CocoBolo
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Posts posted by CocoBolo
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47 minutes ago, Ssanders224 said:
124 JHPs, and 147 FMJs inventories updated. In stock items ship 1-2 business days.
Scored some. Thanks
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34 since 2014, with 11 of those in 2021. I'd say it was accurate.
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I put on a *thumb rest [generic]*, and I did not immediately move up a class, I didn't become instantly faster. That said it does give a consistent place to put my thumb and makes my grip more consistent. I say try it, you can always take it off. Just like Broccoli you won't know if you like it till you try it.
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There is nothing worse than a fat 9 mm at the base when it comes to jams, it won't go into battery and you need a jack hammer to get it out. I started something new recently rather than loading a thousand then checking them I do the drop check every time I empty the reloading tray (200). To avoid the dreaded jam from purgatory when I encounter your failure, I put it into the case gauge backwards if it goes in about 1/8" its good to go, if not I set it aside for failure analysis. Most of the time a tiny bit of crimp turns out to be the issue. Not all cases are created equally. With the pile of rejects I run them back thru the crimp station, drop check again, failed again I run them thru my case pro, if they fail again into the cup for disassembly. A decade ago I tried the U-die, well that didn't go well, I still have it somewhere. The Hornady and Dillon dies IMHO do a lot better job. It could be that 9 out of 10 are ok but that one that isn't is the one that concerns me, maybe it was the 14 stitches in the web of my had when I was pounding one out and hit the beaver tail, my only DNF score.
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Shooting 9 maj, I don't bother picking them up, and aluminum probably won't handle the pressure. The solution, I buy once fired at a local range for $2.00 a pound. Steel matches are a different story, I pick mine up because they are minor, well 150pf, but lots of shooters leave theirs so I snag it. It's easy its all in one place, and it has been tromped into the ground. There are about 115 cases to the pound, less than 2 cents each. I take a magnet when buying brass and suck out all the steel cases that look like brass.
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Just got a notification from Midway USA Winchester Small Pistol Magnum Primers have been discontinued by the manufacture. I have notifies every where for all manner of primer, my excitement really faded fast when I read the email.
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AQ lot depends on your set up, IMHO the burn chart is pretty accurate softer shooting than 3n37 and about like 3N38. Meters well and shoots clean, and is very consistent lot to lot. And it seems to be all weather.
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I think some may be caught up in a Paradigm dilemma. I could never bring my self to buy a $9000 Gibson Guitar, my mind draws an imaginary line at $1000, which let me buy a fantastic Martin Acoustic, but then again I have 8 Guitars. If asked why don't you buy that Gibson, I'd say cause I don't play as well as Eric Clapton. Guns are a lot like Guitars they can appear identical but one will have that unique special sound that you want, that feel in your hand that makes you want to play it all day. I'm guessing that is why when I shoot limited my STI Edge (Dawson HPF HardChromed circa 2005-7) gets a day out of the safe and the SVI dual caliber replaceable breach face gets to stay on the shelf. Make no mistake I had 3 prior Edge's before I bought the Dawson HPF, the SVI came later, they all looked the same but nope the HPF Edge has that something special going on. That said its Friday, classic rock time, you know Smoke on the Water, Can't get No Satisfaction, Sultans of Swing, all other days are country Broken Halos. The punch line you will never know if it is the one till you pick it up and play it a while.
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9 hours ago, twodownzero said:
I never said it was dangerous, I'm not sure where you got that idea.
I shoot a lot of 9mm pistols and they all use the same minor ammunition, and I'd want to keep it that way.
That said, it doesn't seem sensible to me for the chambers to be cut that short, so I wouldn't leave it that way.
If it was my only 9mm, maybe I wouldn't care.
My apologies, you said it was ridiculous, not unsafe. I really love my Edge, a Dawson specially prepared hard chromed version (2007), I like it better than my dual caliber SVI, with the replaceable breach face. The Shadow I just converted to CO I have had since 2010, so nothing new about loading shorter on fat profiles, just like the other CZ's I have owned in the past. The nose of the bullet will drag on the mag if you go beyond 1.165, that is how long my Montana Gold 124gr JHP's are I use in the gun, 124gr FMJ's I load to 1.150, the RN's feed a little better. My gun may be throated, I have a throat reamer, and don't remember everything I did in the last 11 years, sometimes I can't remember what I had for dinner yesterday, that's why I have a reloading journal, well its a database since I am a retired database administrator/application developer. The down side is you can run cost reports.
