9mm XDM, BBI & OAL

[fedupflyer]

I am having an issue determining the correct OAL for 124/147g RN blue bullets and the 9mm XDM.

Doing the plunk and spin test, I am coming up with a length 1.08-1.09. This seem to be unusually short and I have never loaded a 9mm round with a set back that far.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the blue bullets seated a little shorter but I was not expecting this length.

Other XDM shooter please chime in with your experiences and maybe some load data so I dont blow up a gun on some test runs. 

I just picked up some N320 in addition to some Power Pistol and Titegroup that I have on hand.

 

 

[molson]

Fedupflier,

the title of your post states BBI bullets.  Aren't BBI bullets black.  Reason I ask is you are saying blue bullets in your post.  I will check my load data when I get home from work tonight.

molson

Edited October 5, 2016 by molson

[MemphisMechanic]

The 147 black bullet is a short, wide profile.

Its very likely you'll need to load them that short. I do, for my girl's M&P with it's factory barrel.

 

[SCTaylor]

Gotta run BBI's 125 at 1.09 in my Tanfo Stock 2 and CZ 75B.

The profile on BBI's 125 & 147 is very similar, the shoulder is high & pronounced causing the bullet to hit the rifling sooner.  Bayou & The Blue Bullets look to use the same mold for 147, with their profile I could load out to 1.135.

As to load data, for the Stock 2 with 125gr BBI, CCI 500, Mix Brass, & Titegroup at 1.09" - weather ~85* & clear - 570' elevation

3.4gr - 1027 FPS avg - 128.34pf

3.6gr - 1070 FPS avg - 133.79pf

3.8gr - 1104 FPS avg - 137.94pf

[fedupflyer]

4 hours ago, molson said:

Fedupflier,

the title of your post states BBI bullets.  Aren't BBI bullets black.

You are correct.

I mistakenly typed BBI and I mean Blue Bullets.

[Out of Ammo]

I shoot 125 BBI.  I use 4gr of WST and 1.15 OAL. Very soft shooting and accurate.

[IDescribe]

The Blue Bullets 147 RN I load to 1.120.  The Blue Bullets 125 RN I load to 1.100.  CZ pistols load short.  My understanding is that XD pistols load a little shorter than CZ.  So your 1.09 makes sense to me.  Remember that there is no ballistic effect that cares one bit how far the nose of the bullet is from the headstamp at the moment the powder is ignited.  Pressure is affected by seating depth -- how deeply the bullet base is seated into the case, but there's no ballistic effect for OAL itself.  The pistol might care.  The pistol might not like to feed a particular bullet at a particular length, but if your pistol feeds them fine, then you shouldn't care one way or another.  Everyone shooting these Eastern European pistols with the short throats goes through this.  We starting off loading FMJ or plated RN that will load out to the magazine length of 1.169, then we go to a lead or coated RN or a flatpoint or a JHP that has to be loaded down somewhere between 1.06 and 1.09 and we think "Oh my God, that's SO short."  But if the pistol doesn't care, you shouldn't either.  Short isn't too short until there's an actual problem.  

The only thing you need to watch out for here is exceeding the .300 limit on seating depth.  The case walls start to thicken at .300 from the case mouth, and the interior of the case starts to shrink.  If you seat the bullet base below that level, you will quickly find the point where either your bullet base gets swaged, the cases bows out, or a little bit of both.  The beveled base on the bullet will let you get a little deeper than .300 before you hit the limit, but not much.  And when I was loading the Blue 147gr RN for my CZ, my OAL of 1.12 left me with a seating depth of .310.  That's already deeper than the .300 limit, and I'm sure there wasn't much more room to go deeper, if any.  If you truly have to seat their 147 RN at 1.090, that bullet may just not be appropriate for that pistol.

And some people should drop in shortly to tell you to ream your barrel.  

[Sarge]

My XDM chamber surprised me with its short chamber. I had to load BBI 135's down to about 1.09. As stated CZ family almost all get loaded to under 1.10 unless you ream them a little.

[fedupflyer]

Thanks for all those that helped in this thread but I think I have discovered the problem.

It appears that I may have gotten a bad batch of 125g RN Blue Bullets. I bought another pack and this lot will easily pass the plunk and spin test at 1.12

The BBs and my barrels did not like being seated at 1.08. The resulting poa/poi looked more like a shotgun pattern.

 

Edited July 16, 2017 by fedupflyer

[Out of Ammo]

I load the BBI bullets at 1.09 for the 125gr bullets.

[TitoR]

I went through the exercise of bullet selection for my XDm recently.  The table in the attached foto gives you the OAL I was able to achieve with each of the tried Bullets.  I hope this data helps you.

Key : RMR - Rocky Mountain Reloading, BYU - Bayou Bullets, BLU - Blue Bullets, BBI - Black Bullets

Edited July 25, 2017 by TitoR