9mm with 135gr cast

[Rick R]

I recently ordered an NOE five cavity mold that drops a .357" 135gr copy of a Ranch Dog design bullet with normal lube grooves and gas check shank.  It looks like a neat bullet and hopefully will feed my diverse stable of hungry 9mm pistols.



Of course there is little loading data for 135gr bullets in the 9mm so I'm obsessing while waiting for the USPS to bring me my blessed mold!  Do any of you learned gentlemen have any suggestions as to powders to attempt using?  I'm a troglodyte who frequently defaults to Unique or W231 but I have been burning a lot of BE-86 in the 9mm and 10mm lately.

[The_Shadow]

I see your bullet is a gas check type, if you do check them you could likely use jacked data easily...

Here is some Alliant data from 2006 that might help using the 147 grain info as a start

[The_Shadow]

Some Lyman data

[Rick R]

Mr. Shadow,

Those should help get me started.

Thank you sir!

[Univibe]

Why mess with a gas-check?

I've loaded plenty of 9mm with 124 grain hardcast;  no need for gas check.

[Rick R]

Univibe,
I have five different 9mm pistols from five different manufacturers made over a 40 year time span.  I have more faith in a gas checked bullet loaded to @1,000 fps being accurate and not leading than a plain based bullet in what is probably a mess of actual bore diameters.  Plus three have cut rifling and two are polygonal rifled.

So far they all are happy with the new fodder.  This bullet ends up at 140gr lubed and checked, I've settled on 5.0gr of BE86 which is decently accurate in all my guns and hammers Pepper Poppers reliably.