Which bullet style for an auto gun

[Aikia]

Hi Guys,
I'm just getting set up to start casting and I'm wondering which style of bullet will feed best in my 9mm semi-autos. I have a Walther PPX and I Sccy CPX2.

I'm planning to use wheel weights and powder coat, if that makes a difference.

[Chainsaw.]

Ive worked through this issue and my answer for you is.......it depends. Namely being you are powder coating. Example, I started with the lee 125 grain round nose bullets and I PCed them. Thet jammed up something feirce in all my 9mms. As well as friends autos. The problems was the PC would hang up in the throat of the barrels, when a loaded round the PC would basiclly be jammed into the throat and would jam up the gun, if "motar-ed" the gun would yank the bullet out of the case, leaving it in the barrel, all of this no matter how short I made C.O.A.L. I tried the same roumd nose as lubed bulkets and the ran great, but, lube sucks, smoke etc. I then went with a 124 grain truncated cone bullet with much better results but still not ideal, now both molds serve as 38/357 fodder. So the point is, try to see what people are using with success in the gun you have.

[Aikia]

Chainsaw,
Thanks for relating your experience. That's why I included the guns I intended to reload for.
To your experience though, I'm wondering if it might not be the COL but the size after powder coating? I was seriously looking at the TC from Lee too Also they have two different profiles on their round nose so I was wondering if one might work better. I've been told to try the R2 profile from Lee if I went with the round nose.
Oh, well I'm hoping for a 357 in the future so maybe It wouldn't hurt?

[Chainsaw.]

That was sized, with the R2 mold. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. I did have sliiighty better luck with a different color of PC (yes it can mnake that much difference) but still not reliable enough. I would still stear you to either the lee TC or some other type bullet from say NOE or the likes of.

[Aikia]

Thanks again for sharing your experience, I was leaning that way.

Have you tried them with Hi-tek coating? If the color made a difference maybe the thinner more even coating would too.

[Chainsaw.]

No I have not tried Hi-tek, its definitely intriguing stuff. Have some buddies who've tried it and yes, it definitely lays on thinner/nicer than PC.

[pete2]

I've been buying plated bullets, no problems with them. I shot up 1000 cast 124 RN bullets, no better than the plated as far as I could tell. I was pleasantly surprised that the cast ones were a lot cleaner than cast 45s are, I guess due to higher pressures. I cast my own for many years but decided to buy cast bullets. When I quit casting 500 200 gr .45 were 14.00. It takes quite a bit of work to cast and lube 500 bullets, not to mention getting suitable lead to use. I recently bought 500 RMR jacketed bullets for about the same as plated bullets. I've only shot 25 of the RMR bullets but it looks like they're gonna work fine.
I have 3 9mm pistols at the moment.
LC9 shoots anything I've put in it, it did lead a little with the cast bullets
92FS, shoots anything
Citadel 1911, Doesn't like some hollow points, shoot everything else so far.
The LC9 is a carry gun, the other 2 range guns.
Coating bullets seems like an added step to make casting your own even more work.
My 2 cents worth..................................

[kraigwy]

Depends on what your gun likes.

For some odd reason I found 9mms to be picky, but they all seem to like the round nose bullets. Like others said, if I was gonna have just one mold I'd pick a 125 gr. RN bullets.

But with some guns it doesn't matter. My Beretta 92FS doesn't seem to care. If it looks like a 9mm and fits the bore, it will chamber it.

[Aikia]

So far it looks like you guys like the round nose best. Does anyone have a preference between the LEE R1 or the R2 molds?

[armoredman]

I have been using the Lee 124gr Tumble Lube bullet for years with good luck. I powder coat as well, but I also size them again after PC. No issues with my CZ pistols, including the Scorpion.

[Aikia]

In case anyone would like to know. I was able to get a Lee 356-102-1R 2cavity mold. I cast up a few, powder coated half and used liquid alox on the other half. The nose profile required me to load them all very short (.997 oal) in order for them to chamber. Both shot well from both of my guns (Walther PPX and a Sccy CPX2). However the Sccy had lots of feed problems. Seems the Sccy mags just wouldn't hold on to such a short cartridge whereas the Walther had no problems at all. Looks like I'm going to try out the Lee 2R profile next.

[Chainsaw.]

The 125 2R? Thats the one Ive had no luck with before I went to the TC bullets.

