Bayou Bullets- Trouble with load development

[ambluemax]

Long story short, this is my first rodeo with Bayou bullets. I've been shooting various other cast and moly bullets over the years and decided to give Bayou a try. I used my go to powder charge for a 125gr bullet of 3.8gr of Unique which I have chrono'ed in the past with Precision bullets. First time out I brought them to a league night match and found that they would barely cycle my g34. I would have 3-4 FTE's per stage and it was like there wasn't enough pressure to blow back the slide. I switched to my backup G17 mid match and had the same issues with it.

I have upped my charge to 4.1gr of Unique and it has gotten better but still not 100%. Due to the ammo crisis I've switched powders to Solo 1000 (which I've never used). I did some research and decided to try 4.0gr and in my first batch of 80 I still had 2 FTE.

I made a bunch of my initial batch of 3.8gr Unique before I ran into any of this. That same batch of ammo will run my M&P9 4.25 all day long (500rds and counting 100%). I'm going to try some in my 9mm 1911 tonight as well.

Does this make sense to anyone? Any suggestions of a load I should try with either Solo 1000, clays or Titegroup and a 125gr Bayou? My COL is 1.11"

[HI5-O]

Run the loads over a chrono and see where you stand with your load. Something may have changed during loading.

[Classic_jon]

Check your crimp and measure the diameter of your old bullets v the new ones.

[EEH]

Never shot 9 mm.but give Donnie a call,I bet he will help you..

[Steve RA]

Different guns operate differently, pick one gun and get the load to eject the way you want it and then try in other guns.

[Tim/GA]

In general, for the same powder charge I would expect to get higher velocities (if by Precision you mean Precision Deltas- if you mean cast from the other company cannot help) over the same in jacketed.

[ambluemax]

I mean precision bullets (moly), not precision delta...two different companies, though I've patronized both.

[Sandbagger123]

your load seems quite light for a med powder so i am not surprised it has problems cycling. you can solve it by either bumping up the load, or changing the recoil spring to a lighter one. I bet if you threw that load over a chrono, it would probably not break 900fps.

one thing I also noticed like you, is that my mp9 will cycle stuff that a Glock won't.

[Rolex]

Change out the recoil spring to a 13lb. One, after you check the crono FPS!

[toddje]

So Alliant's website says 5.8gr Unique for a 124gr jacketed bullet. You're a third under that charge. I'd try maybe 20% under that for starters (4.6grains or so) and work up if I needed to.

3.8 sounds "about right" for a starting load with 147gr Bayou Bullets, though...

[ambluemax]

Thanks toddje, I don't have ready access to a chronological range and I don't have to make pf for 3gun...just looking for a start point in the neighborhood.

Thx again

[EkuJustice]

You really need a chrono if you are going to be loading. Usually the 132-135 range is where you wanna be for a 9mm load.

[Roadkill751]

Change out the recoil spring to a 13lb. One, after you check the crono FPS!

This......

Since it is a light load, need a lighter spring than the factory weight spring to move the slide faster

so it will eject and feed another round.

For non USPSA matches I am using 135gr Bayou Bullet with 3.7 solo and it still functions, won't make PF

for USPSA.

[stickboy44]

I used thoes 125 gr with unique...4.2 gr to cycle my 34

13 lb recoil spring