I've started loading 9mm luger and I'm loading some in conjunction with a family member, he provided the bullets and powder, I've got brass dies and primers. The bullets - he was taking some metal to scrap and took a peek in the lead hopper and saw a bucket of what looked to be 9mm bullets. He bought them from the recycler for a good deal and were going to load them. The deal is though, they measure a solid .355dia, weigh 100g, are .473 in length, and are a TMJ see picture. Makes me think they're .380 bullets. Can't find any exact matches for manufacturer but they don't look to be plated given the base. Any one have any thoughts? It's not really important I'm just curious (dangerous LOL). Also, anyone load this light a bullet for 9mm using Unique, Longshot, or 800x? I assume longshot and 800x are too slow for caliber and weight but Unique should work right? Data is limited. Any input is appreciated!

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They are total metal jacket, if they are 0.355" they are good to go for you 9mm loading project.  You may need to seat them around 1.0500" or even a little shorter 1.0400", that will provide a good secure bullet tension.

Unique will work with 6.2 grains, although Power Pistol is also a very good powder around 7.4 grains heck even Blue Dot wold yield a good shove at 8.2 grains

Hodgdon shows loads of LongShot with 5.5 @ 1158 fps 26,500 psi and max 6.5 1315 fps 33,300 psi

Thanks for the info shadow! Where did you get the data for the unique? I found the same Longshot numbers on Hogdons website so that's what I went with to start. My speer manual only had data for 115g. I loaded them at the start 5.5g and did 1.050 OAL. Its funny to look at them next to regular 115g fmjs, they're so teeny! Anyway, I loaded some and shot them at some paper on saturday, Pictures below. The SW5906 did great, it usually does, but the sub compact springfield XD did not do so well. Its not my gun and I haven't shot it much so take that for what it's worth, perhaps in more experienced hands it would have grouped a little better. These targets are at 10 yards 6 shots from SW, 5 from XD. The load was dirty, cases came out black, I'm hoping to load some test loads with unique and compare accuracy and cleanliness and then decide which powder to use for the whole batch.

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Some guns don't like those shorter bullets...

Indeed not! Now got another question for you regarding these bullets. Heres a pic, am I doing something wrong here? Notice the slight ridge in the case where the base of the bullet is. Im using the LEE die set and the crimp die is set to put the mouth to .377 which I thought was working good, I didn't see this ridge on any of the bullets I fired saturday, but I loaded up 15 more last night for testing and 4 of them had this ridge, 3/4 being selier and bellot cases, 1 being winchester. They are seated to 1.050 just like the ones I've fired. Is my crimp die set too tight? I dont know what happened because the other rounds were run through the same die set the same way, and all the bullets are .355 

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A few things do come to mind, 9mm is a tapered casing and full sizing can reduce the case back smaller, which is good for bullet to case tension, It could also be that the case was slightly thicker and the bullet stretched it out (bullets started at slight angle or off center) when seated, expander step can also be slightly off due to longer case and more crimp was applied.

This condition has occurred with guys using 0.357" and 358" cast bullets, but your's are @ 0.355.  If they fit the chamber well it shouldn't be a problem and may just look funky.

Are you seating and crimping in separate steps?

Interesting. Good to know that they are still shootable as they do fit well in both the chambers I've tested. Thank you for the insight, it scared me a little bit. By 'full sizing' are you referring to the push through sizing with the bare FCD like with 40sw and 10mm or just running them all the way up in a sizing/decapping die? I used the latter method and just sized as far as I could with the size/decap die from my LEE set.

Yes, I'm seating fully to 1.050 then switching to the FCD to bring the mouth back to .377.

The standard die because of the tapered dimension of the 9mm casing.  To pass through size a 9mm you would need a 9x18 Makarov FCD  to allow the case head to fit through.


9x18 Makarov rim size 0.3920"
9mm Luger rim size 0.3940"

I would use the LEE 9x18 Makarov Factory Crimp Die to work the 9mm cases for the best reconditioning of the 9mm cases because it is the closes to 9mm specifications.

Quote from: The_Shadow on April 14 2014 02:19:59 PM MDT
9x18 Makarov rim size 0.3920"
9mm Luger rim size 0.3940"

I would use the LEE 9x18 Makarov Factory Crimp Die to work the 9mm cases for the best reconditioning of the 9mm cases because it is the closes to 9mm specifications.

Noted. I may have to look into one for future 9mm processing.

Now I've got another brain bender for you . . . earlier you mentioned 6.2g of Unique behind these babies. I haven't been able to find any good info for a 100g bullet. Where did you find 6.2g? I've searched pretty good between the free manuals you posted a few days ago and the best I can come up with the is the 2005 Alliant manual listing for 95g bullets with 6.5g at 1.055 OAL.


http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Freebies/RM/Alliant/Alliant_2005.pdf

I took into consideration this info and what you'd mentioned and weighed out 6.0g just to see what it looks like and it fills the case to the point where it looks like if I seat a bullet it will be compressed!? See pic. I've never used Unique powder before but is this typical? It would seem that if I go to 6.2 or 6.5 it would surely be compressed when bullet is seated. Being so new to reloading this makes me pretty nervous and I guess I'm just looking for reassurance as I've used nothing but starting loads with 100% bona fide listed data thus far.

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Yes, Unique is a fluffy powder and it does fill a 9mm casing.  Alliant 2006 shows the following for Unique...
  95 grain FMJ / Win.W.S.P. / 1.055" / 4.0 BBL / 6.5 grains @ 1,250 fps 26,400 psi
115 grain FMJ / Win.W.S.P. / 1.120" / 4.0 BBL / 6.1 grains @ 1,185 fps 30,100 psi
125 grain FMJ / Win.W.S.P. / 1.150" / 4.0 BBL / 6.2 grains @ 1,170 fps 31,300 psi

These pressures are actually still low for the 9mm cartridge set as 35,000 psi

Here is the Alliant 2006 page 43

Alright great. Thanks Shadow I appreciate it, makes me feel a little safer, especially to know that the pressure isn't too close to max like you mentioned. I will load a few up tonight, probably start 6.1-6.2g to see how it acts. I'll let you know as soon as I shoot some! Also now that I have the Unique in the Powder measure, I get to play around with a new 10mm loads 

I hate loading 9mm. I get bulged cases about 20% of the time. It drives me crazy. I try to make sure cases are uniform length but i still get bulges when seating and crimping. Some bulge when expanding too. They shoot alright out of my ruger p89 usually but jam up other 9's. I think it's the slight taper. Anyone else have problems loading 9mm?

joshuamalezi, a couple of questions...
What dies do you use"
Do you seat and crimp in separate steps?  Seat the bullet to depth without any crimp being applied?