Darrell

Bayou had issues with the molds for the 124 TCG, so they not casting them at this time. I tested the 120 TCG's and they shot great but OAL was shorter at 1.030 instead of 1.070 for the 124's. I just happen to be playing with my spreadsheet today and did a sort by accuracy and to my surprise the 120's were more accurate than the 124's. Best was 1.21" 5 shot avg at 25 yds out my accu-shadow in the ransom rest. Powder was 3.6 gr of tightgroup, Fiocchi primers and Winchester case. Second was 4.4 gr Vectan 9 1/2 shot 1.48" group.

AA2 is what I use with 135 gr Bayou's in my CZ's, I been experimenting with Prima V, my batch number worked great with 147's. In my DVC and Open 9mm I run 124 gr bullets. Tightgroup for minor and WAC and 7625 for major. Been running Fiocchi primers in all my loads except for my revolvers in which case I use Federals.

HP38/W231 is a great powder to start with. It will fulfill all your needs for 9mm for the time being as you build experience. 124,135,147's are good to go for Shadow, 115 too snappy, and 160 not as accurate with the twist rate of the Shadow barrel. Do a search for my name, I posted several PDF's of 9mm load data tested in my guns, chrono data along with accuracy data using my ransom rest and some benched with sandbags. My preferred bullet weight in my Shadows for production is 135gr. Good compromise between softness and accuracy. Feel free to pm me if I can help you further.

This load works great in my 929 too. Best load I've found for it so far.

Attached is my load data for .38, includes bayou 160 gr bullet. As far as crimp goes just remove the bell or put a slight taper crimp and you will be just fine. 38 load data.pdf

I load bayou 147's at 1.130 and they work fine in all 3 of my Glocks, Here's a tip I haven't seen mentioned. Try polishing the feed ramp. If you have a dremel with felt wheel, put either some Flitz or polishing compound and polish the feed ramp to a mirror finish. I had some barrels that were rough and polishing did the trick.

I'm experimenting with Prima V myself. In 9mm seems to work for 147 gr bullets better. I want to try it in .40 and .45. I bought 11 pounds. See attached PDF of my recent test. I also put Ba 9 1/2 too. Vectan powder test by Darrell.pdf

Help to know what gun this is happening to. Striker fired guns have two things that can cause a misfire. The recoil spring is too light causing the slide to go out of battery and causing a light strike (XD's) or the striker spring is too light (Glock, M&P, XD). Like I said if you changed the recoil spring to less than 13# or have a striker spring less than 5# with CCI primers this could happen. High primers (not fully seated) can also be an issue. Try rounds in a different preferably stock gun.

the Bayou 120 TC is .534" long. Attached is a pdf of several bullets Bullet lengths and data.pdf

26.1mm OAL, 1.030 inches

Give Dennis a call, they had a bunch when I went there Friday. I sent him the PDF today too. Will have to get some more and test with WSF and Power Pistol.

Did some more testing of Bayou 120gr TC with AA #2, HP-38, and N340. See attached PDF All testing was at 25 yds, in CZ accu-shadow in a ransom rest. Bayou 120 TC test.pdf

Here are some to experiment with 3.4 gr of 231@1.140, 3.7 WSF @1.105, 3.2 T.G. @1.08, 3.6 T.G. @1.120, 3.0-3.2 Bullseye @ 1.100

What brand bullet?

Same as Winchester's

9mm bullets have to be pushed fast to get great accuracy. Most people are trying to find an accurate load that will make a certain power factor, and be soft shooting. Hence is why they tried Solo 1000, N320, Tightgroup, etc. For truly accurate 9mm you have to use powders like N330/340, Power Pistol, and Accurate #7. A 115 gr JHP will be over 1200 fps, and a 124 over 1100. Look at the bullseye forum and you will see what they are using to get 1.5" groups at 50 yds in custom bullseye guns. One load that comes to mind is 115 Nosler or XTP at 1.08" oal, behind 4.8-5.0 of N330 or N340. 6.2 gr of power pistol works too.

I ran some test of Bayou Bullets new 120 Gr Truncated Cone bullet with BA 9.5, N320, and Tightgroup powders. These test were done in my Accu-shadow from my Ransom Rest and is the average of 3 five shot groups at 25 yards. Also included is the test of 124 Bayou TC's and Precision Delta 124 JHP with BA 9.5 powder. 041717 Bayou 120 Test.pdf

Was shot in an STI DVC 9mm thats why I'm going to do a retest, didn't like what I saw with just a 10 shot group. I will do a three 5 shot avg instead of one 10 shot group.

Here is some test I ran yesterday using my STI DVC 9mm with 124 PD JHP and Bayou 124 TC with Prima V, Tightgroup, and BA9 1/2. Wasn't pleased with the BA9 1/2 load, will work the load up again and retest Monday. Will start above 4 grains. Prima V I liked but Tightgroup was more accurate. I"m going to test some new 120 GR Bayou TC bullets along with the proven 124 TC also. Darrell's Load Data 041417.pdf

I shoot Precision Delta 124, 115 JHP's and 147 CMJ's. I order 10K at a time.

I bought some BA9 1/2 today. I will load up 124 gr P.D. JHP's with 3.8, 4.0, and 4.2 gr. of Tightgroup, N320, Prima V, and BA-9 1/2 and test them in my DVC and Accu-Shadow this weekend hopefully. I will be testing using my Ransom rest so the results will be consistent. .

I ran an open M&P a few years ago and the load I developed for that gun was 6.7 gr of Autocomp with a Montana Gold 124 JHP. Gun ran well and was very accurate. Since you are using just a ported model, I'd recommend a 124 gr bullet and 5.4 to 6.0 of Power pistol. Its slower burning than Tightgroup and HP38/W231 and is super accurate. You're looking at a power factor in the 140's though. In reference to an above post about Vectan Prima V being the equivalent to N320 I have to disagree. I haven't tried the BA9 1/2 yet. I ran a test with Prima V the other day and 4 gr of N320 pushed a precision delta 124 JHP 1031 fps. 4 gr of Prima V was 1089 fps, 3.8 of Prima V was 1046 fps, 4 gr of Tightgroup was 1083. In my testing the Prima V was similar to T.G in velocity, but flatten primers and had some primer flow at 4.2 gr. You can see the whole test of prima v in my post from the other day.

Try Bayou 105 TC with 3.3 gr of WST @1.045". power factor is 107 and in my EAA Limited shot an avg of three 5shot group of 1.17" at 15 yards.

I have an even larger spreadsheet with different guns and calibers and other useful info I tested over the years. I posted the spreadsheet here at one time, but I haven't posted an updated one in quite a while. I usually post a pdf instead of xls so my sheet doesn't get modified. I got frustrated when gun writers would test guns and ammo, and not give accuracy data, or tested accuracy at 7-10 yds so I decided years ago that I will test not only velocity but accuracy at 25 yds using my ransom rest. Since I'm a lot older now I can't bench rest as good as I used too. I also have very accurate guns I use for testing most of the time.

Compiled my test data for Bayou Bullets that I tested over the years in 9mm. Bayou Bullets Load Test.pdf