Loading 9mm questions

[HamsterStyle]

In the coming weeks I am going to be getting my loading gear setup in a small space/portable setup. I recently purchased a Glock 19. I want to accomplish a couple things.
1. Find the best load for my gun that is reliable, accurate, and not too expensive.

2. Make a can full of ammo for plinking and friends/family to shoot when they visit. This may very well be the same as number 1 depending on cost and other variables such as availability.

3. I would like to work up some self defense rounds. If not for carry, for practice. I have yet to run any factory defensive rounds through it to determine what it likes. Being a Glock, I am assuming it will eat anything I feed it.

Questions are is there a company that may sell a sampler pack of different bullet types and weights to try out or do I just need to buy a box of all the bullets I want to try?

Are the bullets in normal defensive rounds available as unloaded ammo?

I will come up with more questions I am sure as I get moving along. Thanks in advance.

 

[VERT]

I will help as best I can. Not an expert reloader. I am loading the 124 grain Bayou Bullet over 4.2 grains of Win231 or HP-38. I find it shoots to the same point as factory 115 grain ammo but is a little recoil. About $0.13 with powder, primer and bullet. There are other manufacturers with the same type of coated lead bullet.

1. Find the best load for my gun that is reliable, accurate, and not too expensive.

Be be careful with lead bullets in Glocks. Coated bullets should be OK. I have shoot them.


2. Make a can full of ammo for plinking and friends/family to shoot when they visit. This may very well be the same as number 1 depending on cost and other variables such as

Buy a Good press if you are going to feed everyone.

3. I would like to work up some self defense rounds. If not for carry, for practice. I have yet to run any factory defensive rounds through it to determine what it likes. Being a Glock, I am assuming it will eat anything I feed it.

Just go find some Hornady Critical Duty or 124 gr Speer Gold Dot and call it good. Really any of the Law Enforcement marked stuff in 50 round boxes should be fine.

Questions are is there a company that may sell a sampler pack of different bullet types and weights to try out or do I just need to buy a box of all the bullets I want to try?

Yes many do.

Are the bullets in normal defensive rounds available as unloaded ammo?

Maybe. You can get Hornady XTPs to replicate defense ammo. You will want o change powders though.

I will come up with more questions I am sure as I get moving along. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]

 

[451_Detonics]

I have been loading these .38/125gr JHP - 1,000ct for years for 9mm, 38 Special, 38 Super and 357. Yes they are a .357 diameter bullet and 9mm normally uses a .356 but I get better accuracy out of my 9mms with this and I like have the cannelure. For 9mm and 38 I load to about 1150. In my 9mm Glock with a large comp this is needed to make it function reliably. Also this same velocity worked with my mover dot on my L Frame for Action Pistol.

 

[bocefus78]

Of the few sample packs I have seen/heard of, none have had enough in the pack to fully develop a load IMO.
Lets say you want to load from min to max charge in .1gr increments and that range is .7gr.
You want to load 5 of each. That's 35 projectiles needed. 5 bullets is hardly a test of reliability IMO.
Lets say you now want to play with oal or crimp. Now you need more bullets.
Want to try a different powder? You need more bullets.
See where I'm going with this?

I'm in the just buy a box of 500+ and forget about it boat. I have never had a malfunction due to bullet design or weight in my glock. They all feed just fine. None have been any more accurate than any others given my shooting abilities.
I order xtreme bullets on black Friday week when they run their 15% off special. They shoot just as good as anything else I have tried (plated), and other than lead, you cannot beat the price. Order lots, 'cuz its their best sale of the year.

On the defensive ammo, yea, you can get hornaday xtp projectiles. At 18 cents each or more. Gold dots too.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Awesome. Thanks guys. That's what I was figuring. If I decide I don't like the projectiles, I can either load em for blasting ammo or trade\sell them off. Thanks fellas

 

[Bfish]

xtreme plated bullets are a great buy and so are rmr projectiles (rocky mountain reloading) I am loading 115grain plated on top of titegroup. I have between around 12.5 cents a round in mine I think. Just check your load data and go very slow when you start.

Also don't just take the load data for standard load up a couple hundred and find that they don't work. Load up small amount of test rounds to find what works best and then load up a whole bunch.

 

[VERT]

Yeah extreme plated bullets are a pretty good deal. Flat rate shipping. TiteGroup is a popular powder choice for plated.

