GMP

I probably have not noticing it. I shot some of that ammo at an indoor static steel shoot, and collected brass at the end of the night. Only stuff I screen and toss is of course some of the plated steel stuff. I deprime separate so anything with a stepped case gets scrapped then, and anything with a hard deprime (staked primer) gets put in a can for pocket reaming. Basically if it causes no issues I pay no attention.

Yeah I agree 100%. .358 should be more common among the vendors. I suspect it has a lot to do with the size as cast from the 9mm profile molds though. I have a sample pack of .358 truncated cone bullets on the way from Brazos. These are also available in .359 if you have a real problem with a large bore. I'll see how they load/shoot compared to the 125 RN and let you know.

I'm at 4.0g Sport Pistol @ 1.130 OAL. Most chew a big hole @ 15 yrds, off hand, all in 2". This is in my Shadow 2. No chrono yet but this charge with RMR 124g FMJ at a similar seating depth ran around 130. They feel strong enough and primers are just starting to flatten in the center a bit. I'm inclined to drop a tenth or two and try that as well.

The key is having a large enough dia bullet to seal properly in the barrel when you squeeze the trigger. Most European 9s from what I see are larger than .355. .3555+ for all I have measured. Having the larger sized bullets easily available is a winner for you guys. But, the reloader has to do his part too with proper technique. A .358 will not fix anything loaded too tight and swagged down from too small an expander. I think the 125g LG bullets may be more prone to this due to the lower drive band being easier to swage down in too tight a case than a solid NLG dia. This I have seen by intentionally dropping expander sizes an experiment. The 9mm runs a high pressure so any flaw is going to be exploited faster than say in the .45.

What gun? CZs and Berettas run big. .356 SNS 125g were so bad I stopped shooting after 100 rnds. What would be interesting is a hollow base coated bullet. Might make sizing less critical.

All .356 / .357 coated bullets I have tried of various brands have leaded badly in my guns despite good loading practice. The .358s did the trick. My barrels are .3555 - .356. The bullets obviously need to be .002" + larger in OD.

FYI, the .358 size Brazos 125gs shoot excellent and appear to solve the leading issue in my S2 and P09.

Is the barrel leaded up? My APX started to keyhole a few after it was fouled pretty bad. CZs just got sloppy. This is .356 and .357 bullets. Coated bullets are not tolerant of less than a well thought out process. And thats in addition to the right dia. for your gun. I just loaded up 200 125g Brazos sized .358 in an attempt to cure my leading problems. To do this with positively no swaging of that bullet down, I use an NOE expander with .358/.362 dia. The larger dia allows perfect alignment of the bullets unlike a bell, and the die is adjusted for about .030" depth of this dia. Barely any crimp. Loaded ten dummies, measured all. Cycled all through each of my guns five times. Measured again, no setback. Pulled and measured all bullets, no swage. See what happens tomorrow at the range.

Paul has been a model of customer service. Funny, as I said I just ordered some .358 truncated cone bullets to try and then just got the notice that Paul had sent me a sample pack of the .358 size 125g RNs. Last night I shortened both NOE .357 and .358 rifle length expander plugs to work for 9mm, and brass looks and plunks good. Looking forward to trying these.

Been waiting to here from Brazos on .358 size 125 RNs but nothing yet. Maybe the mold just doesn't cast them big enough? Just ordered a sample of .358 TCs (for 38/357) to try the dia. Got new .357 and .358 size expanders to modify(shorten) and try as well. Would like to solve this issue, so far coated bullets have been a PIA in my guns.

For me it was good here as completion allows practice with the holster in the range, like a specific holster class. Without either this is not possible. We also did a short 2 stage training match after basic and of course heavy safety rules orientation. Go over the rule book a few min the night before and have fun. Make the safety rules second nature before your first match.

Not applicable to polymer, but I just stripped a set of G10 grips in ten minutes. Carefully use of a propane torch to soften the epoxy and an old knife. Hold with gloves, move the flame over about half the grip quickly until it starts to smoke and start scraping. You will not hurt the G10 at all. Clean up with some sand paper and start over. I just redid a set of cheap G10 grips for my Shadow 2 in 36 grit I had previously done in 46/70.

The trigger travels less, and the hammer falls sooner in its arc in DA. I have had no light strike issues with an #11.5 CGW mainspring loading with Federal and WW primers (I also have the CGW ext firing pin). Barely any difference in DA pull, IMO, which makes sense as your primarily trading hammer travel for trigger travel. Reset is a tad shorter. I did not have to fit the disco for function but did polish it before install. Overall I like it, I have medium hands at best and it helps on that first DA shot. Biggest PIA is the pretravel screw retention in he trigger as I said but the JB Weld does the trick, no issues at all.

I use dry Teflon lube. I spray the inside of a small plastic storage box with a hinged cover (shoe box size, from Home Depot) and let the carrier evaporate, takes a few min. Dump in 200 - 300 pieces of 9mm brass and shake well. Cases are lightly coated. No messy liquid lube to clean up and dies stay clean. Has worked very well for over a year now.

I have an LNL and after some tuning its flawless. IMO the press has too much clearance in some areas. I took it completely apart, shimmed the shell plate and indexer wheel. Also some of the linkage pivots. Stoned all the edges of the primer system smooth. Add a larger thick flat washer to the shell plate bolt and Blue Loctite it in. VERY small amount of Moly grease on the detents and a good amount on the pawls. No more powder spill from case jumping, indexing never moves, no primer issues. I have loaded about 10K 9mm rounds since. I do deprime and clean brass first on a single stage. In addition to better cleaning it also screens out some mil brass with staked primer pockets that will cause issues priming on any press.

I agree mic is best and I plan to get one but I'm confident the bullets I pulled have not been swaged. With the same good caliper both pre and post loaded/pulled measure the same .3565" to .3570". Same tool measures barrel slugs at .3555". So, while not accurate to an absolute .0001", relatively I can see the bullet is from .0010" to .0015" larger than the bore. If I'm correct , for a coated bullet this should be more like .002" to 003". For .357 size bullets I'm using an NOE .360/.355 expander insert in a Lee die. This makes bullet insertion easy and square without any forcing or possibility of scraping, and neck tension is adequate judging by pulling difficulty and setback tests of chambering/ejecting/measuring dummy rounds several times. Plus, they are very accurate from my Shadow 2 and P09. I'm very interested to see if the .358 size will. Reduce the leading. You guys have been great, thanks.

Short throat chambers like CZs force you to load short with some blunt round nose profiles. This can then possibly create feed issues in some guns and requires backing the load down and working back up in all cases compared to a longer load. Actually OAL is a bad variable to use, seating depth and is what counts as it determines case volume. I always measure seating depth and use that as a reference comparing different bullets at the same OAL and weight. Right now I'm working with both DG and Brazos 125 g RN. The DG plunks at 1.085 in my P09 and Shadow 2, I load to 1.070. Brazos can go longer than you would want (near the groove) due to the shoulder, and I run those @ 1.130. This is significant enough for pressure problems without charge adjustment. Its all about teasting, following sound guidelines, no one answer.

Can you do the work yourself? The CGW parts drop in, maybe some very minor fitting thats easy, and yield a fantastic trigger in both SA and DA.

I had to fit mine just enough to get the std barrel in my S2 slide with some gymnastics. Longer barrel forget it.

First post here chet but I can help you out. Just did a full upgrade with all CGW parts. if your referring to the RRK stainless trigger, yes it has both pre and over travel adjustment screws. That said, the pretravel screw has barely any thread to engage in the trigger, literally 1 to 2 threads. This makes it hard to hold in position even with the recommended loctite. I have various retention products and tried a few but found between vibration from firing and oil, the loctite is not reliable. What worked well is a very small amount of JB Weld on the setscrew threads. Sounds extreme but it works and if it needs to be removed some heat from a small heat gun or soldering iron carefully applied should do it. Just be sure the hex is clear to fit the key in.