Help with 9mm load 124 gr xtp / power pistol

[Scoob956]

So I am about to whip up some 9mm loads here in a bit. My main question here is what should the col be for this setup. I am anal about numbers, and every book varies slightly as well as adjusting the powder charge accordingly.

Hornady calls for a 1.060 col which is shorter than every other book, they also have the lowest powder charges. Is it ok to seat the bullet a little longer and work up a powder charge from there. Seems like a lot of guys seat at 1.1 or so. So any help here would be appreciated I just want a solid number to work from.

My rifle loads I made seemed slightly less stressful.

again this is with the hornady 124gr xtp bullet and power pistol

thanks

[RidgwayCO]

Why not load up ten rounds with the Hornady minimum powder charge at their recommended 1.060" COL and see how it feels and cycles in your pistol? It will at least give you a starting place.

[WESHOOT2]

Use the OAL that give proper functioning in YOUR gun(s).

You can increase OAL safely, and 1.100" is fine. Longer may be fine, too, or even better?
Suggest 5.0g Power Pistol to start (suggest using 6.2g as MAX).

Make ten test ten.......

[Brian Pfleuger]

If you're after speed, the longest COAL that will function in your gun will usually work best, at least with Power Pistol. It may not be the most accurate, but it's usually the fastest.

You just have to be careful that you're not loading rounds long enough that the bullets are touching the rifling. This can cause dangerously high pressures in a situation where a longer length will generally lower pressure. Although, I understand that it's not even possible to load rounds long enough to touch the rifling in many handguns, you still have to be careful.

[tomklra14]

For what it's worth, I load 124 gr XTPs at 1.12", I thought the length listed in the Hornady Manual was too short. I have had no problems in my Glock 17 or my Beretta 92fs.

[Clark]

CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond currently published maximums for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The Firing Line, nor the staff of TFL assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.

Alliant book: 124 gr. .554", 1.150", 6.6 gr. Power Pistol, 1235 fps

P11 test: 124 gr. FMJFP, 1.0" 10.5 gr. ok, 1.168", 11 gr. pierced primer

The 158 gr LSWC or XTP will shoot 11 gr Power Pistol if done right, but will piercer the primer at 8 gr if not done right. The compressed powder with squish the bullet.

I had a large quantity of 124 gr 1.169" 10 gr Power Pistol made for me in 2001 by someone with a Dillon. This sounds wimpy compared to the above loads, but it still kicks like a mule and chronographs better than factory +P+:

Kel-Tec PF9
1) 124 gr FN Honady bullets and 10 gr Power Pistol. 1336 fps.
2) Hirtenberger +P+ 1275 fps 100 gr 3" barrel

Most 9mm chambers are at least .1" thick and have a case support .190" from the breech face and with .160" thick case web, there is .030" of thin unsupported case wall. The amount of case wall is sometimes the limit in a load work up, and sometimes it is the primer piercing. CZ52s might split the chamber wall, but the aftermarket 9mm barrels for CZ52s are much stronger metal than the original 7.62x25mm Tokarev barrels... RC25 vs RC47.

[Dave R]

My main question here is what should the col be for this setup. I am anal about numbers, and every book varies slightly as well

Remember that part of OAL is based on the shape of the bullet. So each bullet could theoretically give you a different OAL.

Don't remember where I was taught this, probably here, but the best way to check your finished round for an autoloader is to drop it down the barrel (slide locked back or barrel removed) and then push it with your finger. If you can push it in further, the bullet is touching the lands and it is too long.

Then turn the barrel over and see if the round will fall out. If yes, all is good. If no, then either you bullet is in the rifling (COAL too long) or your crimp is wrong.

[Scoob956]

thanks for the responses.

I am finally getting around to actually loading these guys up. I setup these dies a while back when I made the original post.

I sized and de caped them and this is a dummy round I am making to get the dies correctly setup. My question is After i decap and resize i ran them through the expander die, then seated this bullet. There is a bulge about 2/3rds the way around the case at the base of the bullet. What am i doing wrong here ? more flare ? I did not crimp this.

[Sevens]

You aren't doing anything wrong. 9mm reloads often get wasp-waisted (.30 Carbine, too!) because the spec of the 9 cartridge case is that it's a tapered design... a little fatter at the case head, a little slimmer toward the mouth. the way we resize them with a carbide die often leaves them looking like that.

If they chamber... and they shoot... and they function the pistol... and they are accurate... and they don't exhibit signs of overly high pressure... then you are good to go.

[Scoob956]

Alrighty. The only thing is they didn't look like this after resizing. It was right after I seated the bullet. I just thought I put up a pic and ask to make sure I wasn't going down the wrong path.

[Brian Pfleuger]

That bulge is at the base of the bullet because the bullet is causing it. Basically, your die is sizing the case narrower than what is "factory spec". Carbide dies are particularly notorious for sizing the cases so small that seating the bullet essentially "resizes" the case back out to proper dimensions, leaving that little bump where the bullet stops.

[Sevens]

...because it's a tapered cartridge case and they don't make a die that squeezes brass down more at one end than the other and takes the mouth down enough in size to hold a bullet.