Ogive, those OAL blues...

Zak Smith · October 5, 2002, 07:57 PM

My 9x19 reloads to date - only several hundred as I'm doing these on a single-stage Rock-Chucker - have been a 124gr Gold Dot over a moderate dose of VV-3N37, which is just shy of 1200 fps. OAL was set to 1.142 +/- 0.005 for safety. These were tested in my Glock 19 and BHP with no problems.

Gold Dot's are pretty expensive - about $12/100 at Sportsmans' Warehouse. I wanted something cheaper, so I picked up some 115 and 124gr Hornady XTP's ($8.50 and $9.50) and a pack of 124gr Laser-Cast lead, round-nose ($4.50).

I loaded up a batch of XTP's with the same OAL, and these would not chamber in my CZ-75B-SA! (They shot perfectly in the Glock 19. Couldn't test the BHP, as it's off for customization.)

The problem was that since the XTP has a straight case until the nose-cone starts, it would hit the rifling in the CZ-75B-SA barrel. I tried the same experiment with the LRN bullets, and they wouldn't chamber completely either. To get either bullet to fully seat in the chamber, I needed to seat them back to around 1.100".

The ogive on the Gold Dot bullets curves "in" enough when seated to 1.142" that it clears the rifling.

-z

Zak Smith · October 5, 2002, 08:33 PM

That's exactly what I did to check that the rest of my reloads would operate in the CZ, and how I determined the 1.100" dimension.

-z

October 5, 2002, 07:57 PM	#1
Zak Smith Senior Member Join Date: December 12, 1999 Location: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA Posts: 2,682	Ogive, those OAL blues... My 9x19 reloads to date - only several hundred as I'm doing these on a single-stage Rock-Chucker - have been a 124gr Gold Dot over a moderate dose of VV-3N37, which is just shy of 1200 fps. OAL was set to 1.142 +/- 0.005 for safety. These were tested in my Glock 19 and BHP with no problems. Gold Dot's are pretty expensive - about $12/100 at Sportsmans' Warehouse. I wanted something cheaper, so I picked up some 115 and 124gr Hornady XTP's ($8.50 and $9.50) and a pack of 124gr Laser-Cast lead, round-nose ($4.50). I loaded up a batch of XTP's with the same OAL, and these would not chamber in my CZ-75B-SA! (They shot perfectly in the Glock 19. Couldn't test the BHP, as it's off for customization.) The problem was that since the XTP has a straight case until the nose-cone starts, it would hit the rifling in the CZ-75B-SA barrel. I tried the same experiment with the LRN bullets, and they wouldn't chamber completely either. To get either bullet to fully seat in the chamber, I needed to seat them back to around 1.100". The ogive on the Gold Dot bullets curves "in" enough when seated to 1.142" that it clears the rifling. -z

October 5, 2002, 08:33 PM	#2
Zak Smith Senior Member Join Date: December 12, 1999 Location: Fort Collins, Colorado, USA Posts: 2,682	That's exactly what I did to check that the rest of my reloads would operate in the CZ, and how I determined the 1.100" dimension. -z