the great 380 shortage over 4 years ago. The pocket guns were the craze and 380 ammo could not be found.

I have all these bullets so I figured shoot them up in the 9mm. I can shoot them as 380's but prefer dealing with 9mm brass and guns. The 380 brass goes off into some black hole somewhere.

Just wonder if they work well and can be accurate.??

Rule3...I am getting a new Kahr P380 shipped in this week and it has a 200 round breakin requirement. I have a couple thousand pieces of 380 brass....just haven't bought any bullets. If you are interested in selling part or all of that boatload of bullets I'd be interested. I've got to buy some anyway and if they are surplus or not of real use to you maybe I could do us both a favor. If you don't want to sell them...no problem. You can PM me if you are interested in selling any of them.

 

[Rule3]

Rule3...I am getting a new Kahr P380 shipped in this week and it has a 200 round breakin requirement. I have a couple thousand pieces of 380 brass....just haven't bought any bullets. If you are interested in selling part or all of that boatload of bullets I'd be interested. I've got to buy some anyway and if they are surplus or not of real use to you maybe I could do us both a favor. If you don't want to sell them...no problem. You can PM me if you are interested in selling any of them.

PM sent

 

[horsemen61]

Well while we are on the subject anybody got load data for a 90 grain XTP 9mm load

 

[rcmodel]

Any recent Hornady manual does I betcha.

Also, Lyman #49 manual has it for a 90 Sierra JHP.

Which is close enough to a 90 XTP for goober-mint work.

rc

 

[horsemen61]

Thanks RC

 

[sauer1911]

Well, I went the other way.

124gr JRN, 3.35gr of 700x powder, 1.10" oal.

Thumps out of the muzzle like a .45! easy recoil, easy to reacquire target.

may not make the 125,000 power factor though. (idpa rules)

Makin up some 3.5gr for the chronograph.

be safe.

 

[gamestalker]

A while back I bought a boat load of 90 gr. XTP's, and have been running them through all our pistols, and with really impressive results too.

Do watch neck tension like RC says though. they don't sit very deep in the case to begin with, so make sure to bench test them, and pull on them also. When seating jacketed bullets for the AL cartridges I load, 9mm and .40, I don't bell the mouths at all, and I don't use any taper crimp at all either. I just put an even chamfer on the inside of the mouths to help the bullets seat straight. This produces the maximum degree of neck tension obtainable, but I doubt lead or plated can be seated like this? I have had no set back issues or neck tension issues though.

I'm running them with stout Longshot charges and they really get some fps, accuracy has been quite good as well. I think I did some HS6 with them too, i'll check if you need that confirmed.

GS

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I had a failure to feed problem when I tried light bullets for my Taurus 709 Slim when shooting middle of the road loads. I had to bump them up to max loads to get them to feed properly. That may be because of the tight spring that is necessary in the smaller frame guns.

Just saying, if you have issues with that, bump the charge up near max and you should be okay.

 

[Pilot]

The lightest I will load in 9MM Luger is 115 grain for the reasons stated. It is just not worth the potential issues for me.

 

[Rule3]

Thanks for the info.
I have Hornady data for 90 and 100 gr and several of the listed powders
Usually use PP for 9mm but have Win AC and of course HP 38

I think the big lot of bullets I have are those IMI bullets from Wideners

 

[Rushthezeppelin]

Well, I went the other way.

124gr JRN, 3.35gr of 700x powder, 1.10" oal.

Thumps out of the muzzle like a .45! easy recoil, easy to reacquire target.

may not make the 125,000 power factor though. (idpa rules)

Makin up some 3.5gr for the chronograph.

be safe.

I went ever more the other way.

I'm shooting coated 150gr SWCs from Bayou. with the light side load (just enough to cycle action) they buck barely more than a high velocity 22.

 

[verb0s]

I make light 9mm all the time.
Not just light bullets, but also light loads. oddly enough there's not much recoil difference between these light loads and regular full power 9mm. The good ones are very accurate and consistent, I can place 3 nearly on top of each other at 7 yards.

Here's what i have so far-
Hi Point C9:
good loads-
100 gr harcast RN, 3.2 titegroup, cci, roll medium
100 gr Hardcast FP, 3.2 titegroup, federal SP, 0.995 OAL, roll medium
100 gr hardcast FP, 3.3 titegroup, winchester SP, 0.995 OAL, roll medium
bad-
100 gr hardcast FP, 3.4 gr Clays, 1.020 OAL, roll medium. clays doesn't meter well. you can get it to work as i later did with 38 spl, but you have to be checking your charge very often, like 1 in 10 loads.
old (obselete)-
95 gr hardcast RN, 4.5 CC* power pistol, federal SP, 1.050 OAL, roll medium. i think these are full power and has a nice fireball.
90 gr hardcast RN, 4.3 CC* power pistol, federal SP, 1.025 OAL, roll medium.

Glock 19:
100 gr rainier RN, 3.6 titegroup, federal SP, taper crimp light
100 gr Berrys HBRN, 3.5 titegroup, federal SP, roll crimp

* back when i was using the Lee dipper system

these loads were created opposite of most people's methods. i started with the published starting load and worked my way down until the gun barely cycled, then added like 0.2 grains or so. they're great when there's a powder shortage, you can get upwards of 2k rounds out of a pound of powder!

i dunno if it's bullet, powder or gun, the titegroup loads with lead bullets smoke like BP when fired.

 

[Edarnold]

Back ( way back...) in the day, a company called Super Vel made a 90 gr HP that looked a great deal like today's XTP Hornaday offering. I loaded up some of these, going for velocity. Hercules Unique was one of the few pistol powders available then, so I worked up to my maximum at 8.5gr. There were no personal chronographs in those days, so the only indicators I've got for the load are a very flat trajectory, and a bright white muzzle flash. It functioned my S&W model 39 just fine, in fact perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. I would not recommend anyone else duplicate this, but it was interesting at the time.

 

[noylj]

I love the Lee (as I remember) 356-102-SWC mold. Very fun L-SWC for 9x19, 38 super, and .38 Special.