IDescribe

That said, if my two choices were Titegroup and N320 at the same price, I'd take N320 every time.

I have a Hornady LnL drop on my Dillon because it produces more consistent drops than the Dillon drop, BUT it doesn't work well with N320. It's not terrible by any stretch, and it's not broad enough to kill accuracy, but my SDs with N320 are always higher than just about everything else.

You're talking about rifle powders and bottleneck cartridges.. Even fast burning rifle powders are much slower than slow pistol/shotgun powders. The slower the powder, the less dramatic the effects of shifting variables. And since the interior diameter of the case below the neck is much larger in a bottleneck rifle cartridge than a straight wall pistol cartridge, seating the bullet deeper into the case doesn't reduce the case volume as dramatically, again, meaning less dramatic results.

That's your problem right there. Don't use the FCD with coated lead. The FCD sizes all the way down the case instead of just crimping (it is NOT basically a taper crimp die) and with lead will swage the bullet down, reducing it's diameter. This is a notorious cause of key-holing. You're using the cartridges in a couple of guns that are dealing with it, and one that is not. Stop using the FCD with coated lead, and your problem should go away.

There are a number of differences. OAL is the distance from headstamp to nose. That distance has no direct ballistic effect. What DOES have a ballistic effect is the depth the bullet base is seated into the case. Two different bullets at the same OAL will not have the same seating depth. The deeper the base is seated into the case, the smaller the initial size of the combustion chamber, and the faster the powder burns and pressure climbs. There is also bullet diameter. There is also the fact that lead obturates better to seal in gases. There is also the difference in friction co-efficient between coated lead and copper plating. Basically, there's a lot more going on than powder charge and bullet weight, and what produces faster or slower muzzle velocities isn't always intuitive. As a general rule, cast and coated lead takes less powder to achieve the same velocities as plated or jacketed bullets of the same weight because the obturate (fill in the rifling grooves) better, and thus contain the gases better, and quite often need to be seated more deeply, and thus reduce the initial size of the combustion chamber, increasing pressures for the same powder charge weight.

It's not about the brand. It's about fit. Bullet to barrel fit is one of the most significant determiners of accuracy, and especially important with lead and coated lead. Blue Bullets are undersized for lead at .355. Lead is .356 standard, and many pistols do even better with .357 or .358. Blue Bullets are lasers in my VP9 and Glock. In my CZ ShadowLine, they throw flyers. They're not crazy flyers. Many would still find it acceptable accuracy for action shooting, but why in the world would I accept 20% of my rounds getting thrown out an extra couple inches when I can use other bullets that don't? Blue Bullets also lead my CZ's barrel. NOW, if you love Blue, and you're determined to stay there, give their .38/.357 bullets a try. I know guys with CZs shooting those with great success -- good precision and no leading. The only catch is that you'll likely need to go with the 125gr bullets. As bullets get wider, you need to seat them shorter to keep them out of the rifling when they chamber, and those 147gr Blues for .38/.357 have to seat SUPER deep into the case with CZs, past the point where the interior diameter of the case starts to narrow, and seating past that point can cause other problems. Try the 125s. That said, 125gr bullets in an all-metal CZ at 9mm minor velocities are kitty cats. You're not doing yourself any favors with the 147gr bullets and a heavier, all-metal pistol. You might find you perform even better with the 125gr bullets. Give it a go.

P-10F at Pikdo, taken from MrGunsNGear's Instagram Page

Taper crimps simply remove the bell. With calibers that employ taper crimp, the crimp has NOTHING to do with holding the bullet in place. It's only to remove the flare you put in to seat the die. Case neck tension holds the bullet in place. If you crimp past zero, it reduces neck tension. All you want is to remove the flare. You shouldn't crimp past flush with any bullet type in 9mm.

You need the Hornady New Dimension seater, not the combo.

Given that it's a shooting sport, I aim for accuracy, so I'm crazy? I guess? I look for the most accurate load above a PF of 130, which is typically somewhere between 132 and 137.

