Cast 9mm bullets?

[Martel]

Hello all!

First let me thank all of you here for information which has helped me make numerous firearms-related decisions since I started shooting seriously about 3 years ago.

I have been looking into casting my own bullets for 9mm, and perhaps later on for .45, and hoped some here might answer some questions:

1. do you have to lube cast bullets? I have shot 50 or so cast bullets that I bought and reloaded; they have a colored band in a groove, is that lube?

2. Is re-sizing the bullets necessary? It seems like some molds produce 9mm spec rounds and some have to be re-sized; not sure if that's true or not.

3. Some seem to have problems stabilizing cast bullets for 9mm, leading to sporadic accuracy. Is this because their bullets are not the right size? or loaded too hot?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Metal Tiger]

For all things lead and casting you could not do better than to check out the Los Angeles Silhouette Club. There is a bunch of stuff there that is just "have to read" if you want to get into casting Boolits:

http://www.lasc.us/

 

[Sapper771]

Martel,

Welcome to THR.

You may want to also check out the Cast Boolits forum as well.

Yes, lead bullets require a lube. The wax like stuff in the groove was more than likely lube. Generally, a mold will drop an over sized bullet. Depending on your firearm's bore groove diameter, the bullet may need to be sized to a diameter that will work with your specific groove diameter.
There are numerous factors that can cause a bullet to destabilize. One of which is improperly size bullets.

9mm is a problem child of cast bullets. Due to its higher pressure, it is often better to approach loading the 9mm as if you are loading for a rifle. It may be beneficial for you to start off casting and loading for 45acp then moving to 9mm once you get some experience.

 

[armoredman]

I have been casting for 9mm for a while. Good stuff.
The colored band in the purchased bullets is lube, those are ready to load now. If you cast your own, you will need to size and lube. castboolits.gunloads.com has TONS of information on home casting, great way to shoot and save money, if you are willing to invest some time and equipment, and it's really not expensive to get into, more time consuming that anything else. If you just want to buy cast bullets, you can keep doing that, and check your powder manufacturers for cast bullet data - it will be lower than jacketed data.

 

[Martel]

Excellent, I'll do some homework and in the meantime load the store-bought rounds to a lower pressure.

 

[NuJudge]

Be aware that a lot of 9mm barrels have oversize groove diameters. This may be just sloppy manufacturing, or it may be a means of controlling pressure. If you have a oversize groove diameter and use a .356" cast bullet, the Leading you will get will be hard to believe, and you probably will not get accuracy. The gasses escaping around the bullet act like a cutting torch and cut Lead off the sides of the bullet and deposit it all along the bore.

Be aware that sometimes you have oversize groove diameter, yet a chamber and throat that will only allow a cartridge with a .356" bullet to freely chamber. I have a Browning HiPower like this. It is a jacketed bullet only pistol.

The 9mm works at rather high pressures for a pistol cartridge, so a lot of things are more critical. A really good lube, not one that looks nice, is really important. If your lube fails, you will get Leading mostly towards the muzzle. The lube I generally favor, 50% Beeswax/50% Alox 2138F or Alox 350, is rather smokey in lower pressure cartridges, but less so in higher pressure cartridges such as the 9mm. A workable, cheap, but messy system for lubing bullets is the Lee Liquid Alox system. This is not the same Alox as mentioned above, but is Alox 606-55, another product of the former Alox Corporation, now marketed by Lubrizol. Lee buys Alox 606-55 in bulk, puts it in little bottles. You can buy both the Beeswax/350, and the 606 cheapest from Lars on the Cast Boolit board.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=1705&highlight=liquid+alox
Old order page (I can't find the new one):
http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/order.html

 

[fecmech]

Loading the 9MM with cast probably generates more threads than most topics on the cast board. There is a "sticky" over there, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=121607 which is a good start.
The 9 can be a problem child with cast. It operates in the magnum pistol pressure range. It has a taper walled case that can size your well made and sized bullet down on you when seating (not a good thing). Any resemblance to a uniform bore and groove size is purely coincidental( back to correct size again). To add a little icing to the cake generally 1 in 10" twist to really stress our cast bullets on their trip down the bore. That said they can be made to shoot well and very accurately but require more attention to detail than most pistol rounds. As one poster on the cast board puts it "fit is king".

 

[Hondo 60]

To Answer your questions ...

1. do you have to lube cast bullets? I have shot 50 or so cast bullets that I bought and reloaded; they have a colored band in a groove, is that lube? YES & YES

2. Is re-sizing the bullets necessary? It seems like some molds produce 9mm spec rounds and some have to be re-sized; not sure if that's true or not. YES

3. Some seem to have problems stabilizing cast bullets for 9mm, leading to sporadic accuracy. Is this because their bullets are not the right size? or loaded too hot? Could be LOTS of Answers

Lyman recently published their 4th Edition Cast Bullet Handbook - I STRONGLY recommend you get a copy & read it.
That'll answer 90% of your questions.
The other 10% we can handle.
Or if we cant, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php these guys can.