[kraigwy]

I do a lot of casting/reloading. Our club runs a Ladies Firearms Safety and Self defense class. This class is geared to ladies, of modest means. We dont charge for the class and we furnish the ammo.

I cast and load for the class. We go through a lot of ammo, most seems to be for the 9mm/380 cals.

We get a variety of guns, some quality some? Well, do to the nature of the class, are what the girls can afford.

I found that the Lead RN seem to work best the guns. But what seems to matter more is the proper seating of the bullet, proper crimping (taper crimp) and sizing of the case.

The best tool I found for getting ammo to fit the gun is the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp die.

Most sizing dies leave the case a bit smaller in diameter then the bullet. This often leaves a ring in the finished bullet on the case right where the base of the bullet seats. This often causes failure to chamber.

The Lee FC carbine die has a carbide ring at the bottom of the die. The last action of any reloading is drawing the loaded round out of the crimping die. So the last thing that happens is the loaded round is pulled by this carbide ring, swedging the case making it............well as the name of the die indicates, like a factory round.

That final crimping seems to me the most common way to insure the cast bullet loaded round works in the pistol.

The Carbide FC die isnt only for pistols, it also makes for smooth loading in the chamber of revolvers.

I use those for all my handgun and straight walled rifle rounds.

[pete2]

As a rule a round nose bullet will feed better. I have 115, 125,and 147 RN bullets, all feed just fine in all 3 of my 9 MM guns, not so with some HP and SWC bullets. Never had feed problems with RN bullets in a 9MM or .45 ACP.

[FrankenMauser]

As has been shown and you chose, the universal answer is a round nose.

But, I prefer a 122-130 gr conical flat point -- not the typical truncated cone, more of a 'wide flat point' with straight, angled sides. The Magma 38-125-FP BB and 38-120-FP FB are examples.

After that, a round/flat, such as the NOE SC357-135-RF.


I've had a quart of Hi-Tek, three yards of hardware cloth, and a brand new toaster oven sitting here for three years. Still haven't gotten around to trying it. It'll probably be 'spoiled' before I finally do something.

[res45]

Haven't had any problem using any type of RN bullet in 9mm lead or otherwise. However my favorite bullet is pretty much any 9mm I own is the NOE 124 gr. TC bullet I cast myself.

The mold is a 4 cavity that cast two gas check and two plain base bullets. I like having options as to bullet base types as I never know what alloy I may find myself using but in general I run lots of 50/50 + Tin and the GC comes in handy when shooting 9mm in the Ruger BH conversion cylinder.

I PC some of the plain base bullet an run the rest through the RCBS Lube A Matic and a few get lubed and checked with copper or aluminum checks,all bullets are sized to .357" Which is what my Ruger and the Canik TP9SA like.

[armoredman]

I have the 125gr Lee single lube groove mold. The only CZ pistol that likes it is the Scorpion, so it sits pretty much unused.

[gwpercle]

After 50 years of casting and reloading, I have come to prefer a 120 to 124 grain truncated cone. After working with several different designs, the Lee 356-120-TC came up as the winner in four different 9 mm pistols.
I wanted to use a softish alloy (50-50 COWW and pure lead) to stretch my WW supply, and I wanted to load them to over 1000 fps . To avoid leading I bought a Gas Checked design (Lee doesn't have one) the NOE 358-124-TC-GC . This one is a winner, you can get it with or without a GC or both in the same mould. The gas check prevents leading even with a soft alloy.
Load this bullet in a 357 magnum or 38 special and it is extremely accurate.
I like it a whole buch....the 4 cavity mould makes piles of them quickly.
I agree with post #16 ! LIKE
Gary

[KenT7021]

I haven't reloaded 9mm for years but I used the Lyman 356402 truncated cone for cast bullet loads.

[Don Fischer]

Only mold I have for my 9mm's is the Lee 124gr TC. I mostly tumble lube but have done some with PC. Either way I lube I always size a second time for PC. Haven't had a problem one.

[Aikia]

kraigwy,
I'm using the Lee 4 die set which includes the FC die, I do like it very much.
The problem I had chambering was not the case but that in both of my guns the R1 bullet profile hit the lands unless I seated them deep, too deep really. I've had a chance to cast up some of the Lee 356-124 R2 and test out some dummy rounds. They seem to work much better as far as feed and extract goes but I haven't had the chance to take them to the range yet. I'll let you'al know how they work out.

As suggested by many others I'm going to try out one of the TC profiles as soon as I get done checking this one at the range.