Re-seating 9mm loads

[Walkalong]

Man, I am on a roll messing up today (Yesterday). Yep, one more reason to take things written on the internet with a grain of salt. Fixed it, thanks.

 

[LiveLife]

We are all human.

Don't worry AC, we got your back.

Besides, main thing is that we helped OP approach safe load for carbine and pistol using shorter OAL than published.

When it comes to safety, THR members are keen but that's good thing. Believe me, most members here will make sure you are on the safe side of load data, especially with mixed range brass (Too many "Funny thing happened at the range today" threads ).

 

[LiveLife]

Great teamwork!

A chrono will tell you velocity. What will you learn from this related to safety?

Here's Alliant's published load data for BE-86 - http://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...wderlist.aspx&type=1&powderid=38&cartridge=23

9mm BE-86 124 gr JHP OAL 1.120" Max 5.9 gr 1,175 fps

But actual chrono testing shows different velocities

5.5gr charge of BE96 in a 5" 9mm 1911 [1.120"] ... Ave Vel: 1158 ... So at 5.5gr I am close to the vel they show with 5.9

So 5.6 gr loaded shorter at 1.080" likely will produce velocity close to Alliant max (with consideration for barrel length/groove diameter difference) and Walkalong and I posted

if my working OAL is shorter than published OAL, I reduce powder charge by .2-.3 gr.

... if OP wants to use one load for both pistol and carbine, the 5.7 gr load at 1.080" should be tested for pistol

I would carefully work up to 5.7 gr load at 1.080", especially for pistol as we are essentially at near max/max charge

At 5.7 Grs of BE-86, it will, IMHO, push pressures up too much.

I WOULD NOT shoot 5.7 gr loads loaded to 1.080" in PISTOLS without doing chrono testing first.

And chrono data Walkalong posted further confirmed our concern.

Check out the velocities [at 1.110" OAL]. At 5.7 the Avg is 1224, pretty stout, and at 5.9 the Avg is 1238. Not much gain for .2 Grs, which tells me we are the point of diminishing returns, which tells me to stop at least, if not back off. Accuracy went to crap too, another bad sign.

Which led to OP's conclusion

I'm going back to the drawing board and finding a good round for the handgun at OAL 1.08. I think I'll start about 5.2 grs BE-86. Then make sure they work well in the carbine as well.

Good idea. When in doubt, start low.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Lee Q. Loader]

This thread was so educational to me! I'm so glad I asked the original question. Sometimes I hesitate to ask because I don't want to cover something that's been hashed out before. I just want to make sure everyone knows how grateful I am for the time they took to help me!

 

[longdayjake]

bds may be right, but I think 5.9 Grs of BE-86 is too much with a 124 Gr bullet in the first place, so I would be very leery of doing it.

I happen to agree with this post. We have a customer who pressure tested some at 5.9 grains and found that they were just barely going into the +p pressures at 1.10" I've since dropped my be86 charges down to about 5.6 grains. They don't seem to be an issue at 1.08, but that is a hot load nonethelesss.