160ish grain cast bullets in a 9mm?

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

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I have a few thousand cast bullets and mold for said bullets that my dad uses in his 38/357 hand loads. I weight a sized .357 bullet with gas check and it came to about 168grains. I recently picked up a .355 sizer so I could load them into my 9mm but have a question.

I was wondering if it would be ok to use a bullet in the 160ish grain range in a 9mm? Is their such a thing as a too heavy bullet for a pistol?

Thanks.
 
Load them to respectable pressures and try a few. You may need an enhanced buffer/recoil spring as well.

I shoot 300gr bullets out of my 45LC S&W New Century, albeit with light loads. I've shot a few thousand of them without any problems and the pistol is still as tight and accurate as it ever was.

I would back off the the minimum 147 grain jacketed load in the Hornady manual by 20% and go from there. Your velocities should be in the 600-650fps range and your pressures should be low enough so that your buffer/recoil spring should handle it well.

That will be your biggest issue, the spring.

You are increasing the weight by 15% over the largest bullet offered by Hornady, not really a big deal as long as you act accordingly.

The other issue here is your pistol frame and slide. If it's something like the M39/59 S&W, they don't like heavy loads and will eventually give problems.

Just start light and work your way up, all will be well. Use the slowest powder on the charts as well, like AA no 7
 
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158 grain is common 9mmP, especially suppressed.
 
A couple of potential problems you might have: the bullet may have to be seated very deeply into the short case and may not leave much room for powder causing high pressure and swelling the brass, which has a taper inside the case(may not chamber). Bullet impact on target may be so different that you can't get your sights to adjust that much, all you can do is try it.
 
I've had good luck loading 160ish cast bullets in my 9mm 1911.

This pistol allows for a long cartridge so I don't have the problem that Ben mentioned above. If you can't load them long enough you may have trouble.

I use HS-6 with no trouble.
 
No need for gas checks.

make some dummies to find out what max length your mag and chamber will take.

Some chambers will require bullet to be so deep that it will bulge the case.

make a few unprimed ones, to see if it can be done. If it works, start loading mild and work up.
 
Alright just loaded up some test rounds. did 2.5grn of Hogdon Tite Group which is about 80% of the minimum load for 147grn loads according to their website (they are not in my reloading Manuel)

SOund alright?

Also, i know no powder can lead to a squib, but if their is powder what is the danger level of a low powder squib?
 
Okay, so now I've got a question: Why not use a more suitable mold and avoid all this, you won't have to use a bullet that is too long, too heavy, cut for the GC, without suitable reloading info??
 
I think Ben is just suggesting it might be more trouble than its worth if you are looking for a conventional load to plink with. More conventional 9mm Lee molds are only $25 or so and load data will be available.

Personally I enjoy experimenting and get a kick out of finding things out myself.
They might not stabilize or they might be a real hoot to shoot at milk jugs full of water. Never know till you try!
 
Shot off a few of the 2.5 loads and they are still quite hot. Hot through 9 before I stopped. The primer on one case I looked at looks like a penny that was run over by a train.

Their was also a bit of flattening on the "light" loads I made up using 147grn jacketed bullets. these were loaded with 3.3grn of powder. They were not too bad so I fired them all off.

I also did up 50 rounds of 3.4grn of powder but im not gonna shoot these off.

Im gonna switch powders to one that is in my reloading Manuel.

Just one question I was wondering, Im useing federal primers and form what I hear they are qite soft. Could a softer primer flatten more then sat a CCI? Also I did not see any cratering around the fireing pin strike.
 
I use Lyman #356637 bullets as cast, and they are great for soft IPSC loads that just make Production. They drop at about 158 grains, which is pretty close to yours. I wouldn't use such heavy bullets for Major, but for Minor PF larger bullets have a greater driving surface area that makes them a bit more accurate while being softer shooting. Plus with lead, the lower velocity of these larger bullets helps ensure you don't get leading problems in your barrel.
 
With the cost of the Gc and the extra lead, you may be at the point where it would be cheaper to buy a more suitable mold, that is the point I was trying to make earlier, but, hey, I'm the same, I like to experiment.
 
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