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Old September 12, 2012, 01:24 PM   #3
noylj
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 21, 2007
Location: Between CA and NM
Posts: 856
Sorry for the rant, but...

Almost all 9x19s can use 0.358" lead bullets (all 18 of mine will).
The fact that yours won't chamber can be due to 1) not removing the case mouth bell/flare or 2) having a bulge in the case where the bullet was pushed out where the case walls are thinnest. #2 is almost always caused by NOT properly expanding the case. The case ID over the length the bullet will be seated needs to be expanded to 0.356-0.357", otherwise the bullet will be swaged down or it will seat crooked due to insufficient case expansion and push out against the thinnest case wall area. If you inspect the round, you can see this bulge.
It seems that today's reloaders do not understand case expansion or how to determine the proper COL for their guns.
Get an expander for a .38Special and get those cases properly expanded.
Before you even consider using a lead bullet, you need to slug your barrel. 9x19 barrels can have groove diameters that range from 0.354-0.362".
CZs that I have measured tend to run 0.355-0.3555", so the minimum bullet diameter for a cast bullet would be 0.356" and 0.357" is better.
Remember, the cast lead bullet in almost all cases needs to be 0.001" LARGER than groove diameter.
For those that worry about large bullets, I have been shooting 0.357" jacketed bullets in all my 9x19s for almost 4 decades without issue (prior to the '80s, it was almost impossible to find 0.355" jacketed bullets and 0.356" jacketed bullets came only in 130gn FMJ) and 0.357-0.358" bullets in lead.
It is amazing how many people think their guns have super tight "target" chambers when the inability to chamber is caused by their not paying attention to proper case expansion.
If a round doesn't chamber, mark it up with a Magic Marker and drop in barrel and rotate it back-and-forth. When you remove the round, the "problem" will be shown be scratches in the Magic Marker ink.
The use of a Lee FCD is just going to swage the bullet down (making it even more inaccurate). Find out what the problem is, don't just "paper" over it.
Look. Measure. Think.
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