Jayman

I didn't have a lot of luck with Berry's 147s, they were inconsistent for me. Precision Delta or Montana Gold are better bets. I have had no issues with those at minor PF out of a Glock.

Hey Dude! I wonder if I just up the PF slightly will the problem go away? I've been using this combo for like forever (TG+Berrys 147s) with no issue, I'm just kind of freaked out that it is happening now! The last run of ammo I did was with a pretty light throw, if memory serves, and that may very well be why...

I do indeed still load 357sig. In fact, I'm queueing up a big ol' batch to load sometime this weekend or next. (3000 or bust!)I miss 'em too, even when it was freezing on the range and a pain, it was still fun. I'm now reduced to shooting at Blue Ridge and hoping my lead count doesn't skyrocket.

I opened up the next box in the group and all of the bullets I measured were between 0.3555 and 0.3565. (Berry's advertises them as 0.356, so they were in the same neighborhood.) That said, the box in question is all sitting in loaded cases right now. No AMERC brass, I know better than that! 99% of it was Federal brass. (FC). It isn't consistent. If it was every shot, I'd figure a bad batch of bullets or something, but it isn't. If I hadn't shot so much of it before with no problem, I would just assume that Berry's 147s and this gun wouldn't go together, but seriously, I've shot boxes and boxes of that ammo through this gun. I'll re-check my crimp, maybe the die got loose or something....

Well I have probably shot upwards of 40k Berry's Plated bullets in 9mm/147gr RN. Today I had a few keyhole on me. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable and annoying. Have I just not cleaned my barrel well enough? I changed nothing in my loading process, and the same thing that always worked before is now not working so hot: 3.3gr Titegroup 1.135" OAL just enough crimp to straighten out bell (pulled bullets have no marks) CCI primers I'm going to scrub my barrel silly tomorrow, I haven't been fastidious about it. Is there anything else I should check, or did I just get a goofy run of bullets?

I use almost the exact same load, but I use an OAL of 1.130" instead of 1.150". Reeling it in to 1.130" will not hurt, 3.2gr is SO low that it isn't like you're gonna jump past max pressures or anything. (Max charge for 147gr is 3.6gr, you have some room to play.) 1.130" with the above combo nets me just over 900fps out of my G34. Oh yes, and I use Federal primers, which I think may even be slightly slower than the winchesters. CCI primers are hot, using those has bumped some loads as much as 30fps.

I reloaded some .357sig for a friend, and found out a few things.... 1. Unless you swap recoil springs, 5.2gr (or less) of Universal Clays is too light, it just won't cycle reliably and many times the gun wouldn't lock back on last round. I'd START with 5.4gr in that particular loading and see how it behaves. I'm putting 5.8gr behind 124gr Berry's flat point bullets for him and it seems a good compromise between factory loadings (blasty!) and the poofy 5.2gr loadings I made (not hot enough.) 2. I have found this cartridge to be darn finicky, a lot harder to reload than straight walled cases. Things you must watch out for: -get a good resize. Get the resize/decap die as low to the shellplate as you can. -don't bell the case mouth too much. very little is the trick, any more and you'll pop the bullet down into the case. -crimp is crucial. too little or too much and you will experience setback issues. Once everything is dialed in, the cartridges seem harder to set back than 9mm reloads, in my experience. But getting there required a good bit of T&E, and the ones that didn't work, you could push down on and the bullet would pop back into the case. (Not a good thing.) Also, I ran into some of the Speer brass with undersized flash holes. A couple of times it has pulled the decap pin clean out of my die, forcing me to go get the hammer and punch to get the pin back out. (RCBS die.) I would chuck all my Speer brass, but sadly that is like 99% of the brass I have running around, so that option is out. Overall it has been fun reloading this cartridge, but I'm very glad it wasn't my first reloading experience. 9mm and .45acp were MUCH easier to deal with.

As a lefty there are things I've had to do that weren't the norm, obviously. I'm wondering if there are any pros/master/grandmasters out there that are lefties? If so, I am wanting to see some footage of them in action... Do any of you know of/are you a top left handed shooter?

FWIW, I found that the Hornady XTP in 147gr with 3.3gr of Titegroup behind it was perfect for my needs. It is a little hotter than PF floor, coming out at around 960fps, but by no means is it too snappy or blasty. Compared to, say, CCI/Blazer 9mm 115gr, it is a downright powder poof. It shoots as accurately as I can out to "competition distances" in both IDPA and USPSA.

To add more to what I started, I'm shooting a Glock 34 with stock barrel. I'm doing mostly IDPA, some USPSA. I prefer 147gr bullets, but have recently been playing with 124s. My favored load thus far is a 147gr berry's plated and 3.3gr of Titegroup. (No shock, everybody here's using it if they aren't using VV powders.) The accuracy is on par with most factory ammo I've compared it to. I was just wondering if there was better out there? I tried a 124gr berrys double struck round nose over 4.0gr of Titegroup. Group size was small, but it hit above POA. (Fairly notably so, actually.) Same bullet over 3.5gr of Hodgdon's Clays gave me the WORST accuracy I have ever seen. Trying to get two bullets through the same hole at 7 yards was almost impossible. So that was what got me thinking that I might be better off with a true JHP for match type rounds. I considered picking up some XTPs, but then thought I'd ask you guys. I'm not averse to trying out the Zeros or Montana Golds. Are the 147s as accurate as the lighter ones?

Looking for something VERY consistent. I've had pretty good luck with Berry's, but lots swear there is better out there. Would I be better served with a JHP?

You want to describe this technique a little more thoroughly? I'm curious...

Just trying to get the gun to move less so I can see it more, that's all...

Anybody ever try this? They list it as a .38 Super bullet. I'm wondering if it is useable in 9mm, and if it would even be worthwhile to try? Plus any starting load data from anybody?

Dryfire cured me of that issue. You have to watch the front sight during the entire trigger pull. If it is moving AT ALL then you know why the bullet is breaking left. If you have a flat front sight, put a dime on it or empty shell casing. Pull the trigger with that in place and keep it from falling off. Then repeat, repeat, repeat.