non-plated in 9mm?

6

603Country

New member
Well, some time back I ran out of plated bullets and almost out of jacketed bullets and just flat could not find anything that I preferred. Only thing I could find was some 9mm 115 gr plain lead bullets made by an outfit out of Breckenridge, TX. It's time to do some 9mm reloading again and I have not yet used those lead unplated bullets. The pistol in question is a Beretta PX4, and when I was loading plated bullets I had to load them pretty much at the jacketed bullet levels for the pistol to function correctly. I guess it's a little stiff still. There were no problems with the plated bullets, but now I'm down to the unplated stuff. I shoot plain lead (wadcutters and Keith) all day long in my 38 and 357, but do any of you have any history (good or bad) with lead RN 115 grainers in your 9mm.

Should I just use them for fishing weights and buy some more plated, which I guess is available now? I'm not exactly out of ammo just yet, so it's no big deal to wait for a delivery. I just have these bullets and hate to have wasted my money if I don't use them.

Thanks for the help.
 
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Sevens

New member
I was using cast lead in 9mm for a good bit, I wanna say I probably ran around 5,000 of them, most of those went thru my Tanfoglio Elite Match. They ran seriously well, no failures of any manner and accuracy was terrific. I did get away from them for a few reasons...

They gave me a bit of leading. Not horribly, but since I can't shoot lead indoors, I had to be mindful of keeping the bore clear, especially when moving back to plated. Also, I made some LARGE buys of plated, so it was easier for me to stick with them.

But yes, I did very well with cast lead in 9mm, but I was running some high quality bullets from Dardas. Terrific slugs and service to match.
 
T

T. O'Heir

New member
Loaded 121 grain cast bullets with 3.5 of Bullseye for my Inglis BHP for eons. No change of return spring, but that might fix your Berretta.
There's buckets of 115 grain RN cast data on Hodgdon's site.
 
O

Ozzieman

New member
I shoot Penn 9mm out of everything from my Glock 34 (wolf barrel) to my Beretta storm carbine. I get very little leading and W231 remains my favorite and most accurate powder with his 120 GR truncated cone. The only problem I had was with my MP5 clone and it needed the larger bullet size than the standard of .356 but since it was a toy I really didn’t care.
Most companies cast bullets can be loaded to 1000 FPS without much leading. Swaged is another matter.
The only plated bullets I have ever used were for the 45 ACP so that I could shoot indoors at one of the ranges I go to. My Goldcup can hold very good groups and the plated bullets never worked. Always had flyers.

https://www.pennbullets.com/9mm/9mm-caliber.html
 
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TimSr

New member
My Smith 439 likes being fed 125gr LRN or 120gr SWC. I like the SWC for shooting paper just to be able to see the holes. No issues other than I have money left over to waste on other stuff.
 
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mmb713

New member
I would use up the lead bullets since you already have them and then buy plated bullets in the future. You don't say where you are looking for plated bullets locally but you can buy them factory direct. I get all of mine from Xtreme. Great bullets at great prices shipped right to your door.

http://www.xtremebullets.com/
 
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bedbugbilly

New member
All I shoot out of my 9mm is cast lead. I use the Lee 356-120gr TC style. (The 120 is close to what you are using). They drop from my mold at .358 and I load them "as cast". For lead, it's normal to load .002" over bore size if you can. All depends on your pistol, what the bore slugs at and getting the bullet seated where it should be so the round passes the "plunk test". I tumble lube mine with Alox/Paste wax and have no leading problems at all. They shoot well out of my Ruger SR9.
 
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