New to reloading

[Dww]

Hi all,

New to this and trying to stay safe, i bought quanties of 9mm 115 gr fmj, and 147 gr plated bullets from Everglades Ammunition. I emailed them and was blown away by how helpful Steve Bender was.

He spent close to 30 minutes on the phone with me helping with starting out with my initial machine set up and seating and loa dimensions for their ammo. Now i need to get powder information.

Does anyone here load this ammo?

Which powder do you use?

Do you use small pistol primers for 9mm?

Steve told me they seat these bullets to 1.140" and so I ran a few dummy rounds and they manually load and eject from the xds, m&pc, and sar that i use.

I bought Tight Group & Accurate no 7 powders locally. Now Im understanding these can be dangerous for new loaders because its easy to over or double charge.

Can I weigh every round on my digital scale until I get another powder like Solo1000 to determine if the round is loaded correctly.

Any info is appreciated,

Thanks

[Dirty Rod]

Do you use small pistol primers for 9mm?

Can I weigh every round on my digital scale until I get another powder like Solo1000 to determine if the round is loaded correctly.

9mm uses small primers.

Yes, you can weigh every CHARGE as you load them but not the loaded rounds. Weighing loaded rounds to look for a double charge is NOT effective.

[Hi-Power Jack]

No reason to weigh each charge - just use your powder dispenser that's on your reloading machine -

keep an eye on it - don't 2nd charge - that's bad. Even worse is to NOT charge powder - that can

pop a bullet into your barrel, and the next shot will ruin your day.

What reloader do you have?

[ncxdm]

The others who replied hit most of it. One of the most important parts of reloading is staying aware of what is going on in the press. You need to look in each case before you put a bullet on it. Weighing later will not tell you much of anything. I started with win 231 that will pretty much overflow the case if you double charge and it meters really well. Go slow and search this site there is a staggering amount of knowledge here.

[Gussers]

Titegroup is really spikey with pressure and a little good a long way. However, lots of people use it (myself in included). Just use a powder measure and keep an eye on things. A tenth over isn't a problem, but a double charge will ruin your day. A double charge will be noticeable though. Just be careful and you'll be ok.

[Dww]

Yes i used cci small pistol primers.

I have the Dillon 550b. I bought a Lee universal de capping die to do my pistol and rifle 223 depriming.

It works great! Then I tried sizing with and without lube. The ease with the lube is worth the extra clean for me. Ive run 5 rounds of 9mm 115 gr, .355" Everglades Ammo fmj wit 3.2 gr of Tite Group, which I intend to shoot tomorrow. Id welcome all coments and suggestions.

Thanks for all advice

[shippj]

I use AA #7, you dont need to worry about double charging with it. It would overflow the case if you did that.

My load with 124 FMJ is 7.3 grains of AA#7 with an OAL of 1.15". I get about 1080 FPS out of XDM 5.25 with this load.

[Dww]

Oops, I see they dont want us to post reload data. Sorry

[Poppa Bear]

One of the important things I tell people new to reloading is to test their technique before they actually start to make completed rounds. What I mean by this is to start with all four stations filled, Now resize a bunch of rounds just to get a feel for it. Now advance the plate to the powder drop and practice that station for a bunch of rounds. Check the weight being dropped with each pull and you will see just how consistent the powder drop is. By that point you should be comfortable with the process and after verifying that your OAL is correct you should be able to trust your abilities enough start knocking out a bunch of rounds.

You have already produced some rounds so hopefully you either have a chronograph, or have access to one so that you can see how those first rounds perform in terms of velocity. Knowing that you can more easily judge if the rounds are too hot, just right, or too slow.

I still remember my early days of reloading. It was a daunting task and I had more than a few butterflies as I prepared to shoot my first rounds. The data in my manuals was correct and my velocities were close to the published numbers. I was now able to relax a bit with the knowledge that my fears of getting something wrong were misplaced.

[Dww]

Thanks Papa Bear

Everglades told me pretty much the same thing. Ill recount a few of those points in case there are other folks having those issues.

. The bullet was too loose in the case caused by not having the resizing die adjusted proprly. CHECK,...after seating, remove the round from the press. Now look a the case in the area where the bottom of the bullet sits and you should notice a slight ring at least part way around, or completely around thet area of the case. This is where the bullet is seating againt the case. Not seeing that means I didnt have enough " neck tension". The bullet was loose in the case and so I thought a very tight crimp was needed.

Next he had me measure the oal, then press the round from behind against a work bench and remeasure. Should be the same dimension afterbthe press check

Now color the entire round with blue marker and feed into the magazine end chamber,then eject. If not a correct oal ill see where it is contacting in the firearm. Now my rounds fit loosly in my case guage and cycle like described.

Last thing...I was overbelling...it doesnt take much

By the way these checks were with dummy rounds with no primers or powder installed!

Now can you recomend a good chronograph please?

Thanks for the advise. Im as nervous as you were. Ill give a report this afternoon.

[Dww]

I use AA #7, you dont need to worry about double charging with it. It would overflow the case if you did that.

My load with 124 FMJ is 7.3 grains of AA#7 with an OAL of 1.15". I get about 1080 FPS out of XDM 5.25 with this load.

[Dww]

I have accurate no 7. I was confused by how much quantity was called for on their web site compared to the tite group.

That sounds safer when it would not be possible to double charge. My next lot ill give this a try.

Thanks again

[Poppa Bear]

........................

Now can you recomend a good chronograph please?

Thanks for the advise. Im as nervous as you were. Ill give a report this afternoon.

There are many good choices out there. Much is based on what you want from your unit. The cheaper ones will give you the basic numbers the advanced ones can figure a lot of the ballistic data of your load for you. How much are you willing to spend? Most of us are happy with a basic unit that gives us velocity, average, high, low, and standard deviation.

I use the Pro Chrono Digital with the addition of the IR screens because I check most of my loads inside. Most chronographs do not work well using fluorescent lighting so the IR screens were developed to solve that issue.

[Hi-Power Jack]

........................

can you recomend a chronograph?

The cheaper ones will give you the basic numbers the advanced ones can figure a lot of the ballistic data of your load for you.

I've been using a $70 Chrony for the past 20 years - it tells me how fast the bullets are going.

[Dww]

Thanks for the crono information. I think ill go for a basic unit also.

So I went to the range this afternoon with my 5 loaded rounds and all went pretty well. All 5 went bang and shot really softly which is what im trying for. So soft that 3 cases stove pipped in the ejection port, which was no big deal and cleared easily. So now ill just work up till get everything consistent in that gun and then try the newer stiffer guns.

I did notice the cases had a black powder flash mark from the front of the case. Im guessing maybe a tighter crimp is needed?

Thanks for everyones input here

[Hi-Power Jack]

I did notice the cases had a black powder flash mark from the front of the case. Im guessing maybe a tighter crimp is needed?

I think the black powder burn means not enough powder??? Definitely has nothing to do with your crimp -

if the rounds feed properly and the accuracy is good, leave the crimp alone.

[Dww]

Thank you, ill work up the loead a little bit.

I was thinking it may be the bullet was being scrapped by too tight of a bell, so i pulled them and didnt see this.

I know the load felt lifgt with almost no recoil so this makes sense to me.

Thanks

[Poppa Bear]

If the load is light it will not full expand the case inside the chamber. This allows some of the gas to escape past the mouth and towards the breech face.