OAL variation is contributed to by a number of factors. A consistent pull of the lever on your end goes a long way to reduce OAL variation. Having the press mounted to a bench that is itself absolutely rigid and bolted to a wall will reduce OAL variation. Using the cases sorted by headstamp, so that they flex to the same degree under force, and spring back to the same degree -- that reduces OAL variation. But there is also the issue of variation in the lengths of the bullets themselves. Certain seating die anvil press down on the nose of the bullet, and others have hollow/concave anvils that bypass the nose and press on the ogive/cone. The greatest part of bullet length variation occurs in the nose (the exception is FMJ, but every other bullet type, greatest variation is in the nose). So when you bypass the nose with an anvil that seats off the ogive/cone, that variation in the nose shows up in OAL variation. Note that if you seat off the tip of the nose with a flat anvil, that variation is taken out of OAL, and instead that variation shows up in seating depth (how deep the bullet base is seated into the case). How deep the bullet is seated into the case has a real ballistic effect. How far the nose is from the headstamp (which is all OAL is) does not have a ballistic effect. SO while there is an understandably logical drive to get OAL as consistent as possible, it's more important to get the seating depth as consistent as possible. It's the seating depth that alters ballistics. TIghten up your bench, use a a hollow anvil that seats off the ogive/cone, and don't worry about variation in the OAL (within reason). If you want to see what your OAL variation really is, take an FMJ, seat it, pull it (and pad the inside of the puller if using a kinetic pullet so as not to ding the bullet), then resize the case, and seat the same bullet in the same case again, and then do it again, then do it again, then do it again. And measure each time. THAT is your OAL variation. Measuring your OAL variation with different bullets and cases is a measurement of the consistency of the bullet and case manufacturers, not YOUR OAL variation. But again, tighten up your bench, get your arm moving consistently with each pull of the lever, get a seating die that seats off the ogive, like the Redding Pro, Redding Comp Pro, or Hornady New Dimension, and don't worry about OAL variation.

For sure. I know a couple of guys shooting the .358 Blues in their 9mm pistols with great success, but if I were looking to load 147gr bullets (I'm not), that's a non-starter. The .358 Blues in 147gr for everything but a 9mm 1911 have to be loaded deeper than what a 9mm case deals well with.

Depends on the pistol. Blue Bullets are undersized at .355 and don't do well in some pistols. When it comes to lead and coated lead, nothing is more important than bullet to barrel fit, and .356 is standard for lead and coated lead, and some 9mm pistols do best with .357 and .358. Blue Bullets at .355 aren't for all pistols, maybe not even most.

They do not. The bullets are run through a sizing die and can be sized to whatever. The companies who offer one size standard but are willing to do different sizes keep there standard offering stocked and ready to go, and you have to wait until the next run of that bullet to get your custom sizing. Gallant, which gives three standard sizing options, leaves theirs unsized, then sizes to order.

^^^^^^^^^ Testify! ^^^^^^^^^^ FAR too much is made out of heavy-for-caliber bullets and softer felt recoil. The shooter should drive the pistol, not the bullet. 124/125gr bullets have fewer loading pitfalls and are typically easier to extract accuracy from.

But in 9mm, to seat the .357 short enough to be out of the lands in short-chambered pistols like a CZ, the base is over .300 deep into the case, which can cause other problems. So will work great for some guns, but not for others.

Don't shoot coated in open unless you want a comp full of crud.

That's interesting to know regarding Blue Bullets as all I've head publicly was that they found .355 to best performing. That's the first I've heard of it being a coating scraping issue. Not surprising, though. I also get leading in my CZ with the .355. I know a couple of guys shoooting the Blue 125gr .358 in 9mm with no leading and excellent precision. But ACME has been top dog for coated though since I tried them. And I'm looking forward to testing Gallant.

In bed, groggy, on my phone -- SO many type-os.