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38 minutes ago, twodownzero said:
I would not ever load 9mm Luger that short. I know CZs have short chambers and I actually have one on order. I will be sending the barrel to Memphis Mechanic to get him to ream it. 1.080 is almost a hundred thousandths shorter than SAAMI max and that is absolutely ridiculous.
I don't know that 1.080 is dangerous, I've shot 9 major in open over a decade, I've put those rounds thru my Shadow and it survived. It is a tank. One of my good friends ran a 75B for years and that was his OAL 1.080, he was using TiteGroup with 147gr coated. The recommendation is to make sure that it isn't short for no reason, and to start low and work up paying attention to the primers, if they flatten out back it off.
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4 hours ago, NETim said:
I've run my trusty old RCBS Jr. press since I bought it new in '79. Old school cast iron frame.
It has loaded many, many rounds.
I broke 2 cheap Lee's (the frame) (they were $25.00 back in the day) then I got the RCBS jr, its done many thousands of 223 (just deprime and sizing), loading is done on the Hornady L&L.
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I tried a Lee Load Master so long ago I can't remember what I did with it, its at the bottom of a lake or I sold it. I did manage to crank out a few thousand rounds, but it was a constant battle against the machine, you don't forget things like that. I bought a Hornady Lock and Load, while some will bash it cause it ain't blue, I have loaded 100's of thousands of rounds on it. One day my sponsor asked me if I'd like a Dillon 650, huh, you kidding me, well I took it home and discovered the truth about big blue. It was a learning curve, I broke more parts on it than the Hornady, it took a good while to learn all of the things that go wrong and how to remedy them. I acquired a second Dillon 650 in a gun deal. The time came when 3 was too many, I sold a 650 kept the Hornady, and if I could only have one it would be the Hornady. To be fair the Dillon is a few rounds a hour faster and a little smother. The Dillon is more complex and harder to get right, once right its good till something breaks. Keep the powder out of the primer punch and the Hornady hums along, The Dillon can be filthy and still keep going, then something goes out of whack, the primer wheel, the indexing or the case pusher. I tried the bullet feeder thing and it wasn't faster than grabbing a hand full of bullets at a time, and the noise was distracting. Bottom line if your time isn't worth anything get a Lee and a bottle of valium, but if it is, you can't go wrong with a Hornady or Dillon. Only get the Dillon if you get the case feeder, feeding it manually is like trying to bottle feed a badger. I got lucky I won a Dillon case feeder at the Double Tap Championship.
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Now to the real topic, if you have not shot open you don't really know what you want. I started that way and bought a used Tanfo Gold and it was a great gun except it hurt my hand to shoot it. I ditched it bought a used Briley (STI) for $1200(2007). In the next couple of years I bought a few guns one was a worn out SVI, I had it accu-railed, then a couple of STI competitors. I customized them aka modernized them. I had a shorty built, and a 5" built by Chris Monolito (phillipines) both great guns. I really didn't know how much I loved shorty till I sold it about 8 years ago. The Briley I still shoot it for steel, had to replace the slide last year. One of the Competitors new slide last year, 60-70k. Point being no sense spending a lot of money till you are sure what you want, just get a good used gun and give it a go. All the bedazzling won't make you any faster, but it will make you look cool.
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3 hours ago, bobbyblaze said:
Thanks for that information. I have 4lbs. of 3N38 what are your thoughts on that powder?
3N38 is another good choice . I tried it for a while it was good, nice flames, just couldn't find it reliably. Here is a whole thread on it 38SC w/ 3N38 Load Data - 9mm/38 Caliber - Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!
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I use the MTM plastic 100 RD ammo boxes. They cost a bit more than a sandwich bag but there are some important advantages. 1st you know how many rounds, you need 150 for a match, two cases. 2.nd - When you put the bullets in nose down you can easily see things you might have missed in the drop check, like a high primer, upside down primer, or none etc. 3rd - If a round is long or short you will see that. 4th - When loading magazines you can use the rows of ten to help you know how many are in the mag. 5th - They stack well on shelves and it is easy to take an inventory of how much ammo you have. Although some only load what the need on Friday night I tend to load a few thousand then use them up over time.