 

[HamsterStyle]

I don't plan on loading up a bunch of rounds that don't work. What I was saying was that if I find a bullet and it works but it is not quite my pet load and I find some other bullet, I can still load the first ones up for plinking ammo for friends and family. Or trade them for what I want.

And I think I am going to steer clear of tite group after following the other thread. It seems like there are more and possibly better options out there.

 

[Leo]

Handguns that are shot at casual distances do not require a whole lot of experiemental load development. Modern barrel manufacturing is pretty uniform. It is not like they come with some tight bore custom shop barrel. Personally, I would not mess around with multiple seperate loads for recreation/target use. A decent bullet purchased in bulk is readsonably priced. Pick some load out of the load manual that is a little above the middle of the range and shoot it.
I can say the Xtreme plated bullets have been very consistant in performance, and they work fine with tight group.

If you are shooting competitive bullseye at 25 and 50 yards or Silhouette pistol at 200 yards, things get more complex, but that is not a game for short barrel 9mm's

 

[bocefus78]

I'll add the following:

Xtreme shipping is on par with palmetto. Not the fastest, but they ship hundred lb boxes for $5. I can see why.

 

[Leadeye]

I have been loading these .38/125gr JHP - 1,000ct for years for 9mm, 38 Special, 38 Super and 357. Yes they are a .357 diameter bullet and 9mm normally uses a .356 but I get better accuracy out of my 9mms with this and I like have the cannelure. For 9mm and 38 I load to about 1150. In my 9mm Glock with a large comp this is needed to make it function reliably. Also this same velocity worked with my mover dot on my L Frame for Action Pistol.

Have to check those out, I use Lee 125 grain RNF in .358 for 9mm, no issues.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I started out using 115 grain Montana Gold FMJ's. I switched over too Extreme 115's. Both using the same charge of Titegroup.

 

[Gluemanz28]

I use both Xtreme and RMR bullets with the same comfort level of accuracy. RMR has just developed their own brand of expanding hollow point bullets that I am going to give a try. I shoot the RMR 124 gr plated non expanding HP the most accurately. The longer 124 gr bullet has more surface area to contact the riflings in the barrel. Jacob Wilcox is the owner of RMR and just a good guy. He will talk to you on the phone and even text you in response to questions.

I load Bullseye powder with CCI primers. I buy my primer 30,000 at a time when they are on sale at Grafs and split them with some of my friend to spread out the shipping cost. They come in around $25 per 1,000

 

[dak109]

I will add, if you reload your brass from the Glock, watch out for bulged brass. You will need a bulge buster of some kind, or you will have ammo that won't fit your gun. Has to do with the unsupported chamber of the Glock.

 

[red_zr24x4]

I skimmed the thread so if i missed it heres another warning..
I like tite-group in 9mm, heres the warning:
It is very easy to double charge with tite-group pay close attention

 

[jblomenberg16]

I like the 115 Montana Golds (either the JHP or FMJ) with Titegroup. Good every day range and practice ammo, but it will be a little on the "dirty" side, but that's just part of shooting. For my Glock 19 I'm loading it over 4.5gr of Titegroup. Shoots well and cycles reliably.

I think you can find a number of different loads and combinations that will run well. It may come down to what components you can find locally and most economically. For a bit more oomph for practice "carry" ammo you can run a bit higher charge. Honestly I don't know that +P carry ammo is going to fell a lot different to you compared to your day to day range ammo.

I haven't noticed any issues with buldged brass in my G19. I might be wrong, but I thought that was more of an issue on Glocks in 40S&W.

 

[VERT]

I reload piles of range pickup brass. I am sure some is even 9 major. Run it through a Dillon Square Deal that doesn't full length resize. I don't even deprime it. Just clean it and run it through. All rounds chamber and fire in all my guns.

 

[DialTone301]

We have been finding more and more bulged 9mm brass. I would be interested in why. My daughters open gun (9major) doesn't bulge brass at all so I am not sure it is coming from open guns.

 

[mpholic]

Winchester Silvertips, Speer Gold Dots and Hornady XTPs bullets are available (at least they used to be) for handloading. Hornady XTPs are the easiest to find are pretty reasonably priced (for SD bullets).

I use a powder checker in my fourth station to monitor low volume powders like titegroup. Power Pistol and Blue Dot fill the case up more.