When the bullet enters the rifling, the lands engrave the bullet and turn the bullet as it passes down the barrel. That is a lot of lateral force being applied against the walls of a few shallow grooves, and the grooves needs to be deep enough to stand up to that force. With copper jacketed rounds, the copper is strong enough with shallower grooves than what lead needs to stand up to that force. So .355 is standard for jacketed and .356 is standard for lead. My CZ ShadowLine does prefer bullets oversized. It does very well with .355 jacketed and .356 lead, but it does a hair better with .001 bigger in both cases. With undersized lead at .355, however, such as Blue Bullets, out of 10 bullets, 7 or 8 will print tightly, but 2-3 will be flyers, NOT wild flyers, but siginifcant flyers nonetheless, significant enough to matter to me. That's part of the equation here in the forums that all users need to think about - - people's expectations or testing or lack thereof. One guy shoots 10 rounds at 25 yards off a bench, and can't get the 10 bullets to print tighter than 8 inside a 2-inch circle, plus the other 2 slung out to 3 or 4 inches, and that shooter says "Nope, not good enough," puts those in the practice pile and moves on to develop loads with a new bullet. The next guy shoots 5 offhand at 7 yards into a man-sized target for a 15-inch group and says "Whoo hoo hoo! Merica!" Then, when someone starts a thread asking for bullet recommendations, both those guys report their pet loads as very accurate. And the guy who can't shoot notes that the gun is more accurate than he is. Blues are unacceptably imprecise in my ShadowLine. Given that my ShadowLine shows a clear preference for oversized bullets, I know why they aren't as precise as I'd like. But Blues are lasers in my VP9 and Glock. They're good bullets, just good for only those pistols that do well with undersized bullets. I suspect most people shooting Blues would do better with a different bullet. I also wonder if it's a coincidence that my two pistols that love them are my two pistols with polygonal rifling, but I don't have the sample size of 9mm pistols to test that out, so I don't make assumptions on the matter. Could easily be a coincidence. It's just a thought. Cast bullet gurus will tell you that "fit is king" and that most guns do better with bullets a thousandth or two bigger than standard. Give some ACME or BBI a try. And once I get my Gallant bullets tested, I may add them to the "recommended" list. Edited to fix a bunch of type-os and to increase clarity

What I'm saying is that the 1.15 you have found best accuracy with is only for bullets you have tested that with, and it will vary bullet to bullet. It might be accurate to say that your gun likes 1.15 with Bullet X. But it's entirely inaccurate to say the gun likes 1.15. That OAL will work best for some bullets, and not for most others. And you shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that somehow that OAL is right for the pistol, regardless of bullet choice. There are plenty of bullets that won't even seat that long in your pistol. All of the ballistically relevant measurements you might make can be similar or exactly the same at a wide variety of OAL measurements. If, for example, your bullet does especially well with bullets seated exactly .010 outside of rifling engagement, or with the base seated exactly .230 into the case - - two ballistically relevent measurements - - that can happen at OAL 1.15 or 1.10, entirely dependent on bullet profile. Im not saying those are the keys to accuracy, just that they are ballistically relevant and entirely independent of OAL across a spectrum of bullet profiles. Another way to put it - - whatever makes Bullet X do so well at OAL 1.15 has nothing to do with OAL. It has to do with other variables that are not OAL dependent and will be achieved with various OALs with different bullets. The reason I addressed it is because you said your pistol loved 1.15, and people started to discuss bullets that might load that long, and you shouldn't be basing bullet decisions on such a data point. It doesn't matter.

The problem with his 1.15 OAL is that his gun does not love 1.15 OAL. His gun might do well with that bullet he uses at that OAL, but the gun couldn't care less. Remember that OAL is the distance from the head stamp to the nose, and the nose never actually touches the pistol. How far the nose is from the headstamp has no ballistic effect whatsoever. What he needs to do is learn how to determine OAL for his CZ, then buy good bullets and load them to an OAL best suited for that pistol, and 1.15 won't be it for most bullets.

With all due respect, 9mm major is nothing to load for without a solid foundation of reloading skills and knowledge, and the simple fact that you would even be thinking of loading 9mm major with Prima SV suggests you lack that reloading knowledge to undertake the endeavor safely. SV is at the opposite end of the spectrum from pistol powders you should be looking at.

I pull the case at the bullet station (4), pour it into the powder pan on my beam scale, tapping it to make sure all the powder comes out, weight it on the beam scale, trickle powder to get it exact, or pinch out then trickle, then pour it back into the case and put the case back into station 4 and cycle the press. Repeat.

Just stuff the end of the bullet puller with cotton so the bullet doesn't bounce back.