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You could start at 8.0 gr crono and adjust. If you search you will probably find 100's of recipes between 8.0 and 9.0 (8 is @ 166pf 9 is @ 180 pf) standard OAL 1.245. Personally I never found the love for it, I settled in on AA#7 10.5gr 175pf to get flat with a 5" Bedel Comp and 2 holes, power factor at 10gr but love at 10.5gr with 125gr Zeros. So you have to experiment some, and evaluate the results with a timer and a standard drill to set the bench mark, how you feel could be slowing you down.
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I scored mine at Search results for: 'bullets' (wideners.com). I didn't buy all of them they still have some.
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The secret is to polish the mag outside and inside where the button rides. I used a fine diamond file. Some people also polish the button surfaces, mine have run 100% for a decade without doing that. You also need to clean them after every match, I have a stainless steel brush I use for that. You can feel the difference after the polishing and they don't make noise when the button slides.
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2 hours ago, Aircooled6racer said:
Hello, I ordered some 125gr Black Bullets Internationals last week and they showed up today. Still waiting on Blue Bullets since February 4th. I'll test the BBI's this week and see how they work for me. Thanks, Eric
Eric they shoot pretty well, that said make sure you don't shave the coating, a little more bell, and just enough crimp to hold it in place. If you shave the coating it will deposit lead in barrel, if you crimp to much they tumble.
I bought a case of MonkeyBrassBullets they are coated 125gr, loaded a sample batch just have not tested them yet. Ordered on Monday arrived on Friday about 6 cents each.
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9 hours ago, zzt said:
Red Dot is great as a pistol powder. Alliant used to publish tons of data for it, as well as all their other shotgun powders. Since this is a thread on 9mm, here are the max loads from their 2005 reloading guide. Data is using WSP and a 4" barrel.
115 FMJ, 1.12 OAL, 4.5gr for 1150 fps @ 32600 psi.
125 FMJ, 1.15, 4.5, 1145, 32000
147 XTP, 1.14, 3.4, 895, 32400
Works fine for 40sw and 45acp as well.
Thanks for the Info. When I got the RedDot I loaded about a 1000 45's, it was ok but my goto for 45 is Clays (200gr SWC).
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I hear you I just paid $85 for two pounds of N320, the last two within 100 miles. When it runs out I'm going use some of the 16#s of WST I bought during the OBAMA decade. Now if I could just find a use for 8#'s of RedDot.
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Something new I learned. The 6 moa dot in my new Romeo 1 is super bright compared to my 5 C-more sights, 4 being 8 moa and one being 6 moa. The size of the Romeo 1 6 MOA is about the same as the C-more 8 MOA. With the sight at full brightness I aim it at a 60 watt equivalent LED bulb about 2 feet away the 6 moa C-more is so pale I have to hunt for it, the 8 MOA C-more is pretty washed out but easily visible, the Romeo 1 has to be turned down it is too bright. Sunday I totally tanked a stage with the 6 moa, facing the morning sun the dot was so washed out I had a hard time finding it. If it was the off season I would have switched mounts and gone to a Romeo 1 but being I want to shoot and I know C-more's last for ever, almost, I just ordered an 8-moa C-more to replace the 6-moa. Since the 6 moa is more than a decade old I decided to get a new one, and send the old one in to be rebuilt and keep it for a spare. You mileage may very, but this is my story.
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That Butt Slam is no joke, it can drop check and still not feed, been there done that. You will be shocked how much a tenth of a grain can change the grouping.
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44 minutes ago, ddc said:
What about getting the leade opened up a bit so "normal" OAL rounds will fit?
I actually have a 9 mm throat reamer, and have used it on my STI Open guns, I'm way more concerned with OAL on 9 major. When you stuff 10grs of powder in a 9 mm case you can't make short bullets, and if you did it might not be wise. FMJ and JHP's work at normal OAL in the CZ, its just the coated round nose that are fatter towards the point that need to be loaded short. The CZ is very accurate and if it ain't broke don't fix it.
School me on buying an Open gun
in Open Pistols
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I've run lots of AA#7 in both 38SC and 9 maj. My 9 maj load was 10gr w/124 MG JHP. @1.175 you can't make a short one. I don't use oil I use Rigg grease, none the less AA#7 is dirty but it works well. I switched to Silhouette in 9 maj 7.3gr, it shoots well, just have to have one load for summer and one for cooler temps 7.0gr, it like AA#7 is a bit dirty but it won't stop the slide like AA#7, smaller softer meal. Just clean gun after each match you should be good. There are a lot of HS6 fans, I tried it still have an 8# in the closet, right next to a 8# jug of AA#7.