9mm Reloading Lessons

Disclaimer: I am not a gun smith. I am not a ballistics expert. These are not recommendations. These are not instructions.These are descriptions of my experience. Always consult your firearm manual, your reloading manual, and ensure that you understand how your powder/primer/bullet/brass/firearm interact and what kind of pressure is safe in your instance. Any and all risk is assumed by the reader/reloader.

Before COVID-19, I never imagined reloading 9mm. I could purchase from a case from SGAmmo cheaper than I could make them myself. Then North America decided that maybe having a means to protect oneself is a priority. And  within 30 days, ammo prices have doubled..assuming you can find 9mm at all. And in a strange, hybrid of Soviet grocery store nostalgia and fear-driven panic-buying, ammo was limited to 5 boxes per customer. Assuming there was any on the shelf. And there we stood outside, 6 feet (2 meters) apart, waiting our turn to enter a store with barren shelves. Then those who had prepared saw an opportunity. Sell individual boxes of ammo from their stash at 3x and even 5x the previous cost.

So, I call my local powder and primer guy. I bought some Blue Dot and BE-86. I bought some CCI Small Pistol Primers (#500). I ordered 3,000 115gr FMJ rounds Precision Delta Bullets. 

I've saved, collected, picked up a little over 3,000 brass cases. After de-priming, reshaping, washing, drying, sorting 3, 000 brass pieces, I was ready to start loading. Then I learned.

Lesson Number 1: Use the de-priming/re-sizing die that comes with your 9mm set. 2 steps in one. 

I did not really reshape/resize the 9mm brass. I used a universal de-priming die to de-prime them. So I primed the case, measured the powder for my load, and then went to seat the bullet. The bullets simply dropped into the case. The nose of the bullet was now barely above the mouth of the case. So, I get to resize all 3,000. I have a single stage press. So, one by one.

NOW I can start my first batch. I seated my mouth expander in the press. I began to add the slightest bell to the mouth of the cases. Fortunately for me, I only did 50 cases. I went to seat the bullet, in this case, the 9mm 115gr FMJ from Precision Delta, and then measure the cartridge overall length (C.O.A.L).  I measure it. The calipers push the bullet into the case. I think that I have mis-seated it. I do 5 more. Same result. Then I try to seat a bullet into a case that has not been belled. Seats just fine. Measuring does not push the bullet into the case.

Lesson Number 2: Before you bell the mouth of any 9mm case, test to see if the bullet will seat in a fully prepped case. 

Resizing the 50 belled cases, I start again. I am seeking 1.150" as per PD's recommendation. Perfect. The next one seats at 1.580" and the third at 1.1612". I assume that the 3 powder throws by my Hornady Lock'N Load Auto Charge are so far off that I am getting these differences. I pull the bullets, empty the powder, and measure each on a digital scale that has been calibrated in the last hour. All 3 charges are at 5.29 (I want 5.3gr). My auto charger is delivering amazing consistency. I then look at each head stamp. I have 3 different head stamps: FC, R&P, Blazer. All brass. All resized on the same die. So I grab 3 of each from my big bag of brass. I do 3 of the FC first. Measure the powder by hand to 5.30 gr. Seat the bullets. All 3 seat to within . 006 of each other. I rinse and repeat for the R&P and Blazer brass. Similar results.

Lesson Number 3: Sort your brass by head stamp.

So, before I reload any, I sit down with multiple plastic bags. I begin the mind numbing process of brass sorting. I have my S&B brass that I had ordered in the thousands from SGAmmo. I also have all of the mixed head stamp brass that I have accumulated. I now have two categories: Mixed Head Stamp and S&B. Back to reloading.

I want to do a ladder load from 5.3 gr to 6.2 gr. 15 of each grain amounts. Reason: I am going to test fire each grain load, e.g. 5.5 gr, out of 3 different 9mm hand guns. Glock 19 (stock), CZ SP01 (stock), HK VP9 (stock except for captured stainless guide rod from Galloway Precision @ 22 lbs. ). This gives me 2x hexagonally rifled barrels at 4.1" and the CZ 4.6" barrel with traditional rifling. Each round will be chronographed. My goal is to find the load that provides adequate velocity from 3 different pistols and functions reliably in all. Additionally, for each round, I logged the C.O.A.L in an Excel spreadsheet. I had a Keltec P9 also available. Didn't use it. Hate shooting it. My friends refer to it as 'the barking cricket.'

I have included my results below. Lesson Number 4 coming up. After getting all of my data sorted, I decided to reload the rest of the 9mm brass. About 1/3 of the way into my 9mm brass stash, the bullets start to be pushed into the case when I use the calipers. Randomly selecting brass from this bag of 500 cases, I realize that I did not resize all of my brass. I only thought I did.

Lesson Number 4: Label and keep detailed notes. I realized that I had finished most of the brass for resizing. Most of the brass. Which ones? No idea. Which ones not done? No clue. Label. Take notes.

View the data in Google Sheets: Go Here

Summary Charts:

For those that are interested, here's the environmental data: