NuJudge
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Posts posted by NuJudge
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I have seen several posts on the Cast Boolits website about using that bullet in 9mm pistols, but I can not remember if it was in the Beretta 92. Because I saw others using it in semi auto 9mm pistols, I bought one of these molds, but I have not used it yet.
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Ballistically, if you are going to shoot 600 yards, you'd do well to go with a longer-than-mag length load. Starting about 1994, I saw some people competing with 69's all the way to 600. I still see some people with the Sierra 77s and short Hornady 75's shooting all the way to 600, but most I see are shooting 80's and 90s at 600.
A few links worth studying. First, the New Jersey Highpower website has a link in the upper left ("Reloading Stuph"):
Sierra's data for the .223 in the AR:
http://accurateshooter.net/Downloads/sierra223ar.pdf
John Holliger made one of my uppers, and his recommended data is terrific:
http://www.whiteoakprecision.com/info-reloading.htm
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I like undersize size dies, to really hold on to bullets. I shoot a lot of cast bullets, most of which I cast myself, and I cast everything hard, so I have never worried about a sized-down case sizing down a soft cast bullet. I am about to start reloading .32 S&W Long for a Walther GSP, and am going to try soft bullets, and it may be necessary for me to try a case size die which is actually larger than book values, but Lee apparently makes that too.
The Dillon seat dies, with their ability to be disassembled for cleaning without losing adjustment, is an important asset when using cast, lubricated bullets.
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I bought a Police-surplus USP .45 full size awhile ago, and have put an assortment of different ammo through it. One thing I have shot a lot of in it is 200gr LSWC ammo, but most of that I cast myself, and they were a lot harder than most.
You seem to have worries over shooting Lead or plated in the HK polygonal bore. I have seen the warning with Glocks, but not seen it with HKs.
Regardless of the above, I would not shoot a class with anything less than ammo I trusted to work 100%. In short, I would use FMJs.
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Ask yourself what you are going to do with your cartridges. If all you are going to do is shoot tin cans at 50 yards, the dies you have will do everything you need, and fancier dies will not produce visibly better results.
If you are going to shoot beyond, say, 100 yards, start paying attention to bullets and cases. Beyond about 200 yards, pay attention to dies also. If you are going to shoot 600 yards, really pay attention to all of the foregoing. Small base dies were mentioned above for a first full length sizing: good advise, especially if it is military surplus brass, with the high probability of it having been fired in automatic weapons.
You mentioned carbide dies. Carbide dies are easily available for straight-cased pistol calibers, but much less so for bottle-necked rifle calibers. Dillon offers them. The only advantage they give is one has to use less case lubricant. You still have to use some. Cost is quite a bit more than steel dies. Let your wallet be your guide.
The RCBS X-Die is made for use after the first firing, sizing and trimming. It prevents the case from lengthening during sizing, and people claim that case life is extended from the usual 4 or 5 firings, to 10 or more firings.
Competition dies are for long range, or for really tight groups in closer. There are lots of different concepts of competition dies. My 600 yard Service Rifle ammo is loaded using Redding competition bushing dies, where the die sizes just the case body and shoulder, and a separate bushing sizes the neck. Bushings of various diameters are available, giving one close control over neck outer diameter, and if you necks are consistent, close control over neck ID also. If your necks are not consistent, dies like this can actually produce worse ammo than normal dies. Another concept is straight line seating. There are lots of micrometer adjusted seating dies also.
With an AR, accuracy of your rifle will have to improve a lot before you can benefit from better ammo at long range. Get a float tube under your hand guard and a better trigger before you get competition dies.
Rather than focusing on dies, I would suggest you look at other ways to ease loading. Until fairly recently, the biggest pain for me in loading rifle ammo was trimming cases. Until recently I used a Forster mini-lathe. About 20 years ago they started making a spud that allowed me to power it with a hand drill, which sped things up considerably. About 8 years ago I got a Giraud trimmer, which increased my trimming throughput by about 10 times, but at horrific cost. There are some other new trimmers available which are also a lot faster than the mini-lathes, but I have no experience with them.
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http://www.shootingtimes.com/reloading/performance-of-alliants-new-be-86-pistol-powder/
Nothing really new here, but 1440 fps with 135gr bullets was impressive, and about the speed of sound with 180's is also.
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I'm a Lawyer, but I don't know much about the US Arms Export Control Act. My recollection is that the $100 deminimus exception is in the Admin Rules, not the Statute. Penalties for violation are up to $1 megabuck and a long stay in Club Fed. I stay a long way away from anything that could earn me penalties like that.
The time period you're going to be in Lost Wages is rather cold outside. I don't think you'll find much shooting going on there outside. There are lots of Commercial ranges there, and they all seem to rent machine-guns.
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The 92S has tiny sights, and while you can replace the rear, you can do nothing with the front sight.
My early pistol shooting was with a pistol that had the European-type mag release. Very slow.
I shoot pistol classes, and the safety is a problem only in jam clearance drills, but it is a huge pain there. For this reason, I would suggest a Beretta with the decock only feature. Beretta made a batch of the 92G recently, so they are much cheaper.
If you are worried about slide cracking, there is a version of the 92/96 that has a beefier slide near the locking recesses, generally referred to as the Brigadier slide. Various models have this slide, including the Elites, the G-SD, and of course the Brigadiers. The 92/96 is mechanically a dual column magazined Walther P38, and it had the same problem with cracking slides, and they beefed up the slide to try and prevent it. I have not cracked a Beretta slide, but I have cracked a P38 slide after perhaps 10,000 rounds. It probably contributed to the P38 slide that I had not ever changed the recoil springs.
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There actually is a .22 conversion kit available in Europe for the USP, but not for the P30:
I would think it would not be much bother to import a few into the US. The price of these things takes your breath away, but that's not an uncommon experience with all things HK. There was a group over on the HKPro board that was looking at importing a bunch of them.
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It would really be good to slug your bore. With Lead bullets, I like to have bullets be at least .001" larger than groove diameter.
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The Lee Loadmaster works fine, but it has to be bolted down on a really stiff bench, and setup requires some tweaking. There's a forum, with videos on how to get it to run.
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On a progressive press, task lighting is critical to looking in every case. Also, I really like using a slower burning powder, such that the case is relatively full: the powder is more easily visible when the powder charge is right, and it overflows if it is a double charge.
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The Beretta magazines always drop free for me, and always work. The MecGars always work, but the high capacity ones sometimes do not drop free.
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The pistol was made to be shot, and a lot.
I like that pistol just the way it came from the factory. Berettas like to be run wet with oil, or maybe light grease.
Change your recoil spring at intervals of about 5000 rounds. The trigger spring is another wear part, needing replacement at about the same round count, or you can change it out for the Wilson Combat upgraded spring, or the Wolff Spring replacement module.
The locking block is another wear part. There have been a succession of re-designs for it. If yours has an early locking block, get a later design block. IIRC, the US military changes locking blocks at about 20,000 rounds. I've shot Beretta pistols a lot, for a long time, and never broken a locking block. The various designs are shown here:
http://berettaforum.net/vb/showpost.php?p=969773&postcount=18
You might want to lurk on the Beretta forum, particularly their Classifieds forum. Every once in awhile, someone is dumping a lot of Police-surplus magazines. I bought a lot for as little as $7 apiece.
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I find it more useful to look at grip size. I have big palms and long fingers on my hands, so I shoot better with a large, wide grip. Such a grip I have found on the Beretta 90-series pistols, actually Aluminum framed.
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I've had 2 old cans of 4198 go bad on me, and one old can of 4350. I have lots of old 540 that dates from about 1980, and no problem. I have lots of old powder, the oldest being WWII 4831, which is just fine.
If it smells like Acetone and you see no red dust when pouring it, no problem. If you smell an acid smell and or see a red dust when pouring it, it's bad.
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The first group buy sold out, so they have started a new one.
They are importing some other HK pistols also, that I have never heard of.
They are also bringing in a bunch of Walther OSP and GSP pistols.
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Pigs will fly before someone figures a way to get 800X to meter well, but the results, both in speed and accuracy make it worthwhile, sometimes.
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So long as it is full size, yes. If you are dealing with a Centurion upper and putting it on a full size, maybe not. Lots of discussions about this on the Beretta forum.
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Let your barrel groove diameter and chamber be your guide. I have no experience with the .357 SIG, but lots with a variety of 9mm pistols. I have mostly Beretta and Walther 9mm barrels, and all of them slug out to just under .358" groove diameter. I shoot mostly Lead bullets, and all but one will load, chamber and fire a .359" bullet. The one will gladly load chamber and fire a .358" bullet.
Not every 9mm barrel will chamber these big bullets. My father gave me his 9mm Browning HiPower some years ago, and it will not chamber a cartridge loaded with a bullet over .356". It has a groove diameter bigger than that. It gets jacketed only.
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I wonder if anyone loads 7.62x39 with 200+ grain bullets to do subsonic rounds.
Loads with bullets that approach that weight:
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Nujudge, do you know the caliber they use? 9mm vs 40? I ask because you hear stories about glock 9mm working great but the .40s not standing up.
9mm
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There is a group buy for these on the HKPro board. The P8 is very similar to a USP 9, but the safety works the opposite way. About 20 of these were imported about 10 years ago, and none since.
http://www.hkpro.com/forum/seeking-rainbow-unicorn/213619-p8.html
Value of a used Lee Loadmater
in non-Dillon Reloading Equipment
Posted
The Lee Loadmaster has to be bolted down to a mounting that has no movement to it. The chief problem after that is the priming system. Regarding the former, just have a really steady bench.
I don't like priming on the Loadmaster, so the second problem does not exist for me. If you choose to prime on the Loadmaster, there is a Forum just for it that has lots of very helpful videos, and there is an aftermarket vendor who reworks the priming system into something far less problematic:
http://forums.loadmastervideos.com/forums/index.php
http://www.mikesreloadingbench.com