Problems with bullets tumbling

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PaulR42

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Shooting a Glock 17 gen 3. I'm loading 3.7 grains of titegroup and 125 grain hard-cast lead DRG bullets, Winchester small pistol primers, assorted brass. I am getting a lot of bullets that are tumbling at fairly close ranges. Over all the load works well, never fails to feed or extract, accuracy is good for what I do and they are easy shooting, just the problem with tumbling. Also, they tend to be fairly smokey.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
 
Yeah, sounds like your bullets are too small to obturate your barrel and properly engage the rifling, and it's smokey because you're getting gas cutting around and past the bullet. How is the leading situation?

Regardless, you might want to try a 147gr bullet or something with a different profile that has a larger driving band area to address the tumbling problem. Also I use .357 diameter cast bullets for 9mm.
 
I'm with what others have said about your bullets tumbling.
As for smokeyness I'm going to hazard to guess that the low pressure created from the small/striped/gas cut bullet is not allowing the powder to burn efficiently.
 
I had a similar problem with tumbling bullets in my Ruger P89 and a buddy's SR9. Load was Lee TC tumble lube .356 bullets over 4.3 grains Universal. I had to reduce the load to 3.6 grains Universal to get bullets stabilization in these pistols. It tried the load in a Glock 17 and it stabilized too.

Try loading 3.4 - 3.5 grains Titegroup (.2 to .3 less than your 3.7 grains) and see. Double check the diameter of your bullets. I tried resizing to .357 and didn't work for me although it works for others.

I would try another type/shape of bullet with different style of driving bands, different bullet supplier might have different designs and alloys.
 
I found lead bullets sized .356 tumbled in all my 9MM guns no matter the charge. Lighter was worse than heavier charges. I also found bullets sized .357 were perfect and that is what I size all my cat bullets to now. as others have said hard cast bullets sized .356 are going to tumble in the 9MM. some guns worse than others.

Take Care
Bob
 
The bullet being undersized or a worn out barrel would be the obvious choices, but the actual problem would seem to be using lead in a Glock barrel. It is not recommended to use lead in a Glock due to Glock's barrels rounded (hexagonal or octagonal) interior profiles.
 
gommee said:
The bullet being undersized or a worn out barrel would be the obvious choices, but the actual problem would seem to be using lead in a Glock barrel. It is not recommended to use lead in a Glock due to Glock's barrels rounded (hexagonal or octagonal) interior profiles.
Click to expand...

This recommendation is a CYB (cover your b_ _ t) precaution from Glock. Unjacketed bullets will lead a polygonal barrel sooner than a regular rifled barrel, which will lead to higher pressures and KBs. I heard of some guys shooting a hundred up to two hundred rounds of lead, before cleaning and they have had no issues at all. Warning though, YMMV.

I have shot a few dozen lead bullets through my G17RTF with no apparent issues, very little leading. Accuracy was as good as Ruger P89 with no keyholing using 3.5-3.7 grains Universal (the low velocity loads).
 
I tried a few rounds with the powder charge upped to 3.9 (4.0 listed as max). Still tumbeling on about half the rounds, same as before. I'm going to get another batch of bullets, measure them, maybe try backing off on the crimp a bit. The Lee disks would drop the charge to 3.5 gr for the next size down, below the 3.6 minimum from Hodgdon's which I was loading.
I guess I'll need to talk to the caster, see if he has any solutions.
I've scrubbed the barrel, looks good, but any suggestions to make sure I get all the lead out?
Thanks.
 
The few accounts I read of cast being fired in Glocks, the bullets had to be sized to .357" with .358" being even better. My S&W M 439 can shoot all day with .356" cast, but I think it may be an exception.
I know SIGs often have lands deeper than .356 and this may be the case for other European pistols as well. It might be a good idea to slug your bore and start from there if you want to shoot cast.
 
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