Reloading pistol vs rifle....

[rb288]

I have been reloading rifles for quite a few years, and am very good at making very accurate, consistent loads.
I recently won a Dillon Square Deal b press in 9mm, in a raffle and have decided to start reloading 9mm pistol just for the heck of it.
Mostly just plinking/range fodder, but maybe more at some time.
I am curious how anyone decides on a pistol load?
Do you load to a specific velocity, accuracy (I'm not sure it's as easy to determine pistol accuracy as it is a rifle), function, recoil, or what?

To start, I am loading to about 1100fps with fmj and see how that works.
Any ideas, advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[IN71vet]

I normally try to stay about mid way between starting and max loads. But it depends on how pistol handles and feels when
shooting.

 

[Trapper Jim]

I will start out with middle of range from powder/bullet manufacturers data and tweak up or down from there.

 

[700 LTR 223]

The 9mm load I have been shooting the most recently is 5.3 grains of Power Pistol with a Hornady 124 XTP which is one step down from the max listed at 5.7 in my 6th Edition Hornady manual. Really great accuracy in my Glock 34. I also have a Square Deal press.

For starting out for the first time I have followed the advice given by IN71vet and Trapper Jim.

 

[Karl-just-Karl]

I usually start toward the bottom of the recommended loadings. With small batches I go to the range and check cycling with the firearm. Light loads sometimes spew unburned powder out of the ejection port.

I gradually increase the amount of powder until the firearm cycles reliably and I quit getting unburned powder on my arm. 700X was really bad with this in 45.

If accuracy is important use a rest or a bag at 15 yards. It is close enough to see holes in the paper without magnification. I use the ladder method recommended for rifle cartridges increasing a few tenths at a time in 10-20 round batches until I get close to the max recommended powder charge .

If using a revolver be cautious about where you rest the cylinder gap. It will put burn holes in your rest/bag. Voice of experience here.

For plinking ammo, most recommended/published loadings work suitably well in the mid-range. If I am really curious I drag out the chrono but that is the exception not the rule.

 

[DadSmith]

I'm another midrange guy. I start in the middle work up from there. Sometimes more velocity means less accuracy. If you want both you will have to test multiple powder charges and go with the one that is acceptable to you.

For example my 155gr XTP in 10mm.
I had to drop back to 10.3 gr of powder because it improved a accuracy at 50 yards. Its slower velocity wise compared to my 10.6gr load in my 10mm but the accuracy improved by .75" on 5 shot groups. So I went with accuracy over speed.

 

[rmw250]

Since 9mm doesn’t have a very wide range with most powders, I usually start at the bottom and make 25 loads at each .1 interval. Run 5 rounds at each load through each gun and select my best per gun and most accurate between the average of the bunch. After that point I will chrono as a reference but for 9mm I care about accuracy more than velocity. Only time I will take the higher velocity is if I have 2 charges that are identical in accuracy across everything I am loading for which rarely happens. Current favorite is 115 Hornady HAP with titegroup

 

[rmw250]

FYI...the only reason I said 25 per load is because I load for accuracy/comp for 5 specific guns. For general plinking out of my others I’m not as concerned. I have always found beat to load 5-6 per charge per gun to test