I am getting ready to work up loads for some Federal 9mm HST 124gr pulled bullets that I got from RMR quite a while ago and wondered if anyone could share their experience with working up loads for this bullet. I would also like to know what the COL is for a factory round if anyone has one and could measure it for me. I probably won't necessarily try and match the 1150 fps speed for the factory rounds but do want to load fairly hot so it is similar to the factory round. I will likely use UNIQUE powder even though it is not the best for this round, but I have a lot of it on hand and it is hard to get something like HS-6 which would probably be a better choice.
Federal 9mm HST pulled bullets
- Thread starter hpops
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Unique will work just fine, Alliant has data online. I don't use Unique anymore, so can't help you there.
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/recipedetail.aspx?gtypeid=1&weight=124&shellid=23&bulletid=26
That's max, drop 10% for minimum
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/recipedetail.aspx?gtypeid=1&weight=124&shellid=23&bulletid=26
That's max, drop 10% for minimum
rfwobbly
Member
Ignore the factory OAL. You should choose an OAL that works best in your pistol.
As long as the velocity approximates the 1050fps, your loads will be as effective as the factory round.
At one time it was rumored that Federal loaded these with BE-86 powder.
As long as the velocity approximates the 1050fps, your loads will be as effective as the factory round.
At one time it was rumored that Federal loaded these with BE-86 powder.
I bought a couple thousand of the pulled 124 gr HST bullets from another source. I got them delivered for 13 cents a piece. Almost as cheap as commercial cast bullets. I love these bullets! Incredibly accurate and very lethal. I seated them to 1.115 to work with a Bar Sto barrel I have for a VP9. That barrel has a very tight match chamber. I have found that if they plunk in that barrel, they will work in anything. I found that 4.4 gr W231 was a sweet spot at 1.115 OAL. You need to follow all standard reloading precautions, but that was a very nice load for me.
I think the factory OAL is relevant since the manufacturer must feel it will work across a wide range of barrels. I have 3 different 9mm pistols so I don't try to optimize for any special pistol and think the factory OAL would be a good starting point. Although I would plunk all three during development I would not expect any to be a problem. Interesting to hear that BE-86 may used by Federal although any factory powder is probably not identical to what we can buy. I did hear others recommend BE-86 and I found it interesting that it is right next to UNIQUE on the loaddata.com burn rate chart. HS-6 is also mentioned by some loaders and it is somewhat slower than BE-86 or UNIQUE. Since I am not trying to push it to full factory velocity I agree with the other posts that UNIQUE should work ok.
Thanks to everyone for your input.
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Thank you for the information, but I am a little confused by it. I assume you meant to say "cartridges" when talking about the oal of 1.10 for the 124gr bullets and 1.12 for the 147gr bullets. Did you have factory Federal HST ammunition in both of those weights to measure in order to come up with those dimensions? Also, when you are talking about the bullet lengths are those just for the 124gr weights and are you fairly certain that all of them are pulled HST bullets from Federal cartridges. Or at least do they all look pretty much identical and also look like pictures of HST ammunition for sale.
My 124gr bullets were from Rocky Mountain Reloading and advertised as pulled HST bullets from Federal cartridges. When I think back there likely were some 147gr and maybe even some others bullets mixed in with them as cautioned by RMR, but not a lot of other weights and I separated them out from the 124gr HST bullets before I started. After reading your comments I did measure 20 bullets and came up with and average length of 0.596" with a spread from 0.590" to 0.603". This was more than I expected but since this is a hollow point with a thin rim at the top I guess it is to be expected, especially in a pulled bullet. I don't see this as a problem for me since I am not planning to be at max loads, but an increase of 0.020 inch in seated depth can raise 9mm cartridge pressure quite a bit under certain conditions.
Also, I apologize for the misprint in the title of this post. As seen in the comments they are HST bullets not HRT.
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Thank you for the info. I'll let you know what I end up with and appreciate your input.
Thanks for being a moderator!!
lordpaxman
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@hpops, @jm529, welcome to THR!
I’m interested in what you end up with. I don’t load Unique, so, no help there. I was just chuckling a bit about bullet vs cartridge. Some of us are old enough to have grown up with the b&w westerns, they always called them there cartridges bullets…. Still, it’s an important difference for this crowd, but you know what they say about old dog, new tricks… Good luck.
I’m interested in what you end up with. I don’t load Unique, so, no help there. I was just chuckling a bit about bullet vs cartridge. Some of us are old enough to have grown up with the b&w westerns, they always called them there cartridges bullets…. Still, it’s an important difference for this crowd, but you know what they say about old dog, new tricks… Good luck.
Hey, I grew up watching those westerns too and never would have called loaded ammo a cartridge until I started reloading. Yep, they were always bullets back then. I have decided to go a little hot on some rounds to see what they look like since the HST bullet is usually used as a projectile for defense loads. Alliant showed 5.8 gr as a max defense load for 124gr bullets so I am going to back off to about 5.5 on a few and see what they look like.
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