The further you get from 115 grain range ammo, the more worthwhile it is. My 9s shoot better with heavy 135-147 grain bullets, along with the subsonic benefits if you’re into that. Those are considerably more than 115 grain FMJ range ammo.Regarding economy of handloading for the PCC (or any 9mm for that matter), its always worthwhile to mention the numbers and arithmetic.
Cast/swaged 9mm bullet is about 7 cents
Primer about 7 cents
Powder charge about 3 cents
Brass is free
This means you can save about 10 cents per round on 9mm if you handload.
If you shoot 5000 rounds a year (that's a lot by my standard), you save $500/yr. by handloading 9mm.
But handloading sure does take a lot of time, and while well-crafted cast-bullet handloads can be quite reliable and accurate, I don't think anyone will argue that cast-bullet 9mm ammo is quite "as good as" factory FMJ.
And we'll keep in mind that while you "saved" $500, you still spent $850 (plus your time) on building the ammo.
I can foresee these 9mm PCC's I've got still lying over here new-in-the-box could eat up some ammo.
Hoping for fun times in the process.
To wring a little more velocity out of a rifle length barrel, a slower powder like Blue Dot or True Blue can be helpful. How much more? I don’t know that but if you don’t hand load, you can’t even try.