Last week I reloaded some 9mm rounds for my Sig 226 9mm handgun. I loaded misc brass with 4.6 grs Bullseye, Win small pistol primers, and Speer 125 gr cast lead RN bullets.

After I went to the range I noticed a great deal of leading in the barrel which took a good deal of time to get clean.

I have never reloaded cast lead bullets for 9mm before and was hoping to buy the LEE TL 9mm 125 gr mold to cast with, as I have a good deal of WW lead at my disposal. The Speer bullets that I used were just something I had laying around in the box for a while (.356) and I wanted to test them out. They did not have a lube grove(s), but did have a cantalure and what appeared to be a clear varnish type finish. I am wondering if it was the bullets or I was pushing them too fast or a combination of both.

Any commets from 9mm casters/reloaders is appreciated.

Speer bullets are very soft being swaged and not cast. The leading should scrub out easily.

You might want to slug your barrel and see what the actual groove diameter is. Being soft, the Speer bullets should boot up to fit the bore even if they're a bit undersize.

My favorite load for the 9mm is the Lee TL 124gr. I cast them from water dropped WW and use Lee liquid Alox for lube.

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Sion ap Rhys

Here are some photos of a bullet and the box.

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Bump up does not work. It is a fallacy and boolits must fit to start with.
You have two things wrong. The swaged boolits are too soft and the lube is not enough and no good to start with. They skid the rifling and run out of lube.

I have good results with 3.2 grains of Bullseye and that type of bullet in my CZ-75.

I used 3.2 gr Bullseye with some other type of cast bullets a week or two prior without any noticed problem, however the loads were very underpowered and I didnt really shoot that many of them (prob 50). They functioned the action but had a considerable drop even at 15 yards so I upped the charge and used the Speer cast bullets. I wonder if there was even any type of lube on them. I cant imagine that Speer would not have lubed them.

It wouldn't be too hard a deal to tumble lube some of the Speers in Lee liquid alox if you have some. I can shoot some pretty soft bullets using it and not lead. Have you put many jacketed rounds through this pistol?

Your 4.6 gr. load of Bullseye might be cut back a bit. I use that load with 115 gr FMJ bullets in a SIG P228. Might try something in the neighborhood of 4.3 gr. keeping an eye on functionality, accuracy, and leading. Bear in mind that with small capacity cases like the 9mm, a slight load change may have large effects.

The Speer bullets that I shoot, .38 cal. 148 gr. HBWC, have a dry lube on them. Speer probably uses the same lube on all their swaged bullets. Gently scrape a bullet with a dull edge. You should see particles of lube stuck on your edge. If you scrape hard enough you should start to see lead.

I bouht the gun used but it is my understanding that it has seen 500 or less jacketed rounds through it. No cast prior to now.

I was thinking about ramping it down a bit too. Additionally, I was reading the new edition of Modern Reloading by Richard Lee and in the book he claims that the LEE TL cast bullets not only did not lead but (according to him) actually removed existing lead. With the Molds only costing like $40 it is prob worth a try.

The Speer bullets are not cast, they are swaged, a process of jamming lead slugs cut from a spool of lead wire into forming dies to get the final bullet shape. The wire alloy has to be pretty soft to be formed that way, where most casting alloys are not. That's why the swaged bullets are softer than typical cast bullets for all but primitive black powder guns, where pure lead is often cast.

Reducing the load should help. I fired reduced loads using Hornady swaged 240 grain bullets in .44 Special for years with no problem, but they were only in the 3-4 grain charge range in that much larger case. Pretty low pressure. At one point I got a good price on a bunch of Star swaged 185 grains SWC's for gallery loads in .45 ACP. Even at 3.8 grains of Bullseye (my gallery load) they produced some leading just beyond the throat. I switched over to a cast bullet after I used those up.

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Nick

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That makes sense. Probably caused by the soft bullets. I think I'm going to buy the LEE TL 125 RN 6 cavity mold. Most people seem to like them and with water quenched WW I hope there will be no leading. Any other suggestions?

I use a 160 gr 38 Super bullet. Loaded to just work the action. Load it to the max OAL your mag and barrel will take. Also, you have to use the Lee factory crimp die as some cases bulge a little. I was never able to get good results with 125 gr weight class bullets. Too much leading and not enough bearing surface. I heard a GC 125 will work OK but that ups the cost too much. Just my .02.

If you are casting your own bullets from wheel weight lead it is 4% antimony. After you get the bullet mold very hot and start casting good bullets drop the bullets out of the mold directly into a 5 gallon bucket of water. The sudden cooling of the water will heat treat the lead. It takes 2 days for the lead to become complelely 100% hard as it will get. Put the wet bullets on a towel with a fan blowing roll them around they will be dry in 30 minutes on a hot summer day. Be sure to lube and size them right away if you wait until tomorrow they will not go through the sizing die. Once they get hard they are too hard to size. Size the bullets after you get the water dried off then you can load the lube sized bullets into the brass anytime you like. I have found this stops all my gun barrel leading problems on pistol bullets. It works pretty well on 30 cal carbine bullets too.