musky

Decided to finish ream the one barrel slightly, as I wasn't comfortable, even with light loads of WST at that short of a length. Will plunk without sticking up, up to 1.123 now, so I am loading the test ones at 1.115, or .025 longer than before. Still a little short, but I feel more comfortable than before, and will probably finish ream it some more, if everything looks promising on the tests. If the weather ever calms down here, I'll try some groups, It's been extremely windy lately, but I have a nice range on my property.

Yes, it seemed short to me also, as there was virtually no flat left at this length, about .010 or so. I could lengthen my length another .005, and it would still plunk, but this would be cutting it too close for comfort for me. I didn't start this thread to ask what I was doing wrong, as I have over 45 years of loading experience, but to find out what others with experience in loading this bullet, were getting for an OAL. I realize everyone's chambers are different, and just was wondering if others had found a short OAL necessary also. I know what to do, and am capable of correcting it if need be, just not sure if I want to, until I see if groups look promising. I don't want to ream out a barrel first, then decide that I don't like the bullet that I reamed it for. Also with my other Wesson barrel, I can load them apx .015 longer, so I may slightly ream the tighter one, so that they both better match. I mainly load for 9 & 45 in pistol, but wanted to come up with some mild options for my two 40's for fun shooting, and an indoor senior pistol league. Predominately shoot the 9 & 45, but would like to play with the 40's at times. Have a mild load with 165 gr Xtreme's, that actually shoots quite good, but want to get away from them. The Xtreme's plunk fine at 1.125, but the barrel with the tighter chamber will not accept those past 1.130.

No, actually there is a bit of flat left on the bullet yet, not much but it is there. I would take a picture, but shot the couple test loads that I had. I'll load up some more to try for some groups, and can take a picture then. While I have a new finishing reamer in .40, I really don't want to do this yet as I'm not sure if I will actually end up using these bullets, if they don't group good enough, as I was getting good groups, surprisingly, with my reduced plated loads. When I was fitting a Kart barrel on one of my 9 mm's, it needed to be finish reamed, so I just bought a 9, 40, and 45, at one time. If groups look promising, I will stock up on these, and ream my barrels then, so that I can load a touch longer. These bullets sort of have the profile, and remind me of loading XTP's in 9mm, in that they have to be loaded short.

No not crimp. When my first test round didn't work at 1.125, I kept shortening it up about .010 at a time, and it kept cambering that much further every time, finally at 1.097 it plunked in my barrel, but still sat slightly proud in my EGW case gauge. Decided to seat them at 1.090 to be safe. Also tried a touch more crimp to see if it changed anything, it didn't. I really don't see a problem with this, as I am actually quite close to the lands. Glad I didn't try a much heavier load at this length. I was quite mild to start out with, which turned out just fine. I have been using WSF, in some mild loads before this, 5.6 gr with a 165 gr plated, and was having great results, but I wanted to use WST for these.I'll dig out the chrono for these soon, and try some groups off my bench. I was getting excellent groups with my plated, and WSF, just under 1.25"at 24 yds, so it will be interesting to see how these work with a light charge.

It's the one with the groove. 1.095 barely plunks, so I set the die to 1.090 to be safe. Guess it really doesn't matter as I am only looking for a light load, and they seem to feed fine at that length.

Wondering if anyone else has loaded this bullet, and if so, what your OAL is. I'm trying a few of their bullets, and cannot get these to plunk in my two Wesson 1911's, without shortening the OAL to 1.090. I do have a reamer for .40, but would prefer not doing that as I also load other bullets that chamber fine at a longer OAL. Once I shortened them enough to plunk, I loaded up a couple, and even though the loads were mild, they seemed a little hot, I would assume from the shortened OAL, so I dropped the load a bit. First loaded a few at 4.2 gr WST, then lowered that to 3.9 and 4.0 gr of WST. I didn't get around to chronoing them yet, but plan on doing that as the 4.2 load should have been fine, but the primers were really flattened. The 3.9 gr load is very mild. There really wasn't much recoil at 4.2, in fact substantially less than a standard factory load, just made my judgement by the primers. I would like to use these indoors as a mild target load. I cannot use uncoated lead at my indoor range. These bullets look real nice, and I also got some .45 wad cutters to try also. Looking forward to trying some groups with them.

I have two Dan Wesson 1911 40's that I load for. One is a stock SSC, and the other is a custom Silverback that I had built. Load 165 gr Xtreme's, with 5.6 gr WSF in the SSC, and 5.7 gr WSF in the custom. Both shoot real good with those loads. SSC put 5 rounds in slightly over 1 1/8" off my bench at 25 yds. Custom, haven't shot for group, but off hand shooting seems as good as the SSC. Comfortable loads to shoot, could probably get down to 5.5 or 5.4 gr on the SSC, and still function, but my custom is still newish, and wants a slightly heavier charge. That's pretty good grouping for a plated bullet, but I am very careful with my reloading. I really like WSF, and also WST, and mostly use those two powders for all my 9,40, and 45 loadings.

I've used 4.2gr of WST with 125 gr lead. This is with a Wesson PM9 and a 11 lb recoil spring. I actually like a load of 4.1 gr, as they seem slightly more accurate, but the cases just about dribble out on my arm at this loading with a 11 lb spring. Both loads work fine with a 10 lb spring.

They make 14 rd magazines for the M&P 45.

I would think that if you can watch your thumb dancing around, what you really have is a total lack of concentration of your sight picture.

4.1 gr WST with a 126gr dardas lwc. 4.1 is marginal, but 4.2 always works. Apx 1070 fps with 4.2 WST

I load lots and lots of Dardas 126 lwc's for 5 different 9mm's that I have.Two 1911's, and three m&p's. It's a fantastic bullet. I now load at 1.110 oal, 4.2 gr wst. Used to load at 1.120 oal, but dropped that to 1.110 as one of my pistols didn't reliably chamber at 1.120. I load with a Hornady progressive press, and seat with the Hornady die, with the flat stem. Have used three different expander dies, including the one that Matt recommends. Can not tell a difference in any of them, as long as set correctly. My OAL variation is never more than .002, and this is with a progressive press. Tried a Redding comp micro adjust seating die that had a stem suited for round nose, and oal varied up to .005. I do not ever have cocked or miss seated bullets with a flat stem seating die, but it does take the correct set up of the sizing and flare die. Also you have to be careful that the bullet sits straight in the case, before seating. Due to the flat base, these bullets need a little more flare. Also OAL seating variation, can be caused by not enough sizing, or a flaring stem slightly oversize. I would suggest getting an EGW case gauge. It will really help your reloading.

I also would check to see if was slightly out of time. A little out of time, and mine has locked up before. Have had other issues that have caused it to stop, and out of time, is one of them, especially when I adjusted it more than I should have.

Can only think of a couple of ways for OAL to vary more than a few thousandths. First would be, not having a case in every station. Second would be, case not properly sized, resize die not turned down to shell plate. Third possibility, too little, or too much flare in case. Also if you are able to push on a loaded bullet and change its length, you have found that most likely it can be fixed by one of the three mentioned areas.