9mm Polymer coated bullet reloading
Since taking up USPSA shooting, I have decided to try my hand at reloading.
I looked around and found a couple of companies that sell cast bullets that are powder-coated. So, being eager to try them out I got myself some samples to try.
I placed 2 orders, 1 at The Blue Bullets and the other at Badman Bullets.
Upon receiving my samples, I first noticed that they were not the same weights. There are fluctuations of up to 3 grains. No biggie, I want to see how they reload and shoot so to the press we go.
My reloading setup is a Dillon 750xl 5-stage progressive press, with Dillon dies for 9mm. I had it all dialed in for my gun by reloading some copper-jacketed bullets a couple of weeks back. I am using Alliant Unique powder and after a fair amount of reading settled on 4.7 grains of powder for the exercise.
My formula for my reloads is
Bullets - 115gr (roughly) Powder - 4.7gr Remington No 1.5 Small pistol primers Once fired brass
I took my brass, de-primed it, and put them in the cleaner for 24 hours to clean. With clean brass in hand, off to the press we go. Everything ran smoothly with the press working like a charm. Seating and crimping seemed to go well and after about an hour, I had 80 shiny new cartridges. I was a happy camper. I verified my sizes with my micrometer and a touch long but just barely.
Time to test them in my gun. I loaded up a couple in a magazine and racked the slide. Failure. The slide failed to go into battery. Tapped the back of the slide and it closed into battery, leaving me a little concerned. So, what do I do, I rack the slide and nope the slide does not want to go back. With a little force I got slide to move and eject the cartridge. Thinking maybe it was an anomaly, I tried again. Same result. Not a happy camper anymore.
Time to research to see what is wrong with these reloads. What did I find out?
After a fair amount of reading and picking the brains of some of the seasoned shooters and reloaders at my local range, I was given the advice to seat the polymer bullets a little deeper than the copper jacketed ones because the profile is slightly different.
So back to the press, a little adjusting and testing with a few deeper seated bullets and we have success in racking the slide and ejecting without any issues.
I went and ran the entire batch through the seating and crimping stages again seating the bullets deeper and re-crimping.
I am hoping to get to the range again soon so I can see how they shoot.
* Disclaimer – this is what i used for my needs. I dont take responsibility for anything that happens. You need to do your own research as to what load you want to use.
